Tenacious Tinnitus Club – Ear Pressure, Noise and Hyperacusis

[[Gr...]]

Grapejuice,

Was this while you were going through benzo w/d or during tolerance?  I'm not sure anything helps much when going through w/d but maybe I'm wrong.

I'm a bit different in that I wasn’t on any meds when my ear problems started, I had a sudden hearing loss due to an inner ear disease that triggered it. Then I started taking Xanax in order to cope with all the anxiety due to tinnitus and noise sensitivity. I started sound therapy about two years after starting benzos but before I started tapering. The noise sensitivity had improved a slight bit before sounds therapy, but got a lot better with the white noise treatment.

[[Ca...]]

Its hard to be sure, but I think my fish tanks saved me a fair bit... The T sure hits me harder when the power is out... But its only been real bad (for me and my standard) a few times throught my tapers...

-if thats any help...

Asides, they are calming to look at.. -Just not clean...

 

[[...]]

Joining this group. The tinnitus is starting to get on my nerves. It started at the 1 year mark. I can ignore it most of the time, but it is a constant reminder of this horrible situation. It makes me feel claustrophobic.

[[50...]]

Joining this group. The tinnitus is starting to get on my nerves. It started at the 1 year mark. I can ignore it most of the time, but it is a constant reminder of this horrible situation. It makes me feel claustrophobic.

 

hope you dont stick around for too long. did you have it during your first c/t as well?

[[...]]

No, not a bit the first time.

[[50...]]

just patience and good sleep my friend

[[...]]

Sleep is my biggest issue. I’m not getting into stage 4 at all. I stay stuck in rem. This has been happening for 2 years.

[[50...]]

Does anyone get any tinnitus relief from a one off dose of benzo these days?

[[Su...]]

Hello all,

 

It seems I am joining this club...

 

I just started my journey through tinnitus hell. I have been suffering from tinnitus since early December 2019 after my incompetent GP cold-turkeyed me. My tinnitus used to be buzzing, then it became a ringing. I think my T got fainter on the 2-week mark but I am not so sure now... I can't remember how it was in fact. Now, it's a constant (24/7) hissing noise, very high pitch, essentially in my left ear (though recently it went more towards the middle).

 

I am scheduled to complete my zopiclone taper in one week time (see signature for history) and am worried my T will get worse... it's my worst wd symptoms. Some days are worse than others but I am not sure my T is changing. I think it may be my ability to cope with and accept my T that varies day by day...

I see many of you here have been dealing with T for months or years in some cases. Inspiring and frightening at the same time. Lot of courage and resilience on this forum, for sure. No doubt I will draw on your patience, wisedom and strength!

 

What would be useful though, would be a survey on T recovery time. Not sure how we could do thid though. I suspect those who have recovered my no longer be checking this support group!

 

SG

[[50...]]

Hang in there SG. Recovery really starts when you'll get off this stuff ( the zopiclone included). it will go down in volume in time but how long to go away completely? couldn't tell you. 4 months in im still waiting. Only thing that helped me is going out in environments that are louder than my t or focusing on something and that tends to push the T all the way back. BUt comes back next morning. Hope you won't be around in this club for too long

[[to...]]

Does anyone get any tinnitus relief from a one off dose of benzo these days?

 

Yes.... I played that game for a while after I was off Valium last February.  Worked for a  while (1mg maybe once a week would "tone things down" for about 24 hours) but then it would come right back agailn, Figured I was just kindling myself and decided not to do that anymore. Now its just a constant "high frequency" tone  (about 10,000 cycles).

 

Night time is the worst.... and in the morning when I get up.  I usually go to sleep with an mp3

player in my ears which "partially" masks it so its no so obtrusive. Not too obtrusive in the day

when I am up and about... just at night when everything is quiet.

 

If you have high pitched T, below is a link to a masking sound you can download.

 

http://dtfsdf.oco.net/Crickets_4.mp3

 

I've found it useful to "target" masking sounds by finding one that matches the frequency of your Tinnitus... mine is high frequency .... about 10KC.

 

You can use the online frequency generator at the link below to calculate the approximate frequency of your Tinnitus  (move the slider up or down until you find a tone that matches your T)

 

http://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/

 

Once you have done that, you can do a Google search for Tinnitus masking sounds that best match the frequency of your T.  So if your frequency is 7k, do a Google search for "Tinnitus masking sounds 7KC" .  There are a lot of sample sounds on the internet that will pop up with a search. Some of the "nature sounds" do a pretty good job masking T.

 

Besides "White Noise", there is "Pink Noise" and "Brown Noise"... different levels of intensity... just Google the name.  The idea of "masking" is to find a noise that "partially" covers up the T somewhat but is more "agreeable" than the T itself.

 

There is also a support form called "Tinnitus Talk"  https://www.tinnitustalk.com/

which might give you some other ideas on how to cope with T.

 

Ashton say T is one of the last sxs to subside.... I sure hope so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[[Su...]]

@[50...]

Thanks for the message and the encouragement.

Hoping to jump next week. Tonight is my first night at 0.9mg of zopiclone. I don't expect I will sleep well over the next few days/week...

4 months is a long time for you to wait but I've read some people have been battling with T for years 

Saw a post by @flavio explaining it took him 2 years to get rid of his T... for others, it was gone in 6 months... not too sure what the duration of my punishment will be...

Somehow, I need a psychological way to ignore my T at night as  it affects my sleep...

SG

 

[[50...]]

@50shadesofdre

Thanks for the message and the encouragement.

Hoping to jump next week. Tonight is my first night at 0.9mg of zopiclone. I don't expect I will sleep well over the next few days/week...

4 months is a long time for you to wait but I've read some people have been battling with T for years 

Saw a post by @flavio explaining it took him 2 years to get rid of his T... for others, it was gone in 6 months... not too sure what the duration of my punishment will be...

Somehow, I need a psychological way to ignore my T at night as  it affects my sleep...

SG

 

i should have specified that at 4 months i still have it but it is half of what it was the first 2 months.. so you can expect it to go down in the next 2 months but as to how long it will take to completely resolve? i don't know. and there are some really discouraging examples on here and on reddit of people not healing from it. but on the other hand, those that do don't come back to this site. Either case I wish healing to all those suffering currently.

 

I use an app called atmosphere on my phone to plend some chime and rain storm sounds and i sleep no problem.

 

lipoflavinoid supplement i believe also works

[[Su...]]

@50shadesofdre

Thanks for the message and the encouragement.

Hoping to jump next week. Tonight is my first night at 0.9mg of zopiclone. I don't expect I will sleep well over the next few days/week...

4 months is a long time for you to wait but I've read some people have been battling with T for years 

Saw a post by @flavio explaining it took him 2 years to get rid of his T... for others, it was gone in 6 months... not too sure what the duration of my punishment will be...

Somehow, I need a psychological way to ignore my T at night as  it affects my sleep...

SG

 

i should have specified that at 4 months i still have it but it is half of what it was the first 2 months.. so you can expect it to go down in the next 2 months but as to how long it will take to completely resolve? i don't know. and there are some really discouraging examples on here and on reddit of people not healing from it. but on the other hand, those that do don't come back to this site. Either case I wish healing to all those suffering currently.

 

I use an app called atmosphere on my phone to plend some chime and rain storm sounds and i sleep no problem.

 

lipoflavinoid supplement i believe also works

 

That is useful information and gives me hope. I will try not focus too much on those cases that ate not healing... Again , thanks.

[[Su...]]

Hello all,

 

So last night, I tapered my zopiclone to one quarter of a 3.75mg tablet, i.e. 0.9mg. Possibly my last taper before the jump unless I can't stay at that dose (let's banish that thought for the time being)...

 

Needless to say the night was not great (euphemism of the year). I don't think I slept at all and I suffered (and still suffer) from severe cramps in the pelvis area leading to back pain. Of course, my tinnitus was with me all night, that faithful ever-loyal bugger..

 

However, this morning, I "observed" something rather strange: my tinnitus seemed to have moved from the left side of my brain/left ear to the middle/front of my brain. Also, it feels as if "pressure" is exercised on the brain in that front-ish middle area of the brain (particularly the right side of that middle front-ish area). Weird...!  It's as if a "blanket of fog" was being lifted from that part of my brain if you know what I mean. Somehow, the brain feels more balanced too if that makes sense.

 

I am not sure how to better describe the sensations I am feeling in relations to my brain/tinnitus right now.

 

1) Has anybody experienced that before?

2) Is it a good or bad sign when the tinnitus moves in the brain from side to the middle? Or perhaps it doesn't mean much?

3) Has anybody tracked down the "movements" of their tinnitus?

 

Keen to get your views / experience!!! Thanks.

 

SG

[[50...]]

Hello all,

 

So last night, I tapered my zopiclone to one quarter of a 3.75mg tablet, i.e. 0.9mg. Possibly my last taper before the jump unless I can't stay at that dose (let's banish that thought for the time being)...

 

Needless to say the night was not great (euphemism of the year). I don't think I slept at all and I suffered (and still suffer) from severe cramps in the pelvis area leading to back pain. Of course, my tinnitus was with me all night, that faithful ever-loyal bugger..

 

However, this morning, I "observed" something rather strange: my tinnitus seemed to have moved from the left side of my brain/left ear to the middle/front of my brain. Also, it feels as if "pressure" is exercised on the brain in that front-ish middle area of the brain (particularly the right side of that middle front-ish area). Weird...!  It's as if a "blanket of fog" was being lifted from that part of my brain if you know what I mean. Somehow, the brain feels more balanced too if that makes sense.

 

I am not sure how to better describe the sensations I am feeling in relations to my brain/tinnitus right now.

 

1) Has anybody experienced that before?

2) Is it a good or bad sign when the tinnitus moves in the brain from side to the middle? Or perhaps it doesn't mean much?

3) Has anybody tracked down the "movements" of their tinnitus?

 

Keen to get your views / experience!!! Thanks.

 

SG

 

not sure, i wake up with mines on different sides and with different tones every day..

 

to you and everyone reading - give traditional chinese medicine a try. i'm waiting to get off prozac and do it myself. i really believe it all comes down to a disbalance of life energy. traditional chinese medicine is really good with working with that aspect

[[Su...]]

Well, the tinnitus seems a lot fainter today 

Could be because of the good night I had or because I am in the final phases of my taper and my brain has started recovering, getting nearer to baseline...

Will it stay or revert back to a louder T? Will it improve? Who knows... I can only hope...

SG

[[ch...]]

I hope you don't mind me joining in here.

Tinnitus has been part of my life for many years since losing a lot of my hearing in my 30's, reason unknown, I had surgery and a CT scan at the time but sadly nothing could be done , so I use hearing aids.

I was given valium the end of March 2018  for anxiety after being tried with sertraline for 4-5 weeks, and then then pregabalin for a week.  My tinnitus really ramped up once I started tapering, though sound sensitivity hit me when I stopped the valium ,4mgs , in May 2018 whilst I started Mirtazapine at the Doctors request,  , Needles to say I could not tolerate the Mirtazapine that I took for only a week and that is when things really became difficult, Back on the valium for a couple of months at a low dose between 2-4 mgs not well and decided I had to get off valium using the Doctors taper, that is when the tinnitus really started badly though not as bad as now.

I had to use a fan to mask the noise , it helped a little but being deaf too makes it so bad

I am now 28 days free of valium after a long taper, in total 17 months from 4mgs, though there was a slight up dose after I got to 2.5mgs  and put back by the hospital  to 4mgs, valium so taper in total from them 14 months,

I had hoped that the tinnitus would not get worse but it has. I has so many tones. The high hiss I can am used to but there is a really deep drone that seems to be right sided, and the hiss left sided,

It can ease down some evenings but not always,

Today is so very bad and not sure where to put myself, I now have 3 tones all at once but the deep reverberating drone is by far the worst,

I am trying to distract but it's hard when so deaf, I can hardly hear anything but this noise,

I  just wanted to know if anyone has had it ease over time since being off valium, 

I really need some hope to live with this ,as no sound seems to cover it.

I wonder sometimes if it's because I am tired or is it something I eat? 

I really don't know,

I just need a little hope that it can get better even if not gone.

 

I am 74 and finding all of this so very hard to get through and grateful for any advice or even a little hope that this does ease down when I am further out as  28 days post taper is early days,

 

Thankyou in advance

 

Jen 

[[iw...]]

I have had tinnitus for over 4 years now as a result of benzo withdrawal.  I don't have hearing loss.  I just hear a high pitched hissing all the time.  I can say that it has gotten quieter overall, but it is still constant and fluctuates in loudness.  I try to mask it with tinnitus sound therapy.  This is the best one I have found:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjgnlUA6gKk&t=16798s.  I have lost hope of it ever going away, unfortunately.

[[Su...]]

@[iw...]

Sorry to hear about that long-term tinnitus of yours. I am in the same boat in terms of tinnitus: mine is a constant high-pitched hissing too. I still hope it will fade away (it has decreased twice in the last 7 weeks since it started) though, like you, I understand it is quite possible I will be stuck with it for the rest of my life and this freaks me out.

 

@[ch...]

I am really sorry that your tinnitus is making you suffering so much and I am sorry I cannot be of great help. I know it is such a torture and the deafness, of course, is making things worse. If you go on the tinnitustalk.com forum (a forum dedicated to tinnitus sufferers) and register, you can access a sub-group discussion called "Doctor's corner". In there, you will find that Dr. Stephen Nagler may be able to reply to your query. Hope this helps.

 

SG

[[ch...]]

Thank you so much for trying to help, 

 

I do hope it eases for all of us,

 

I will try your advice but maybe tomorrow as I am oh so tired  I really hope I can somehow manage to sleep, Not sure with it being this loud tonight and multi toned , but I will have to try ,

 

I do wonder if this is could be food related somehow, not that I was sensitive to food before valium and tapering, but now all rules seem to have changed .

 

I am shattered but have to continue, 

 

If it dies down a bit that will be something, 

 

Today has been the worst,

 

However I cannot think going back on a benzo would do any good at all so I have to accept the best I can

 

Thank you , @iwsth  and  SurreyGuy  for  answering

[[50...]]

Thank you so much for trying to help, 

 

I do hope it eases for all of us,

 

I will try your advice but maybe tomorrow as I am oh so tired  I really hope I can somehow manage to sleep, Not sure with it being this loud tonight and multi toned , but I will have to try ,

 

I do wonder if this is could be food related somehow, not that I was sensitive to food before valium and tapering, but now all rules seem to have changed .

 

I am shattered but have to continue, 

 

If it dies down a bit that will be something, 

 

Today has been the worst,

 

However I cannot think going back on a benzo would do any good at all so I have to accept the best I can

 

Thank you , @iwsth  and  SurreyGuy  for  answering

 

from all the info ive gathered so far and my own experience, this benzo related tinnitus will fade with time... but you have got to be patient. i didnt see any improvement untill 2 months out. the first month things were getting worse actually

[[ch...]]

The tinnitus is really so severe now, and hearing right down. As I am already substantially deaf it's hard to deal with, and to add insult to injury my hearing aid is not working as it should ,.

 

I have booked a home visit from an audiologist on the 27th January to see if they help,  I really need a strong aid, as I doubt this extra loss will improve, ,

 

Maybe get my hearing aid mended ,I had to dig a really old one out, but it screams at me all the time.

 

I do hope this does eventually ease down some,  I already had the high hiss but now I have a deep drone as well.  My own voice vibrates through me.

 

How much more damage can this drug removal cause?

 

So many other symptoms, too many to mention really, but oh to get away from this racket in my head.  and the pressure.

 

I  am at 32 days now and it gets stronger, I do hope it starts to ease a little bit , soon, 

 

Thank you for your reply, Yes I guess I have to be patient, I cannot make it better I know

 

I dread to think this new level is permanent , 

 

Jen

[[50...]]

The tinnitus is really so severe now, and hearing right down. As I am already substantially deaf it's hard to deal with, and to add insult to injury my hearing aid is not working as it should ,.

 

I have booked a home visit from an audiologist on the 27th January to see if they help,  I really need a strong aid, as I doubt this extra loss will improve, ,

 

Maybe get my hearing aid mended ,I had to dig a really old one out, but it screams at me all the time.

 

I do hope this does eventually ease down some,  I already had the high hiss but now I have a deep drone as well.  My own voice vibrates through me.

 

How much more damage can this drug removal cause?

 

So many other symptoms, too many to mention really, but oh to get away from this racket in my head.  and the pressure.

 

I  am at 32 days now and it gets stronger, I do hope it starts to ease a little bit , soon, 

 

Thank you for your reply, Yes I guess I have to be patient, I cannot make it better I know

 

I dread to think this new level is permanent , 

 

Jen

 

no way it's permanent Jen

[[Su...]]

@[ch...]

Have your hearing aid checked, have your ears checked for excessive ear wax, use sound therapy (it helps me a lot) and give meditation / breathing exercise a go.

SG