Tinnitus a withdrawl problem???

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Benzo brothers and sisters: Anyone out there get bad tinnitus (ringing in ears) from a rapid of c/t withdrawl?  If yes, how long did it last.  Did a rapid withdrawl and its sticking with me.  Hard as heck to sleep.  Does it every go away?  How long does it take?  weeks?  months?  Appreciate the advice!

[Guest [ma...]]

Benzo brothers and sisters: Anyone out there get bad tinnitus (ringing in ears) from a rapid of c/t withdrawl?  If yes, how long did it last.  Did a rapid withdrawl and its sticking with me.  Hard as heck to sleep.  Does it every go away?  How long does it take?  weeks?  months?  Appreciate the advice!

 

Hi yes its a very common symptom. For many it does go away. As far as when, can't say b/c its different for everyone. If you go to the w/d and recovery forum and search in the top right for threads on tinnitus there are lots and info there should help you. I had tinnitus for many years before benzos and when not in a wave the tinnitus is barely audible........this is good news and it should fade with time for you. There is a strong correlation between excess adrenaline and tinnitus and as well excess glutamate and tinnitus. While recovering we have an excess of both of these.

 

I have a small fan on my night stand and the white noise from this helps a lot during the night.

 

hope this helps, mandala

[[mc...]]

I'm still healing at 4 months and this week its quiet. But  month 3 was the loudest so far, much worse than first 2.

[[rh...]]

I'm still healing at 4 months and this week its quiet. But  month 3 was the loudest so far, much worse than first 2.

 

Me too. I'm at 3 1/2 months and the last few weeks it have been most bothersome. A few good days though and hoping for many more.

[[sp...]]

It's totally normal, it can be really annoying, but you don't have to be afraid of it because it's just a sound and it's not going to hurt you.

[[ea...]]

Im in month 8, and didnt get it bad until maybe month 5. It rarely goes away entirely. Most of the time I can just ignore it, other times its frightening somehow. Someone here said "you can get used to about anything" and I guess that's right, huh?

Spengler is right - it wont harm us and it wont hurt us. It just an audible noise caused by gaba receptors trying to get better.

east

[[ma...]]

Massively common symptom to the point of nearly universal...

 

Basically your nerves are firing away without inhibition and causing background noise. Annoying as all hell but thankfully not deadly. And in most cases it waxes and wanes and then you have a day where "Hey, do I have tinnitus?" and then you check and of course it's still there, but lower maybe. Then another day it gets in your face again "Wheeezzzzzzzzeeennn" and drives you nuts for a week, then chills out, then goes away, then comes back, and you are like "Tinnitus, dude, make up your fracking mind!" but it does not listen. Because this is benzo hell and it just hates anything that makes sense or can be controlled.

 

Time is stronger than benzos. Not much else is...

 

M

 

 

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I try to think of it as the sound of healing. Literally. "My brain is confused and trying to correct itself, and that's the noise it makes when it does it".

[[Bi...]]

Tinnitus made me reinstate (and my high BP too) But the T was HORRID!!!!!!

 

Even reinstated it is still there.  Try WHITE NOISE with an MP3 player or iphone.  it that  SHHHHHHHHH sound a TV or radio make on an empty channel IT WORKS!!!!!!!!  I sleep with ear buds now it SOOOO bad.

 

I HATE TINNITUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

LINK HERE  and LISTEN to it ON LOUD!!!! 

 

Enjoy

 

Bird

 

 

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C/t 8mgs of klonopin 2 years ago and it was a horrid symptom. Sitting here now I still have it. Thankfully itbis one of the few physical symptoms I have left. Somedays I dont even know I have it and others I cant sleep because its so loud but like all the rest it will subside one day.

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Tinnitus made me reinstate (and my high BP too) But the T was HORRID!!!!!!

 

Even reinstated it is still there.  Try WHITE NOISE with an MP3 player or iphone.  it that  SHHHHHHHHH sound a TV or radio make on an empty channel IT WORKS!!!!!!!!  I sleep with ear buds now it SOOOO bad.

 

I HATE TINNITUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

LINK HERE  and LISTEN to it ON LOUD!!!! 

 

Enjoy

 

Bird

Bird, I'm a musician. I have slept with a white noise machine for decades, long before tinnitus set in.

 

Most of the time I don't think about it. I called it "crickets". And the lovely condition is synced to my heat beat, so if I have a bad day, it does WAH uuu WAH uuu WAH. When I walk with my wife, she hears real crickets. The crickets in my head drown out the live ones.

 

White noise covers such noise, but I have to be careful about sleeping with ear buds. For instance, if I fall asleep to a book recording it will go on playing for as many hours as I sleep. I have to be careful to set the timer to 1 hour now. If I get sleep back the way it used to be 30 minutes is all I need. I'm usually out cold in under 15 minutes, often under 10. Even during c/t withdrawal I still fell asleep, when I could, in under 15 minutes.

[[rh...]]

Mine is extra loud today for some reason. Thought I was getting used to it. NOT! "Sleep phones" have saved me. They are soft and I can still lay my head on the pillow. I bought an extra pair just in case one fails when I need it. I'm gonna need em tonight.....

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In general my tinnitus goes up when my BP goes up, down when it goes down. Anything that raises my pulse makes it worse, lower pulse better. I can actually count my pulse from the crickets.

 

I think that is linked to wd. Pulse is raised 24/7 at first, and the whole feeling of racing is not just in our heads. Making that get better also helps tinnitus, I think. I am expecting to have to walk very often and harder for at least a year. But my conditioning is also improving, so there is a strong bonus for doing it.

 

I always turn on my white noise machine when I sleep. I actually put it on in the background then insert buds and do more listening to books. The white noise totally masks the tinnitus.

[[ea...]]

I used a white noise machine for years! When it finally bit the dust, I began using floor fans...I wish I could afford one of those new machines that sound like rainfall or water rushing. Ive had tinnitis for monthes now...its a high-picthced electrical sounding whine. Lately it started going away for brief periods, which seems like a good indicator that Im healing.....I hope!

east

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I used a white noise machine for years! When it finally bit the dust, I began using floor fans...I wish I could afford one of those new machines that sound like rainfall or water rushing. Ive had tinnitis for monthes now...its a high-picthced electrical sounding whine. Lately it started going away for brief periods, which seems like a good indicator that Im healing.....I hope!

east

Oh wow, that sounds TERRIBLE!

 

Mine is just crickets. I can handle that. I've used everything. Fans too. Mine is nothing fancy, but sooner or later it is going to give out. I've had it for something like 20 years. Nothing like that is made now - not that I can find.

 

[[ai...]]

At 1.75 mg for the first time yesterday (I was on 4 just a month ago)  I woke up last night thinking someone had turned on a radio w/rock and roll music.  It was actually my clock ticking and some weird auditory hallucination.  I changed the positon I was sleeping and it went away. 

[[ba...]]

During my first taper, five years ago, I had such bad tinnitus. I wound up go to the big deal ENT in my area, and had the billizion dollar work up, which found nothing.

 

Had I known benzos caused that, I could have saved my $500 co pay.

 

It went away for me, and so far during this taper, it hasn't started.

 

I also have fairly severe seasonal allergies, and that causes fluid behind my ear drums. My hearing is always a little off.

 

*Onward!*

 

Bat

[[sp...]]

In general my tinnitus goes up when my BP goes up, down when it goes down. Anything that raises my pulse makes it worse, lower pulse better.

 

I've noticed the same thing, and it certainly makes some intuitive sense given how many little blood vessels there are in the area, and how closely the crainal nerves and blood supply get bunched.

 

This is a pretty solid argument in favor of regular exercise as a treatment modality, too - since it's well established that being in better cardiovascular health will, over time, lower your resting heart rate and BP. My resting heart rate is in the low to mid 70s; my wife who has been a lot more diligent about exercise over the past couple years and runs 5k's a few times a week usually lands in the low 60s.

 

This symptom is literally the thing that drove me back onto benzos in the first place, and was my biggest obstacle in getting off, but the way I think about it has changed a lot and it rarely bothers me more than briefly these days, except when it gets obviously worse because of sinus infections/congestion/etc. I've been writing down some reflections on my experience with drugs, and getting off them - here's a pretty relevant snippet:

My tinnitus (which had bothered me on and off since my HPPD episode) rose to a terrible roar, and at the time I believed that was my biggest problem (just as I’d believed the HPPD had been years earlier). Again, hindsight paints a somewhat more explicable picture: I think that the high pitched tones I was hearing had been there all along, but the power of conscious fixation literally made the sound louder. Benzo withdrawal, at it’s most basic level, is experienced by me as fear. All of the muscle pain, the sensory issues, the insomnia, the stomach problems, and all the rest are just a physical realization of that fear.

 

I focused on the tinnitus because it gave me a target, it was something I could explain. I couldn't explain primal fear, and I still can’t, not in words that can convey the lovecraftian extent of it. I could explain a terrible and ceaseless high-pitched noise in my head, though, and it’s an unpleasant enough idea that even people who have never experienced it will usually widen their eyes and say “my oh my, that sounds simply awful!”

 

The sound is real, in that it's something that's there which I experience. What's not 'real' for me is the idea that the sound itself is connected to the fear state. When I am in the fear state, I try to attach it to something, and the sound is an attractive target. But, having now had the experience many times of having significant and loud ringing without fear or even annoyance, I realize that my assumption that the noise was causing the fear was fundamentally wrong.

 

I can hear my ears ringing now; writing about it makes me think about it and notice it consciously. I'm quite confident that fifteen minutes from now when I've signed off and am playing video games or reading or out riding my bike, the sound will still be there, but I won't spend much time thinking about it.

 

Focus on the sensations you're feeling at the bottom of your left foot. That sensation is always there, but you don't spend much time thinking about it. Why? How is tinnitus different? I know the obvious answer to that is "BECAUSE IT'S A GOD AWFUL SOUND SCREAMING IN MY EARS AND I HATE IT AND I CAN'T MAKE IT STOP", and I've felt that way many times myself over this process. But, I can honestly say, at this point, today, the sound in my ears is not so different from the feeling the bottom of my left foot makes.

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Yup. I have two major factors.

 

1) The perceived sound is louder or softer according to tension and BP. BP high, tinnitus roars more. Lower BP, the roar gets softer, and I can forget about it.

 

2) Pulse faster, the "beat" of the roar is faster, slower pulse slower beat.

 

I have had tinnitus for years, on benzos, so I can't say that it worse. Now, if it ever gets better, that will be a huge bonus.

[[Bi...]]

I reinstated from cold turkey and I am doing a taper right way now. 

My T went from Crazy LOUD to softer in the last 45 days. 

I hope it keeps going down, OH GOD PLEASE!!!!

I live with a my MP3 player and ear buds 24/7 now.

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I live with a my MP3 player and ear buds 24/7 now.

Yup. I had this habit long before when I found out that listening and trying NOT to sleep puts me to sleep

[[Bi...]]

Hey, what ever works