Tinnitus Since a Month, Trying to Get Over It.

Hi !

I've been suffering from a bilateral tinnitus since one month from now.

I had an MRI (looking for multiple sclerosis after an optical neuritis) on the same day morning, with earplugs and headphones, so no loud noises.

On the evening, my neurologist called me and told me they did see nothing on the MRI which was positive, but I would have another MRI, a scanner and a lumbar puncture.

At night, while trying to sleep, I had consecutively twice short unilateral tinnitus ; after they were gone I noticed I had a bilateral, faint tinnitus (about 14500 hz).

I thought it was just psychological because I was kind of stressed by the multiple sclerosis thing, even if I was told that the disease symptoms were usually very well managed thanks to the medical improvements those last years.

On the morning, I noticed the bilateral tinnitus (high pitched whistling) was still here. On the next days, it started to obsess me and I also noticed that some sounds were bothering me more than before (dishes banging together, car fraking sounds…) Also deeper, lower sound bothered me as they didn't before.

A few days after, I had my lumbar puncture with no problem. The next day, I started a post-lumbar puncture headache. I had the headaches and my hearing problems were way more bad. Eating a cracker was painful because of the noise. I also had vertigo. They treated me with caffeine and paracetamol.
The post lumbar puncture headache was so bad, I had nightmares, weird dreams, Couldn't sleep much and woke up every one or two hours every night. I was laying down 23h a day.
After a few days, they gave me a blood patch which had no effect.

I continued suffering for one more week, and my headaches finally went away quite quickly. However, I still had an hyperacusis, tinnitus louder than before the lumbar puncture and vertigo. I also still had very big troubles sleeping.

Because of my anxiety regarding the hearing problems, I was given low doses of Alprazolam (0.125g three times a day). It helped me during the day but I still had horrible nights.

I has been, from now, almost one month since the lumbar puncture. I still have vertigo that doesn't really bother me ; only if move a lot my head, which quickly causes me nausea (wasn't the case before), but it shouldn't affect my everyday life as I'm not a metalhead .
I ride a unicycle on my free time and I didn't notice any balance issue, so I guess this is the most important thing !
The hyperacusis is very faint so it also doesn't bother me.

I still have a weird sensation in my head/neck and my tinnitus bothers me, even if it doesn't prevent me to sleep by itself. It's just annoying and leads to an obsessive state of mind.

Until today, my nights were awful. I was waking up almost every hour with anxious dreams or nightmares.

I was crying of despair and tiredness yesterday morning and afternoon, feeling like I didn't sleep for months. I went to a doctor which replaced my Alprazolam by Bromazepam. She told me that bad nights can be a paradoxical reaction from benzodiazepines , which Bromazepam is too, so if it doesn't go away I should see my regular doctor to move from benzodiazepines to something else.

The next night, after using the Bromazepam, I had my first "good" night ! I woke up 4 times during the night, but I didn't have any bad dreams. I'm tired, but I feel better regarding that.

I try to stay positive as my actual problems don't really prevent me to live a normal life, but because of these hearing problems, I always feel like I'm "stuck" in my own head or if I had a too small helmet on it.
It's hard to explain.

I also have the feeling that my ears are clogged and they do a "crackling" sound every time I swallow or yawn. I saw two otorhinolaryngologists. They couldn't tell me much. The first one told me the hearing problems would fade away over time as they weren't traumatic. The second one didn't tell me much too and suggested me to see a sophrologist.

Also, my neck sometimes feels stiff, do "crack" sounds a lot when I move.

There is no improvement since the post-lumbar puncture went away three weeks ago so I'm kind of afraid this "constraining" feeling won't go away, especially the tinnitus.

Okay so that's a lot and it's not all about the tinnitus, but it happened "from nowhere" in a stressful period and had increased a bit since the lumbar puncture.

So, now about the tinnitus itself and my feeling about it…
As I said, I have it since a month. It's a high pitched whistling. The street sounds cover it. I also sometimes forget about it when I'm focused on something. Ironically enough, it can happen when I'm reading stuff about tinnitus on the internet.
It seems to come from inside my head and not from my ears. It seems constant, with no variation from frequency or volume.

I gave it a name : "Coucou l'acouphène". Coucou in french is like "Heya" in french and acouphène means tinnitus. I thought that naming it could lead me to sort of accept it more easily, but I don't know if it's a good idea.
I also tried to associate the sound and something positive ; like crickets, but I remembered that I don't like the cricket sound.

I also read a lot the success stories from this forum to help me beeing in a good state of mind. I'm going to see a psychiatrist regarding my recent health problem and my long term anxiety (panic attacks since I was a teenager) so I'll talk about my tinnitus too.
I tried to start meditation, but I have trouble to keep focused (not only because of the tinnitus !) so I stopped after three days.
I try to be more active, walking in the city center, and I'm going to meet some local associations to meet and do stuff with people (unicycling and board games). I'm pretty sure my brain will be used to my tinnitus and I know it will take some time.
I work from home and on a computer, so this doesn't help at all. I always listen music, never loud, and I still hear my tinnitus.

So I try to stay positive, but I still feel like I'm 60 years old instead of 30 because of these problems.

If you have any advice… I'll take it

 

good luck and be very careful with benzos. If you take them on a regular basis for a period of time, tinnitus may be the least of your worries...

 

Thank you for your reply. I'm not used to them and I want to stop (slowly of course ) them as soon as possible.
I'm in a good mood today regarding my tinnitus and it was especially because two things.

I'm not a "celebrity guy", but I came across a list of famous people with tinnitus. It somewhat was relieving to see that some men and women which are inspiring for billion of people were suffering from this.

And, I also saw people joking about their own tinnitus. And THAT was awesome. I think it's the best way to show that low to mid tinnitus are no big deal after all.

edit : I also noticed something strange.
I tried to simulate my own tinnitus with the generator on this page : http://www.audionotch.com/app/tune/ (is that a scam by the way ?)
I couldn't simulate exactly my tinnitus, and I wonder if it is because I hear it "inside" of my head and not from my ears.
But it seems to be around 14500 hz from what I hear/feel.

So, the weird thing is when I click "play" on a frequency close to my tinnitus (let say between 13000 and 16000 hz), even at a very low volume and for a short duration (a few seconds to half a second), I don't hear my own tinnitus for a longer time, sometimes more than 10 seconds. I still hear "something" thought, like a "shhhhhh", I don't know. Any idea why and how does this work for my brain ?