This Sucks

Hey everybody, my name is robert and let me tell you about my situation.

Let me start of by saying that I'm a 23 years old and haven't gone to any concerts and don't regularly listen to loud music.

So I've only been aware of what tinnitus is for only about a month now, and when I found out about it I thought that I might have it because I'd infrequently hear a slight ringing noise in quiet locations. It didn't bother me at all because it wasn't loud or intrusive and I didn't think about it too much.

About 12 days ago, I had 1/4 of a marijuana brownie. That was the third time in my life that I've had any sort of marijuana and I hadn't had a bad experience with it until this last time. I ate it in the evening and it took nearly 2 hours to have a significant affect. I went to sleep and woke up with a panic attack and a horrible piercing ringing in my head. I managed to calm down a bit and go back to sleep, but when I woke up in the morning, the ringing was still there.

Since then, I've been scouring the internet trying to find out everything I could about tinnitus. I wasn't reassured by what I read and it added to my already bad anxiety no thanks to the brownie I ate. I went to an ent and he looked inside of my ears and gave me a basic hearing test. He said that everything seemed okay. All he did was prescribe me some valium and when I asked him for some suggestions he said that he didn't know and that there was no cure for what I had.
I was terrified.

I ended up finding a great website on the TRT method and it gave me a slight sense of relief knowing that if the ringing didn't go away that I could do something about it.

Anyway, the ringing has had me waking up several times at night and I haven't eaten much since it started.

I started really getting my hopes up when in the past 2 days the ringing was improving significantly, but after waking up this morning it was loud again.

I'd like to mention that I am pretty overweight and I was thinking that as a result the THC from the marijuana has stayed in my system for a lot longer. Perhaps after it gets flushed out my ringing will get better? My anxiety seems to make it worse too. When I don't worry about it too much it seems to get a little better, but I really don't know for sure. I also considered my high blood pressure affecting the ringing volume, which is due to my bad eating habits and lack of exercise because of family issues and depression that had happend in the past 12-14 months.

Any insights on my situation would be awesome. Thank you

edit - I forgot to mention that when I woke up with the panic attack, all sound seemed amplified. It seemed uncomfortably loud. But like I said, my ent said my hearing was fine, so I don't know if that's related.

 

Thanks for all the support guys. It makes me glad that I found this forum

 

Hey Robert
Welcome to the site; really glad you found us (good move on your part). You must be a quick study since you've already discovered TRT (another good move on your part). Too bad all the other research online isn't as helpful (I got 'scroogled' too when I first got T last year, ugh!!).

@Tenna is right, exercise is ALWAYS good (notwithstanding injuries, of course); perhaps in your research or later visits to this site you will learn more about the components and mechanisms of T -- it's not as simplistic as a severed limb. T has many components which, in the long run, translate into many opportunities to diminish the effects of T; exercise does great things for you in this regard.

As you may have already ascertained, anything that allays your anxiety/stress is a good thing; MJ has not proven to be effective in this endeavor (though many have tried -- he, he)

Take heart, I've had severe and intrusive T for over a year now and have been largely habituated for about five months (it took me a lot longer for other reasons) -- the point being, T does not have to rule your life! You too will habituate and be back to your cranky old self again

Until then...prayers!!

Mark

 

@Mark McDill I've had a few relapses. In one now. But when I habituate it is like heaven living with 'T'.

 

I just came off a real bad relapse a couple weeks ago (extreme distress in my life); the elevated T didn't bother me at all, I just noticed it was loud and continual (it didn't back down for about 4-5 days). But you're right, it doesn't really mean anything once habituated. Distress handled, T is back down to hardly anything.

 

I can live with the noise! But the fight or flight is a killer for me! I feels as though that part will be the end of me! Can't control it and so it takes over by making my neves just shake sometimes. Oh what to do?

 

Robert, I am sorry to hear about this, man. Very sorry. I hope that you can use this as a vehicle to take better care of yourself. That could turn something very challenging into something positive. It is what I am trying to do. The trouble with recreational drugs is that you never know how you can react to them, especially since they aren't regulated. Maybe it was a chemical that was laced to the marijuana. Now I am not sermonizing about drugs and your situation is very unlucky. People on this forum can have some very good ideas, yet beware of the negativity. Be positive, be careful with exposure to loud noise, and do your best to live your life. Drinking a lot of water my help detox from the pot you've ingested. Best luck. Rintintin

 

Have you seen a doc to get medication to calm you down and/or a referral to counseling? The fight or flight phase of tinnitus can be very hard to get through so don't rule out the temporary use of anti-anxiety meds to help you over this rough patch.

Regardless of whether or not you take medication to deal with your nerves you should learn some relaxation/breathing techniques to help calm you down. I found it did wonders for me. I'm sleeping better and I'm no longer jumping out of my skin with worry. Make sure to give the relaxation exercises a chance though. I noticed a big difference after a couple weeks.