Tinnitus from Wellbutrin — Now My Tinnitus Is Gone

Hello Guys,

I am here to give you a bit of hope and share my experience. I am aware that a lot of people suffering from tinnitus come to Tinnitus Talk. I did the same, and I was desperate. Then, after my tinnitus is gone, I had a moral obligation to come back here and share my experience. It may help and give hope to everyone.

I got tinnitus from taking Wellbutrin, changing my dose from 150 mg to 300 mg and 450 mg/day, in 2019. I had to spend thousands in chiro/PT and useless ENT visits for hearing tests; they found no hearing loss at all.
I was able to modulate my tinnitus by moving my jaw and neck. So I realized something, my tinnitus was not due to expected ototoxicity of Wellbutrin, but because of one of its side effects:

Jaw clenching/Bruxism like 24/7 and neck stiffness.

My suboccipital muscles got sore during those days. Then my doctor discontinued Wellbutrin in March 2019. Since I did not have any hearing loss, I realized that my tinnitus could be muscle-related, and I tried everything, and I am going to share what helped.

Then I started combining ice packs (20 min) and hot showers on my back-neck and suboccipital muscles.
I fixed my posture while working on the computer.

I practiced a lot of suboccipital stretches, search for suboccipital pain on YouTube by Motivational Doc:

Dr. Mandell's Chin Tuck Technique for...

And Bob and Brad on YouTube:

Pain at Base of Skull, Upper Neck? 3-Step...

I also did the same stretches taking a shower while using warm water to help muscles to relax.

I got a better pillow and started doing meditation before going to bed.
Getting good sleeping nights helped a lot too.

As soon as my neck-stiffness/muscle soreness has diminished month after month, my tinnitus decreased.
And now, it is 99.999% gone. I have to push my muscles hard to hear a tinny ghost sound.

That is it!
If you do not have hearing loss and feel muscle soreness and stiffness on the neck.

I wish it would give you hope.

Regards,
Arahant

 

Good job.

 

Thanks for posting your story, Arahant.

My tinnitus didn't seem to arise from a particular noise exposure and being a regular computer user I do wonder whether posture and neck/jaw issues could be exacerbating my problem. Like you, I am able to modulate the tinnitus by moving my neck and jaw in certain ways and it seems that when I focus on my posture it's not quite as aggressive. I'll certainly give those stretches a go!

A few quick questions for you:

• What did your tinnitus sound like?
• Did you find that it reacted to sound, or was it fairly constant?
• How long did it take you to see results?
• Of the other things that you tried, did any seems to help at all?

Many thanks,
Andrew.

 

I'm happy you found a solution for yourself!

Me and probably others who can modulate their tinnitus through neck and jaw movement are curious in your protocol. Also what sort of tinnitus did you hear in your head?

 

So happy for you!!! I love to read these stories of success. I to have neck pain... but TMJ and clenched teeth seems to be a big problem for me. I’m really starting to think that’s what my cause of tinnitus is coming from. I am now having a few good days between 2 to 3 days I barely Hear my T then I wake up with a spike that lasts about 2 days then it’s back to very low quite T. I normally have T in my left ear that’s kind of like a buzz sound. But with spikes it’s all over the place... both ears and in my head. Just curious if yours was anything like this? And curious if this is a sign that I’m may be headed towards getting better.. if you don’t mind explaining a little on how you started getting better.. like how did your quiet days start and how long they lasted? Also would love to know how your spikes came and went? Thank you!!!!

 

Hey Andrew,

Let me answer your questions:

What did your tinnitus sound like?

High pitch, constant. At the beginning was bilateral, then after improvements on my neck condiction, the left ear stopped and the right ear ( not coincidentally the side that was more painful) persisted a bit.

Did you find that it reacted to sound, or was it fairly constant?

Constant.

How long did it take you to see results?

Around 6 months. As soon as my muscle pain reduced, my tinnitus reduced accordingly.

Of the other things that you tried, did any seems to help at all?

What helped was:

Stretches, meditation before bed, good sleeping posture, exercises to relax the neck muscles and fix forward head posture. Chin tucks.
Especially, not spending hours texting on a smartphone, you can easily mess your neck muscles...Just take a look at the posture of someone texting on the phone.

What did not help me:
Vitamins, supplements, chiropractic "adjustments", even if a few people few good hearing cracking sounds, it did not help me at all.

Regards

 

High pitch, constant...modulated by jaw movements. I heard that referred muscle pain from the neck area can make you have T, at the beginning, I had earaches too.

 

I got high pitch/buzz like. At the beginning was quite loud. But it was decreasing over time after I started doing something to relax my sub-occipital muscles. Sometimes got worse after sleeping or staying in a poor posture for hours. Something to note, I started with both ears, then my left disappeared, and my right ear persisted for a while, not a coincidence that my right-neck muscles were sore. As soon as the pain improved, the sound got lower.

In my case, to be more specific:

More neck/suboccipital pain -> More T

Sometimes I remember getting a huge spike of T, but if I fixed my posture and performed jaw and neck stretches, the spike disappeared after that.

Working to relax my neck/suboccipital muscles -> gradual decrease of T.

But in general, I did not have "quiet" and "loud days".

 

Be positive and confident!

Neck and Jaw problems are related to Tinnitus.

https://www.ata.org/understanding-facts/causes

In my case, as soon as I got my muscle pain due to neck problems, the sound started do diminish.
You have to be patient, it reduces over time. In my case, it took a while. But it reduced.

 

This is what I also do with spikes. Whenever I got a spike, I would have a forward head posture or laying down at the couch for at least 90 degrees angle. Then I would sit right up, neutral position and everything straight and relaxing my jaw muscles. My spike would immediate go. But the strange thing is I even get low tone spikes, besides the regular high pitched one.

I tried the stretch from Dr. Mandell and I had some kind of relieve. the sharpness would diminish and it was harder for me to focus on that orchestra in my head. I'm not expecting any hope for me, because I got tinnitus for a long time.

 

Same here...Sometimes, I was on texting on the phone with poor forward head posture. Then the tinnitus spiked. Then after correcting my posture and relaxing my neck muscles. The spike was gone. But the low-intensity tinnitus was diminishing over time. You have to be patient. Mine took more than 6 months after starting doing relaxation exercises.

 

Updates:

I found the link to other exercises that helped me a lot:

High Neck Pain / Suboccipital Stretch Release...

CERVICOGENIC TAPPING: FIX NECK PAIN, TINNITUS,...

Mastoid SCM Release Stretch for Neck Pain...

Dr Mandell's Atlanto-Occipital Fix for...

40-Second Pain Relief Exercise for Text Neck,...

Instant Neck Pain Relief Using Chin Retraction...

 

Oh, I thought you had an immediate relieve, like within a week. I think that it's time for me to fix my posture. But it's so hard, when I stop thinking about it I'm going back my lovely turtle neck and hunched back.

Thanks for the videos, I have to set my protocol and focus like a madmen.

Keep me updated on your progress!

 

It was not immediate, Jaw clenching took about a month after stopping Wellbutrin, muscle stiffness lasted for months. These spikes on bad posture I noticed at the beginning. Then I started to think that my T was due to my sore neck/suboccipital muscles.

Then I started my routine to relax that muscles, then I started to notice a gradual improvement. Now, my tinnitus is near zero, I have to stay in a quiet room, I have to concentrate and push my jaw/neck muscles quite hard to hear some tinnitus. It does bother me at all.

I am quite relieved.

 

I'm feeling good about your improvement. Happy Hanukkah!

 

I was 50% convinced (the other 50% sound exposure) it had to be my nerves in my neck/jaw, because whenever I sleep on my side, my tinnitus begins to spike horrendously. The sharpness comes forward and I can feel this high pitched 10.000 hz tone. So I have to lay on my back and it subsides. In the morning my tinnitus has only this static noise, but at the end of the day I have my orchestra back (5 tones).

Also I had some sudden improvements of my tinnitus. It was 10 years ago. I went to a club, with earplugs. Was having allot of fun and started to headbang (I know, alcohol). Then in the morning my tinnitus was reduced for 80%. It was even scary for me, because I was so used to the loud ringing of my ears, that I sort of panicked a bit. A few hours later and it came back to its normal level.

The thing is I also have some sort of hearing loss, a small dip, but nothing noticable by my doctor. That's why I'm also leaning with too much sound exposure.

Well I'm starting my protocol:

1. In the morning I'll massage the muscles (traps, neck and jaw).
2. Than I do all the stretches, without forcing it.
3. Focus on my posture through the day.
4. At night I'll massage again.
5. Than I do all the stretches again.

I'll be keeping a journal and record a number 1 - 10. I will fill my journal in the morning and midday. Because in the morning it's different than midday/night. The highest number means my regular level of tinnitus and a change in the number gets an explanation about what the change is. This is also for others who can modulate their tinnitus through certain movements.

 

UPDATE: Weird experience after doing a stretch from Dr. Mendell, I could modulate my chirping bird tinnitus, the more I did the exercise, the louder it became. Just by tapping on the stretched muscle I could increase it. Once I went back to neutral position it went away.

 

Have you done any hearing test? These tests are quite accurate to measure hearing loss, if you don't have hearing loss, you may have gotten T from s chronic sore muscles on your neck.
It is a clue. Does "went away" mean reduce de ringing near zero? The idea is to relax those muscles. You noticed difference while changing your sleeping position, look for videos explaining how to sleep in good posture and throw your old pillow in the trash... putting your neck in neutral position seems to be a good starting point.

 

I would add warm shower with stretches before/after bedtime. Let warm water help your muscles to relax while you stretch them.

 

There were two situations where I noticed a big difference. My low pitched airplane sound went away for a full day, I would wear a neck brace and focused on posture. And after a night of clubbing it was reduced by 80% for a day.

I did one last week and my doctor told me there isn't any noticeable hearing loss.

But there was a small dip at the high frequencies. So I presume one of the 5 tones is probably due too that.

But this morning was so weird, I have a birds chirping tone, and had full control over it, just like my high pitch modulation through my jaw. In the stretch I had to tap that muscle and it increased it.

 

I used to hear a low pitch sound while yawning. It was the month that I was taking Wellbutrin at maximum doses, so my teeth grinding and jaw clenching/bruxism was at full intensity. My bruxism went zero the same week I stopped to take that shit... And the low pitch while yawning was reducing month after month too.

 

So now you are not hearing any type of tinnitus change when opening/yawning your mouth?

 

Nope. I am hearing nothing while yawning, no more low pitch during yawning... I was glad that my jaw clenching/bruxism stopped just after stopping to take Wellbutrin, It saved me thousands on a dentist to put me on a useless mouthguard. But my sore muscles lasted for months... Since you had no hearing loss, at least you don't have to spend thousands in useless supplements, or Hearing aids that helps people with phantom sound from hearing loss. I hope it works out for you. Be patient, confident and don't panic when your T disappear. Just enjoy!

 

Sounds good to me! I can literally hear my high pitch change by simply opening my mouth. Sometimes it's hard for me to have hope, one part I have always thought it has to do with bad posture / nerve issue and the other part (that's pessimistic) that it will never go away, because it has to do with my hearing. Thanks for giving me hope, now I know I can modulate my tinnitus even more and different tones too. I wish a doctor would listen to it, whenever I express my findings, they don't even listen and doesn't want to found out why I'm capable of modulating it.

 

Doctors follow clinical protocols, which were tested on a group of patients with same conditions. I talked to my ENT about my ability to modulate my tinnitus and he said that he only got two patients during his entire career, which reported the symptoms, related to changing a antidepressants dose and sensorineural tinnitus. There is not much knowledge about it, he said something about nerves on the back of neck and base of skull, near the mastoid process, behind the ears. And something about refered pain to the nerves inside the ears. He only advised me to ignore the sound and buy a noise machine to help me to mask the tinnitus during bedtime. Since I noticed that the intensity of my tinnitus was correlated with de amount of pain I had on my neck muscles. I decided to find a way to relax them to alleviate the pain. So, it worked, less pain and stiffness, resulted in less tinnitus.

 

Yeah, that's not very common to have tinnitus induced by medicine and the capability of modulating it by certain movements. But you knew the medicine had impact on your muscles by clenching, etc. And found a causation between your symptoms.

It's too bad that there is not much information about the correlation (and maybe causation) between certain movement and changing of tinnitus.

Just by searching on YouTube with the following statements chiropractor tinnitus, you will find many people with tinnitus and pain coming from the neck/jaw. And by making an x-ray and checking their neck/jaw they could sense a loss of movement in a specific joint/vertebra, by having a bad posture the position of the vertebra c1 - c3 has changed a bit, etc. By addressing these issues people are having a reduction in their symptoms. But I want to know why, is the sound in our heads a signal from the nerves (misinterpretation by the brain where neurons are going wild)? And having multiple tones means it's due too different nerves sending these signals?

In the new year I will be going to a chiropractor and let them make an x-ray, I'll let you know what the results are. Also in that year I will be going to a physiotherapy by looking at my posture too.

 

The main thing is: Does answering your question using x-rays change something? I would go for physical therapy, I have been to a chiropractor, and I would never allow cracking my neck again. That is dangerous and had no impact on my tinnitus. I think the evaluation of results during quiro are quite biased. They crack your neck and ask you if it improved just after that, if it didn't hurt (negative), anyone tend to answer that "improved", just because something was done, a neutral answer is negative by definition in this context. Do you have sore/painful muscles on your neck? Instead of "know which nerve is responsible", why not focus on relieve that stiffness and improve your posture? You said that a neutral position reduce the spike.

 

I strongly advice you to drop the chiropractor. There are many topics (also on this forum) from people who got tinnitus from these maneuvers or even worsened their already existing sounds. Being patient and taking the physio route first is safer and has better chances at positive effects. Don't let people mess around with your back and/or neck, unless no other options remain: truly qualified specialists are very rare in that area.

 

Yeah, I already got a physical therapy scheduled at 7 January. Also changed my insurance to maximum physical therapy, that will be active in 2020.

I think chiropractors are only good at the level they reside, but there is a risk involved, so I wouldn't let them crack my neck, but merely let them make an x-ray and check at c1 - c3, since I can modulate my tinnitus due to pushing my head backwards with my palm. I hear a crackling sound at c1 - c3 and my tinnitus as a whole changes. Also I did a stretch from Dr. Mandell, it was for c1. By that stretch I could modulate the birds chirping sound at my own will. that's why I want some experts to look at c1 - c2 and maybe c3.

Do you have sore/painful muscles on your neck? Always pain in my neck, 2 weeks ago I sprained my neck muscle by just bending forward and looking to the left. After this I couldn't move my head from left to right for 10 days, now it's healed, but it still feels like a weak spot.

A neutral position, like laying on my back and sleeping brings my tinnitus to my baseline. My baseline is a roaring ocean of static noise and bird chirps in the background, without the high pitched one. But my tinnitus changes like 20 times per day, mostly the high pitched ones do what they like. Just by walking I can feel it change.

 

I've read the horror stories here, I would rather only have and x-ray and some advice and that will be it. Just to be safe and to be sure there is no misalignment of c1 - c3 or artritis.

truly qualified specialists are very rare in that area. Yup, their level of skill is all based on their experience and one minor mistake and I got an extra orchestra in my head. I'm just fascinated by it, why can these people increase tinnitus or in some cases decrease it. Or even have a patient just getting tinnitus from a few treatments.