Tinnitus Onset 5 Years Ago — Made Worse Recently by a Fire Alarm and Bee Breathing

Hi there,

I've found a lot of good info on Tinnitus Talk so I want to say thanks to all the active members.

I developed tinnitus about 5 years ago, for no apparent reason. At the time I saw an audiologist who said my tinnitus would go away in about 3 months, which it never did. Eventually I habituated (though I don't remember how long it took) and it bothered me 1% of the time, which was great.

Fast forward to today, about 2 months ago the fire alarm in my house went off and wouldn't stop for like 10 minutes. When we finally made it stop I had a brand new tinnitus tone in my ears, no surprise there... but it wasn't that horrible.

Then a few weeks later, while doing bee breathing, I got a brand new sound in my right ear, and it hasn't left ever since (by the way has anyone experienced more tinnitus after yoga?). Since then, my tinnitus has evolved to being at least 3 different notes, very high pitch, and it gets worse at different times of the day.

At the same time, I started to experience dizziness and nausea. The dizziness was bad and I couldn't function properly so my GP put me on 10 days of Stemetil (Prochlorperazine) which does not cause tinnitus as per ATA's ototoxicity list, so that was good. This seems to have helped a lot.

However, I started to freak out about having Meniere's or some other vestibular disorder, and I booked an appointment with a physiotherapist that knows vestibular rehab therapy. Seeing him was great as he was the only person (aside from my wife) that truly listened to me. He recommended some balance exercises for a week and now I actually don't have any dizziness, and I'm 4 days without Stemetil. I'm very happy with this.

However, the main problem is now my tinnitus and the orchestra of sounds I have. During the day I can manage it but its at night when I have trouble sleeping.

To make matters worse, I've been having some horrible tinnitus nightmares, where the tinnitus becomes so loud and I feel as if someone is putting needles in my ears. It's truly a terrifying dream... I had it last night and had to cry a bit before going back to sleep.

I read this book by Julian Cowan Hill and honestly I didn't like it. It may help some people that have other types of struggles in their life AND tinnitus, and in that case, you can use tinnitus as a means to tackle all your issues in your life. But he seems to put way to much emphasis on therapy and "letting go", which is not an issue for me. I have very strong support from my wife and generally I'm very happy with everything in my life, I don't have any "unprocessed baggage" that I need to share with a therapist.

I'm now reading Rock Steady and I'm actually enjoying a lot and way more than the book mentioned above. Much more scientific yet more practical. It's a long road to recovery and I'm determined to heal from within.

Finally, I'm also lucky I guess that I live in Ireland and I have been in touch with Neuromod and I qualify for their Lenire treatment. However, they want me to see an ENT first just to rule out something more serious. I have my appointment with the ENT on February 10th (I don't have any hopes that they'll have an answer).

In any case, I just want to say that I've been frustrated, angry and feeling helpless for a few days. I have some good days but others (like today with this nightmare) are terrible.

I know I'm not alone and that gives me some comfort. Finally, I didn't want to leave the post in a bad note so I thought I'd share what I'm doing and what has helped me so far:

• Been taking Ashwagandha supplements
• Been taking B12 supplements (there are studies that both of these can reduce tinnitus)
• Been reading about neuroplasticity to try to heal from within
• Been practicing being compassionate to myself, talk to myself as if I was talking to a friend who's going through this struggle (this helps a bit)
• Been trying to practice some meditation and yoga (this doesn't provide immediate relief but I'm aware it's part of a long term management strategy)
• Been trying NOT to mask tinnitus all the time because I learned that confirms to our brain that tinnitus is a problem that we need to run away from. So I've had full moments of "silence" where I just try to feel/hear the tinnitus as it is, and accept it (easier said that done but helps a bit)
• Been trying to train myself not to pay to much attention to sound in general, and be more aware of my touch and what I see. My hope is if I practice this enough i can try my brain to treat tinnitus as a background noise and stop the need to check if it's there
• Physiotherapy for dizziness definitely helped a lot, I recommend it
• Will potentially start with Neuromod's Lenire in a month or so after I see an ENT

If you read this far, thank you very much!

 

@StartGoogTalk

You learned to live with it before. Two months is not a long time after your spike. Wise minds here say adjusting to new baseline can take up to a year. And during that year the spike can go down to your previous baseline.

I think you will be fine!

I would not give a penny to Neuromod.
My reason:
Here's Why the Jury's Still Out on Lenire

 

Thank you @ajc! I know 2 months is not a long time in the tinnitus world, but it's been a very tough 2 months! I'm also aware of the mixed reviews of Neuromod's Lenire treatment, but I might give it a try...

Worst case it doesn't work but I can help the team with my clinical data, which will help them to continue to develop the product for years to come.

 

@Allan1967 went for Lenire, it made his tinnitus worse, and a couple of months later he committed suicide.

Just saying. It can make your tinnitus worse.

Of course most people won't get worse. For most Lenire is just a placebo effect.

Do share your experience if you decide to try it.