Tinnitus Worse After 20 Years — Doesn't Let Me Sleep and Causes Anxiety

Update:

I still have high pitched ringing. VALTREX made me nauseated and gave me really bad lower back pain. I need to adapt and adjust.

 

I was slowly improving and even getting sleep and figured I would be over this mess soon. Then tonight my ears screamed at me and couldn’t fall asleep. What gives lol.

 

You should take "extra care" of your ears by avoiding loud sounds/places but protecting with earplugs everywhere you go is not recommended as you can develop hyperacusis. MHO.

Glad Melatonin is helping.

 

Overprotection is a myth, with the sole purpose of framing patients as not trying hard enough so that they can get rejected disability. The secondary purpose is to feed Pawel Jastreboff's narcissism.

For sleep, consider Mirtazapine -- very tinnitus friendly for an antidepressant. In low doses, it helps with sleep. Also, consider Magnesium. I take Magnesium glycinate and it helps me relax/sleep.

 

Just my 2 cents; protect when out and about, and from moderate to loud sounds at home. In my book, I'd wear plugs when driving since I think it's unnecessary to expose yourself to the 60-70 dB of the car. Other than that, just don't fall into the anxiety trap of complete sound deprivation for hours, like I did, because I believe that caused my sound sensitivity, which has put me in a really though spot and ruined my life.

Just be sensible with protection, and avoid moderate-loud noises.

 

@OnceUponaTime, @Zugzug, @Stacken77, thanks for the replies. I thought I was in a good mental space because I felt like I could recover from this bout of tinnitus, but last night it just came on again out of nowhere and threw my mind in a hopeless tailspin.

 

Just be careful with bone conduction.

EarPlugs and Bone Conduction? | Tinnitus Talk Support Forum

Sorry to hear this. It really is a crappy roller coaster ride.
How are you doing today?

 

Pretty decent. For the most part it’s not bothersome during the day. Past 2 nights have not been as bad. Seems it’s getting better slowly but maybe I just want it to lol.

Less salt seems to help. I only woke up 2-3 times past 2 nights.

 

Took me a while to learn this!

Glad you are doing better.
Praying for you.

 

Thank you. As I type this the ringing is a little louder but it seems that’s what it’s doing. Up and down but more down. Lots of post vaxx people are experiencing the same. It’s a high pitch ringing coming from the head when it’s elevated (like you hit your head hard lol). When it’s down, I just have the normal right side tinnitus. The new high frequency tinnitus on the left side has been subsiding. It would suck if this was the plateau of recovery but at least I can somewhat manage.

 

Yes you can. One day at a time.

Is sleeping any better??

I've been getting up at 5 am!!! Ughhh
(Maybe old age... )

 

It’s about the same. A good night is waking up 1-3 times with the screaming not overly loud.

 

It seems my tinnitus may be inflammation related, from the J&J COVID-19 vaccine. If I eat fried salty foods and or caffeine my tinnitus ramps up really bad in the middle of the night.

Morning levels 1-3
Mid afternoon 3-4
Late afternoon early evening 2-4
Night 3-5 (or 6-8 if I spiked from bad diet)

It’s kind of hard to gauge progress as it’s all over the place. Others post vax are experiencing the same and report 3-6 months for full recovery.

One thing that is new is that the internal “eee” is skipping along with my heartbeat lol. Eee eee eee eee eee.

 

On Saturday my tinnitus was on and off. Sunday was fantastic. Like level 1-2/10 all day and night. I couldn’t sleep because of my stomach issues and I ate like crap lol.

Sunday was my best day so far. Today I had some spikes around level 4-5/10.

It seems progress is still happening albeit non-linear. This ridiculous high frequency tinnitus can be very bothersome though. I will keep chugging along.

 

Bad days. Screeching high frequency tinnitus. Don’t do this to me universe lol.

 

Seems the high frequency tinnitus noise has settled and is staying with me.

Luckily the overall volume of tinnitus is lowish. It seems like some COVID-19 vaccine induced tinnitus peeps are experiencing similar outcomes.

When I distract myself, I sometimes I can’t hear my tinnitus.

 

Whatever you do, be VERY careful with medications. From my experience, medications cause permanent spikes. My tinnitus was mild for a year, even though I listened often to music with headphones.

From a single Aspirin pill, it became loud and never returned to base.

Then, it became worse due to the COVID-19 vaccine.

Then again, even worse after a glass of tonic water (containing quinine).

Finally, treating a burn wound for 10 days with a triple antibiotic ointment (contained Neomycin), made it very, very hard to ignore. It never returned back to a previous base level after these spikes. On the other hand - if worsened by food or by loud outside noises - it returned to lower levels within 1-3 days.

 

Glad you are doing a bit better.

 

Jesus, what do you do for meds?

My tinnitus is up and down with spikes. I don’t even know how to gauge it lol. It wakes me up everyday at night. Sometimes the spikes are loud when I wake up, other times it’s not so bad. Lately during the day it has been getting more and more quiet with fewer spikes. Usually it’s just a new noise being annoying, like low volume dog whistle or dental drill that’s buzzing.

 

Yes and no. I don’t even know how to gauge it. Seems like it wants to recover, then I spike hard for no reason. Spikes can last minutes to hours and then goes back. I mean if it’s COVID-19 related, can this be inflammation? TMJ? Emotional? I don’t know wtf to do lol.

My perception of tinnitus seems louder, and when I cover my ears the actual tinnitus is not as loud, unless it’s my late night spikes.

 

Welcome to my world... lol...
This is how it has been for me for 10 years.

LOL... Just try to keep calm as best as you can when it does spike.

I go straight for a hot bath and Epsom salts and all the candles I can find... lol, oh and tea with Magnesium... or I just crochet or sew something... lol.

 

Have you habituated with the constant ups and downs and tone changes?

 

I was getting better, but then the above started up again. All because I removed my ear protection too fast and it made a little pop in my ear canal lol.

 

Ups and downs seem to be the way tinnitus goes. The fact that it did start to get better is a good sign and it’s early days with this spike.

 

Supposedly most recover from the COVID-19 vaccine but it can take 3-12 months.

 

What are you wearing earplugs for, if I may ask?

 

It was a Decibullz plastic tip one.

 

Ok, but WHAT are you wearing them for? Work?

 

I was driving and my kid yells a ton, lots of energy lol. I think I got some hyperacusis from the COVID-19 vaccine. My own voice sometimes makes my ear wince, as well as noise spikes my tinnitus while asleep so am just trying to play it safe.

I wear the earplugs because my tinnitus likes to try to compete with outside noises and also spikes from noises sometimes.

 

Ok thought I’d give a 65th day update.

My tinnitus has evolved. It does better at night, during the day it’s up and down. Left ear is usually making noise like the right ear. Reactive squeaky beeps on the left ear went down, right ear is extremely sensitive now. I remember last month even when taking a shower my right ear would hear the kinda shrill noise and it would die down when I turned the water off.

Now it competes with everything. It spikes very easily but doesn’t last real long. I dropped the toilet lid earlier and immediately my right ear started pinging a little louder.

Last night I slept well. Both ears were very calm. No Melatonin needed either. Today it’s a little louder due to the spike but not extraordinarily bad. No matter what I hear the faint squeaking in the left side. I had pulsating cicadas for a bit but they went away when I started to stretch my neck.

Mornings are fairly quiet and then it gets louder. I’ve been using earplugs to drive and if passing by a noisy area.

I took Prednisone late, about 50th day in. I felt good the first 6 days, then spiked the rest. The spike went away a day after the last pill.

@OnceUponaTime, thanks for all the help! Also for others who helped me on my thread here. Plus resources by @Michael Leigh, posts by @Matchbox and @kingsfan.

I have a mountain to climb --- hopefully I can. No headphones, no meds other than Prednisone, definitely no SSRIs for me. Next thing is to clean up my diet.