Tinnitus Spiked and Got Worse After Acupuncture — Is This Normal?

Hey, yeah my T calmed down after the acupuncture, eventually. I stopped going though to be honest because after a few sessions I found it was affecting me mentally bc my T kept spiking, and I suppose it was doing the opposite of what acupuncture should do - relax you. So I gave it up. I tried everything to calm my T in the early years, and to be honest nothing really worked for me. The best medicine was time. I have it 3 years now and it doesn't bother me at all. It's still the same, in both ears and goes up and down in volume if I'm stressed or tired etc. But it always comes back to its baseline. I've just learned to live with it. I actually went to therapy for it and found that was really helpful. It was a specialist service available in my town for T sufferers. I'd highly recommend that for sufferers. It's basically CBT for Tinnitus. Hope that helps.

 

I stumbled across this thread because I just had my 3rd acupuncture treatment and I haven’t gone to sleep yet but I can already hear that my T has spiked. I told the acupuncturist that it happened after the last treatment- I think my T has a component of damage to the auditory nerve, if I open my jaw wide the sound kinda slows and widens too, apparently there is a type of T that responds (positively or negatively) to facial nerve stimulation. I think this will be the last acupuncture treatment for me. My T was low enough that I was tolerating it and I went for the accupuncture for mild headaches- little did I know how much it would affect the T!!!

 

@Nics2drescue I've just been reading all of your posts, I wish I had seen them earlier before I went for acupuncture last Saturday. Looks like the damage has already been done, I am going through exactly what you went through. A new constant high pitched tone that I have never had before, more so in my left ear, has started. I've only ever had a very mild tinnitus from loud exposure to music but could easily manage that and would forget that there was a faint ringing in the background. Now, it's just unbearable, I can't sleep, eat and in such an emotional anxious mess. I've had to start taking sleeping pills as nothing else is working.

Please could I ask to whether the noise went back to your normal level of tinnitus after you stopped the acupuncture or was it more that you became used to it and excepted it? I am reporting the acupuncturist that has done this. She put the needles in my head, sinuses area (face), knees and feet. I don't know whether she has damaged the auditory nerves to create intense tinnitus or it's over stimulated the brain to cause it and maybe it will go back to the way it was before.

I would be very grateful for any advice. Thank you so much.

Suzanne x

 

I guess it isn’t a placebo after all!