Tinnitus a Bit Better, Depression & Anxiety a Lot Worse

My tinnitus started approximately 7 weeks ago after being one month on a therapeutic dose of Lexapro (Escitalopram). I was prescribed this anti-depressant after a long history of anxiety, panic attacks and mild depression. It was so bad, at some point I could not take the train to work because it was causing me panic attacks (I felt I would suffocate inside and had to get out every couple of stops to breathe, then wait for the next one, then repeat until I got to work, lol). Before being on it I was on and off on Xanax and sleeping pills (Imovane).

I have stopped the antidepressant 5 days after getting the tinnitus and since then my tinnitus gradually improved. The volume is a bit lower, it does not bother me at work anymore and I can generally get a good night's sleep. I am not completely sure it's getting better, maybe I am just habituating... This is the good part and me thinking objectively.

The bad part is my depression and anxiety are getting gradually worse since I am on no medication anymore. I thought that I could cope with everything if my tinnitus goes away, and this was basically the mantra I kept repeating for the last 7 weeks "If tinnitus goes away you have no problem in the world"... But depression does not work like that, you can't shoo it away and hope it disappears.
It's getting harder and harder to get out of bed in the morning, my anxiety grows day by day, I feel like suffocating again, on top of that there's the ringing in my ears which (even if lower as mentioned) is very hard to ignore when anxiety is through the roof.

What can I do? I am very afraid of trying other antidepressant after this happened. There are a ton of psychiatric drugs out there, but even the non-ototoxic ones, seem to aggravate tinnitus to some. For example Remeron, which I thought is non-ototoxic seems to give some people tinnitus (on this forum as well). Zoloft(Sertraline), Wellbutrin(Bupropion), Paxil(Paroxetine), for all you can find at least a couple of persons on this forum saying that it gave them tinnitus. Prozac could be safe...

Anyway I have no idea how to proceed, I have tried CBD oil and I had a really bad reaction to it, it made my whole mouth numb and it was the only thing that spiked my tinnitus. I might be allergic to it or something.

I am going weekly to cognitive behavioral therapy and I am jogging twice per week. I think these two help somewhat to keep going, but I am afraid I need something more to get out of this hole that keeps getting bigger and deeper

 

Meditation is definitely worth a try to resolve anxiety issues.

 

I drink.

 

@sky_high

I will pm you some notes on stress, relaxation and meditation if you wish.

Dave x
Jazzer

 

Maybe there was something wrong with the cbd oil you had.

 

The wonderful thing about having shitty T is it gives you carte Blanche to drink every night. Suddenly liver disease seems kind of tame.

 

I forgot all about that. Whoops

 

@Bam, @JohnAdams Haha, I also drink, I though it's not a long term solution though.

 

Yes please

 

Due to a former bad reaction to antidepressants, I refused medications to treat my anxiety and depression caused by the initial onset of Tinnitus. This left me with no choice but to look for endorphins and dopamine somewhere else. Here is where I found that daily vigorous exercise can provide those chemicals naturally. Since the initial days with this condition, I had forced myself --almost every day to go for a run, a swim or a bike ride. Initially it was really, really difficult, but with time I noticed that my mood began to improve significantly. Right now I am at the point where my anxiety has radically subsided and my depression is under control.

Building a good strategy to mange our emotional issues derived from Tinnitus could be certainly tricky. Keep talking to your doctor until you find medications that work for you. But for sure you can incorporate daily exercise as part of your effort.

Don't give up!

 

I don't want to suggest anything dangerous or illegal but you guys do realize that our release from this hell may be a syringe and some drugs that we can easily obtain and a steady hand.

 

Today I walked out of the grocery store with a six pack and offered one to a homeless guy figuring he’s going to get pissed either way. ‘I don’t drink,’ he replied, rather grumpily. So I gave him a banana instead.......healthy bastard.

 

Shit John. Please tell me you’re just thinking about becoming a functioning smack head rather than leaving us permanently? I really want you to get through this.

 

I'm talking about actually healing ourselves with the drugs that regenerate the damaged parts of our inner ear. Ly411575, dapt, egcg, 7,8 dhf. Must be injected into eardrum. That's it. I'm very tempted.

 

Thank God for that! Yeah you know I’m all about your pioneering quest for a cure. I say go for it! Anything is better than our current state.

 

All comes down to volume I’m afraid mate. If you have mild T and you’re just an anxious depressed person then of course exercise will help you. I exercise a lot, and I mean I basically do it as a job now, and it’s done nothing for my screaming unmaskable T. Subsequently I still want to die if this doesn’t improve.

 

@Bam , Bam , Bam !!!
“Come on man !!!
You keep receiving great advice on here mate!
Just choose happiness, and go out and enjoy the sunshine!
Couldn’t be simpler could it!
What are we all waiting for ??”

 

@JohnAdams Mate I just had an interesting chat with an old pal. He told me he has another friend with T. Music industry. So must be noise damage. But here’s what you’re gonna find interesting.....

This guy literally gets it for a few days a month and then it stops completely. Gone. Apparently this happens like every month and is apparently so bad the guy has a meltdown and ‘lies in bed groaning’. He panics like hell and yet it goes away every single time! And this has been going on for years.

What the holy f*** is this about?

 

Seems like periodic inflammation of the auditory nerves.

 

I’ll have a double dose of that please.

 

Dude mine usually goes away at night. I can lay my ears on my pillow and its silence.

 

God I wish I could say that. I lay my ear on the pillow and it’s carnage. If I couldn’t here it at night or when I’m walking the dog in the park, or watching TV my life would be entirely back to normal. Just goes to show volume is KEY here folks .

 

I can hear it when I watch TV and if I focus on it I hear it in the park while jogging. For some reason (that I am really grateful for) it tends to quiet down when I lie in bed and try to sleep, like the brain would be like "ok stfu T, it's time to sleep now". Of course this does not happen if I am very anxious.

 

It doesn't look like medications are going to be an answer for you, so you might want to consider other nutritional possibliites, specifically those that are known to improve brain function. Just off the top of my head, here's a few:

Lithium (OTC); Omega 3 Fatty Acids (particularly those from fish oils that contain high amounts of DHA); Inositol; Niacin; Ginko Biloba; Nettles Tea; St. John's Wort; etc. Anything that improves gut function and/or the body's stress response capabilities are also good.

There's a number of energetic or polarity exercises that could also be helpful. I fyou'ree interested, check THIS POST and THIS POST where I give a few more specifics on various options you may want to consider.

 

Lane - can I ask if these nutritional approaches have shifted your Tinnitus to any extent ?

 

I have to say @sky_high my meditation session is done in my morning bath for about twenty minutes.
Being retired, that is not a problem.
But if for some reason I have to get up and go, and forgo my session, then my day does not normally pan out so well.
So, getting used to my ‘sounds’ in a relaxed setting does help me considerably.

 

I feel quite certain the CBD Oil helped somewhat (Barlean's brand). After a while however, it almost seemed to exacerbate it, which really surprised me. So I stopped for about a month, but did start up again just a couple days ago. So far, so good (it seems to calm my system down, which should be helpful for tinnitus).

I started taking some high DHA Fish Oil 3-4 weeks ago without noticing anything--I just recently doubled my dosage from 3/day to 6/day. Somewhat similarly to the CBD Oil, I'm getting the feeling it's helping ground my brain and nervous system, which I think has the potential to at least marginally improve my tinnitus.

I tried a concentrated Ginkgo Biloba extract (which has apparently helped many), and noticed it actually increased my the tinnitus intensity. I've read that sometimes the very things that can be useful for tinnitus can actually exacerbate it in the beginning. I've still got three full bottles of that left, and anticipate giving that a try again relatively soon.

The one thing that seems to be the most consistent in giving me up to a 10%+ or so temporary improvement is Tylenol 4. I've used it on and off for years for pain, and have always noticed I sleep better when taking it. However, if I use it very much, the effects dissipate pretty quickly. So I only take a 1/4 tablet 2-3x/week. I took a dose last night, and was happy to wake up with at least a 15% temporary reduction this morning. I feel quite certain it's the codeine content that gives me this brief respite.

I just bought my first bottle of Curcumin Extract this morning, and am looking forward to seeing how that works out for me. -- @JohnAdams -- Apart from all the things I've mentioned, I think the mHBOT unit I recently purchased has the greatest potential for eventually improving my tinnitus. I'm almost awestruck at how much better I'm sleeping since starting to use it the past few days.