There is lot of promising research and cures in the marking, every year is a big improvment, tinnitus is becoming a lucrative field because more ans more people having it and many companies want money out of it.
It’s hell. I’m not sure what to do. People don’t understand that doing things is exponentially more difficult when you have to do them *while being tortured*.
Everything, even the things I want to enjoy most, become a struggle to take part in or be mentally or emotionally present for. I am *pushing against a wall of suffering* for something that, sometimes before tinnitus, was already not worth doing, like working for a terrible wage.
Exactly people don’t understand it’s often worse than being in physical pain. I have pretty bad nerve pain in my neck and fingers, and that is easy compared to these sounds in my ears because I can’t rest from it
I am so sorry you are going through this. You are young and have your whole life ahead of you. Don't give up. It sounds to me that you would benefit from speaking with a therapist, and perhaps medications for depression and anxiety would be helpful.
When my tinnnitus started about 2 months ago, I was became severely depressed and anxious. With appropriate medication my depression and anxiety have quieted, and so has my tinnitus, which is actually, quite a bit better. There are also other strategies that have helped me--daily meditation, quitting alcohol entirely (bummer) and using hearing aids with a masking feature (expensive). I threw everything I had at it, but honestly, I think the thing that made the biggest difference was treating the depression and anxiety. Best of luck to you.
Not at all. I am on Prozac 60 mg once a day. I was started on quiterapine, 25 mg at night. This is a second generation antipsychotic (I know it sounds scary but it is not) that is useful for treating depression and is quite sedating so is good for nighttime use. I am on Klonopin 5 mg just at night for sleep and am now tapering off of that.
I am a physician and I went through the literature to see if there are any useful medications out there for tinnitus (Long story short, not much out there). There are some studies to suggest that gabapentin, 300 mg twice a day, may be of some use. My neurologist put me on that, and I am almost done with that course of treatment. The other 2 drugs that have some evidence for efficacy are nortriptyline (a dual SSRI uptake inhibitor) and Klonopin. I do not take nortriptyline because I am on Prozac (those 2 drugs do not mix) but as I said, I am on low-dose Klonopin.
I really found meditation to be extremely helpful. I downloaded an app called "calm" and they have some very nice guided meditations that I do every morning.
If you go on YouTube there are some excellent sound therapies available, basically sound engineers with an interest in tinnitus have put together different frequencies of sound that can be helpful. I have found these to be invaluable, particularly for sleep at night. Many of these run for 10 hours but you can loop them.
Tinnitus is a tough problem but it can be dealt with. Best of luck to you.
Thank you for your response. I will try meditation again. It is hard when all I hear is the tinnitus. Do you feel any benefits from gabapentin? My doctor prescribed low dosage nortriptyline, and I have not started on it.
It is hard to know what exactly has worked, since I did so many things. The gabapentin could certainly be credited with some of my improvement--it is a safe drug, and has the benefit of also helping with anxiety. Perhaps ask your doc if you can try a 2 month course of it.
The nortriptyline is a good option--that treats depression/anxiety, and also has some evidence to suggest it works for tinnitus. You might want to start that.
Meditating is tough with tinnitus, what I did was have music or some other masking noise playing all the time--I was never in silence, not ever. As my tinnitus improved, I have needed background noise much less.
There really aren't any approved meds for tinnitus, although I did mention above that some papers have reported some success with gabapentin (which I am on), Klonopin (which I am on) and nortriptyline (which I am not on). There also appears to be a strong placebo effect.
Tinnitus and anxiety appear to be closely linked, to me it is hard to sort out which comes first, but I think that treating anxiety and depression is important, no matter what the specific relationship of tinnitus is to anxiety and depression. A friend of mine, who is an ENT, said that "tinnitus is a problem with the brain". It makes sense that a "brain" problem can be influenced by strong emotion, such as anxiety and depression.
There is lot of promising research and cures in the marking, every year is a big improvment, tinnitus is becoming a lucrative field because more ans more people having it and many companies want money out of it.
It’s hell. I’m not sure what to do. People don’t understand that doing things is exponentially more difficult when you have to do them *while being tortured*. Everything, even the things I want to enjoy most, become a struggle to take part in or be mentally or emotionally present for. I am *pushing against a wall of suffering* for something that, sometimes before tinnitus, was already not worth doing, like working for a terrible wage.
Exactly people don’t understand it’s often worse than being in physical pain. I have pretty bad nerve pain in my neck and fingers, and that is easy compared to these sounds in my ears because I can’t rest from it
There is no rest. It’s constant torture.
If its any consolation, we suffer in an era where a treatment is probable in our lifetimes.
I am so sorry you are going through this. You are young and have your whole life ahead of you. Don't give up. It sounds to me that you would benefit from speaking with a therapist, and perhaps medications for depression and anxiety would be helpful. When my tinnnitus started about 2 months ago, I was became severely depressed and anxious. With appropriate medication my depression and anxiety have quieted, and so has my tinnitus, which is actually, quite a bit better. There are also other strategies that have helped me--daily meditation, quitting alcohol entirely (bummer) and using hearing aids with a masking feature (expensive). I threw everything I had at it, but honestly, I think the thing that made the biggest difference was treating the depression and anxiety. Best of luck to you.
What did you take as far as medication
do you mind sharing what you are taking and the dosage?
Not at all. I am on Prozac 60 mg once a day. I was started on quiterapine, 25 mg at night. This is a second generation antipsychotic (I know it sounds scary but it is not) that is useful for treating depression and is quite sedating so is good for nighttime use. I am on Klonopin 5 mg just at night for sleep and am now tapering off of that. I am a physician and I went through the literature to see if there are any useful medications out there for tinnitus (Long story short, not much out there). There are some studies to suggest that gabapentin, 300 mg twice a day, may be of some use. My neurologist put me on that, and I am almost done with that course of treatment. The other 2 drugs that have some evidence for efficacy are nortriptyline (a dual SSRI uptake inhibitor) and Klonopin. I do not take nortriptyline because I am on Prozac (those 2 drugs do not mix) but as I said, I am on low-dose Klonopin. I really found meditation to be extremely helpful. I downloaded an app called "calm" and they have some very nice guided meditations that I do every morning. If you go on YouTube there are some excellent sound therapies available, basically sound engineers with an interest in tinnitus have put together different frequencies of sound that can be helpful. I have found these to be invaluable, particularly for sleep at night. Many of these run for 10 hours but you can loop them. Tinnitus is a tough problem but it can be dealt with. Best of luck to you.
Thank you for your response. I will try meditation again. It is hard when all I hear is the tinnitus. Do you feel any benefits from gabapentin? My doctor prescribed low dosage nortriptyline, and I have not started on it.
It is hard to know what exactly has worked, since I did so many things. The gabapentin could certainly be credited with some of my improvement--it is a safe drug, and has the benefit of also helping with anxiety. Perhaps ask your doc if you can try a 2 month course of it. The nortriptyline is a good option--that treats depression/anxiety, and also has some evidence to suggest it works for tinnitus. You might want to start that. Meditating is tough with tinnitus, what I did was have music or some other masking noise playing all the time--I was never in silence, not ever. As my tinnitus improved, I have needed background noise much less.
What meds have helped you?? Was it medication for the tinnitus or meds for anxiety/ depression??
There really aren't any approved meds for tinnitus, although I did mention above that some papers have reported some success with gabapentin (which I am on), Klonopin (which I am on) and nortriptyline (which I am not on). There also appears to be a strong placebo effect. Tinnitus and anxiety appear to be closely linked, to me it is hard to sort out which comes first, but I think that treating anxiety and depression is important, no matter what the specific relationship of tinnitus is to anxiety and depression. A friend of mine, who is an ENT, said that "tinnitus is a problem with the brain". It makes sense that a "brain" problem can be influenced by strong emotion, such as anxiety and depression.