Slowly Going Insane

I've had tinnitus for 3 weeks I'm going insane

 

Please click on the links below and read my tinnitus articles. Try to read them in full and don't skim through them.
Hope you start to feel better soon.
Michael
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-a-personal-view.18668/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/hyperacusis-as-i-see-it.19174/

 

Hi Julia. Do you know the cause of your tinnitus?

 

I had a cold a few weeks before the tinnitus started, I woke up 3 weeks ago with vertigo so bad I had to go to hospital I told them I had buzzing in my ear too, the vertigo has basically gone now but the noises in my ear never go away, I'm making an appointment tomorrow with an ENT surgeon, if they don't see me very soon I think I'll go insane, I had an MRI last week and they found nothing wrong with my ear at all but they did find a lesion in my right frontal lobe, I'm not sure how much more noise I can take.

 

I've put myself on valium to try and cope

 

Sorry about your suffering from tinnitus. Have you tried masking it yet?

 

Please don't put yourself on drugs, Valium can actually worsen it if you're not taking it correctly.

I know it's hard, especially in the first few weeks. Try masking it with white noise, rain sounds, a fan or any sounds you find on YouTube to mask it.

You should mask it just below your sound so your brain can learn to filter it out. It's tough, but it gets better.

Do all this up until your ENT visit, and after if there is no cause found.

 

Thanks Luke, you are right the valium made it worse and gave me a headache, I'm struggling at the moment to not let this overtake my life, I need to know it gets better, thanks for caring Luke

 

If valium is not good for you, you may need some natural stuffs to help calm the nerves. you can try natural alternatives such as Melatonin, Lemon Balm, Valerian, Hops, Catnips, Passion Flower, Chamomile, Lavender, Kava, etc. You can do google search or check Amazon.com for each of them to know how people review these products, and see if you can take them as a supplement. Check out this site on using natural herbs for helping to sleep or to calm the nerves.

http://www.christopherhobbs.com/lib...ealth/herbs-and-natural-remedies-for-insomnia /

Also instead of getting too stressful with hearing the ringing, you can try masking it with pleasant nature sounds. If you haven't tried it yet, here are some suggestions. Take care. God bless.

1) Mask at bed time so you can sleep better. Find whatever sounds/music that are soothing to you. You can use a sound machine or sound pillow for this, or a computer with speakers.

2) If you need masking on the go, try load an ipod with nature sounds or music using itune. If you have a smart phone, you can download free APPs for soothing or T-masking sounds. Don't try to overpower T with loud headphone sound. Just set the volume below that of T so you can get used to your T.

3) If you have computer and speakers, you can try these excellent masking sounds too:

TT's audio player: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/audioplayer/

or click play to mix sounds from this simple sound generator: http://asoftmurmur.com/

or this sound library, particularly the self-mix nature sounds: https://mynoise.net

or download free sound generator ‘aire freshener’: http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html

or search youtube with words like 'tinnitus masking sounds', 'white noise', 'rain sound' etc.

 

I am 67 & have had tinnitus for 29 yrs.+. I highly recommend masking. My brother also has tinnitus and he has used masking tapes to tone down the noises. Takes patience, however. You may want to try SRI type antidepressants also. Paxil worked well for me. Zollof (sp) did not.
Also, never lose hope ! The level of research on tinnitus is going-up particularly now that the US Sep't. of Defense is getting involved. I also suggest getting on an exercise program. I power walk 4 miles/day and manage to sleep well despite the tinnitus.
...and I am no preacher but prayer helps.

 

I am glad the SSRI anti depressants worked for you, but I've read that class of drugs can actually cause or increase tinnitus.

 

Update, Julia?

 

I'm new here and new to tinnitus. I've had it for about a week and it is pretty scary. I bring ear plugs for places that get loud and put on a fan when i'm just sitting in a room. I'm not sure how I am going to deal with this but I know staying proactive about it and not giving up is the only thing I can think of right now.. peace

 

Be very careful with valium, its addictive and you could easily form a dependance which can be extremely difficult and painful to break. Other members on this forum have been through hell because of it.

I know its very difficult right now, but the great majority of people do habituate. You will get used to it and eventually, even when its quiet it'll cease to enter your consciousness.