Tinnitus Talk Support Forum

Hi @vilebubbles

Thanks for the comment. I'm surviving. 1 step forward 2 back at the moment. It didn't help that I caught Covid for the first (& hopefully only) time in Dec 2023 which seems to have exacerbated my long-term issues.

How are you doing presently?

I'm kind of shocked to get a reply. I'm sorry it's been up and down for you. I'm not doing well. I went from mild T and h to severe multitonal T and severe h in a matter of 6 months. I was put on benzos and after 6 weeks tapering off and it's just getting worse tbh. You recovered some before Covid?

@vilebubbles Weirdly enough yesterday was the first time I've been on the site for a while.

No I hadn't really improved but the Covid seems to have left me with a louder baseline tinnitus plus some other stuff unrelated to my ears.

Have they pinpointed any reason for your tinnitus increase before benzos?

Mine went from mild T & no H to catastrophic reactive T & H literally overnight & ENT told me after the scan showed nothing that they are not sure what caused the worsening. The musical hallucinations took about 10 days to kick in but they've been 24/7 ever since. Today I have hissing, a very loud generator/engine noise, & a choir singing 'Da Doo Ron Ron' currently playing nonstop.

Seriously thought I was going to check out in the first year it was that bad, but hang in there. It's still reactive, it's intrusive, it's a big restriction on my life as I'm still pretty much housebound, & I have problems sleeping but I'm not in as dark a place at present. So it can improve in that way. You're still quite early on in the scheme of things & you could find it improves.

I think my low improvement is that I listened to Audiology & tried the gradual sound exposure route & it made it worse. Some people improve with sound, I'm not one of them. I also live on a main route for emergency vehicles & every time I take my ear defenders off I get blasted with the sirens. We need to stop the 'one size fits all' treatment but in the UK, Audiology & ENT seem to be stuck about 5-10 years behind.

I live on a main road too . I'm so sorry you've gotten worse. Idk how to cope tbh.

@vilebubbles Time is a big part of it, many people find their severe tinnitus settles down eventually. Distraction (trite I know), I read a lot as it's the only thing that helps. There's also promising research ongoing. As I said before you are fairly new into this phase, it is so hard I know, but you can get through it. How long have you been off benzos?

I'm still on them. I was only on them 4ish weeks and cut my dose in half and felt immediate hell. Now I'm at like 6 weeks on them and have tapered down some but my psych won't prescribe more :/