Unimaginable Spikes of Hissing in the Head Every Third Day

[Jan Dennis]

Hi, After 65 years of total quietness I was prescribed by GP sleeping pills I knew nothing about, Clonazepam. No explanation no warnings.

After a few months I was back to square one when the sedation subsided and end up with insomnia I didn't have before the Clonazepam. Then everything started. The withdrawal from benzos I knew nothing about and new symptoms, tinnitus one of them.

Firstly it started only in left ear. Hissing would come and go for a while and then come back again. It was still manageable with occasional spikes. Then I become guinea pig for doctors trying me on lots of different medication mostly benzos for my worsening insomnia. My tinnitus become more regular and more intense plus I developed another allergies and bad interactions to all that cocktail of medications. I end up in the hospital. Instead treating me for benzodiazepines withdrawal I was misdiagnosed and forcefully treated for depression and all that mental staff I was experiencing from the withdrawal. After seven weeks of treatment my occasional tinnitus become permanent plus it jumped from left ear to my right one. I was discharged with benzos for sleeping.

Every third day, since I was discharged from the hospital, hissing will spike so badly, my whole head feels like it is on fire. It is so disabling and the stress is unimaginable which is only fuelling tinnitus. Then my another two days would be, most of the time, very manageable. This is going on for more then two years and now the third day start driving me almost crazy. Most doctors I have seen were useless not knowing much about tinnitus and the specialists are telling me to learn to live with it.

Whatever is seen on MRI's is put down to old age never to medications side effects.

By now I can not sleep without the pills which are making my tinnitus worse and no matter what I do, I can not get rid of the third debilitating day.

Any suggestions?

Thank you.

 

[another sean]

I was in some what of a similar situation. Not as severe, mind you, but some similarities. I developed anxiety panic disorder about 8 months ago. About 4 months ago, my anxiety was triggered and I had the largest panic attack to date. After that, I had insomnia. After not being able to sleep for a single second for 3 days straight, I went to the ER. They prescribed Ativan. Took one pill, slept like a baby for 12 hours. The following evening, I couldn't go back to sleep again. I was awake for 3 days again. Took Ativan and slept. I knew the dangers of Ativan and wanted to get off of it as soon as possible. Another 3 days went by with no sleep and took Ativan again. At this point I was researching every possible natural alternative. One thing that was affecting me was my own bedroom. I feel like I developed an anxiety of not being able to go to sleep in it after having insomnia for 3 days straight, 3 times in a row. So I slept over at a family friends house who had a spare bed room. Guess what, I slept for 4 hours without Ativan. So something happened. Now I couldn't just pin it to the change location. My friend happened to be a health nut and he made me this homemade crazy healthy vegetable soup. had like 14 different things in it, and I recall after eating that, I felt drowsy and calm. like my mind was relaxing. Later I learned anxiety, which can cause insomnia, is usually due to a deficiency in the body. Mineral or vitamin. So I learned how to make the soup and took certain supplements regularly and its made a huge impact on my anxiety and sleep. If I don't take at least magnesium for a week, I can feel my anxiety amping up again. If I take magnesium and eat the soup for a few days straight. I feel calm and relaxed and leveled like anxiety never existed. So you might want to have a doc check to see if you have anxiety which could be causing your insomnia and any deficiencies you might have.

 

[Jan Dennis]

Thank you another sean for sharing your experience. Unfortunately my situation is different to yours and now more difficult to treat. As I mentioned earlier, my tinnitus and insomnia started from stopping sleeping medication I didn't need to take in the first place. At that time I didn't mind to enhanced my few hours of natural sleep at night due to lots of travelling I enjoyed, back to my 8 hours sleep with the medication suggested by the doctor. I am positive with better information from the doctor what I was getting into, I wouldn't touched any prescribed drugs. It was my fault too for being so naive, trusting and ignorant to learn something new I never been interested in. I never had Anxiety, depression, insomnia and tinnitus in my life, not before I start getting withdrawal symptoms from benzodiazepines. Benzos addiction in that short period of time is not uncommon, especially when one have sensitive body as I did. I never used any drugs in my life, never smoked and drink only occasionally. I am 70 y old now. I would persist with the tinnitus and sleeping pills for the rest of my life if I would not be having this debilitating third day which is virtually unmanageable. I tried everything possible to get out of it. Changed my diet, acupuncture, massages, meditation and so on. Nothing helps to get rid of my third bad day with the debilitating hissing in my whole head which will stress me to max. On my other better days I feel almost normal with manageable tinnitus. After two years of having this repeating phenomenon, my better days are declining, feeling more stressed and tired. I feel my health is declining because of it, not as the doctors are saying because of my age. I am not giving up looking for the solution but it is getting harder as the days are passing by.

 

[billie48]

Nothing helps to get rid of my third bad day with the debilitating hissing in my whole head which will stress me to max.

Welcome to the forum. I feel for your pain. Your cyclical tinnitus is the type that researchers should study, as I have previously posted as my question to @David of BTA (I think) in an earlier thread. The well timed periodic spikes must be related to some body functions that perhaps can be studied by researchers to come out with some discovery and hopefully leading to a remedy. In the mean time, have you tried to mask your spikes? If you have really high pitched tinnitus, you can try the following to see if it will help mask it. You can right click on the video and choose LOOP for extended listening. It is a high pitched cicadas sound. Start with low volume first and turn it up to desired loudness that hopefully can mask your tinnitus. If you find it pretty harsh to hear, you can try youtube to search for sounds of heavy rain, waterfall, waves, running water, etc.

 

[Jan Dennis]

Thank you billie 48. Today is my bad day. I am using and listening to my 8.5K tinnitus masking generators, ( expensive in Australia) headphones with waves and the radio. Hissing in the head is so intense nothing I am listening to or using including downloaded tinnitus therapy sounds from u tube would help override sound of the hissing. It feels like all my receptors or cells in the brain are firing like a spark plugs generating heat and pain in the head and sounds like listening to hundred open gas bottles.
Ice packs around my neck and head are helpful just for the heat and pain. Only deep sleep for at least 4 hours will help me rid of the debilitating hissing. For that I need to take a sleeping pills which are enhancing tinnitus in my ears on the better days. The problem is, when I talk to any doctor on my better days no one would believe me how much I suffer from the hissing on my third day and when I have the
hissing and talking to doctors, everyone would treat me for an anxiety because of the evident stress I am under.