Benzo Withdrawal Induced Tinnitus + Reactive Tinnitus or Hyperacusis?

[Bartek]

Hi all,

I'm from Poland soo sorry for my English

I developed tinnitus at the end of my benzo withdrawal (very high dose) I assume that I have hyperacusis or reactive tinnitus?

When I use my sound machine my tinnitus is not soo intrusive most of the time I feel like my tinnitus reacts to sound? It is trying to get louder than the sound that I hear?

I can't hear it under the shower and when I listen to music at about 70-80 percent volume I can't hear it.

Sometimes when I stop listening to music I can't hear my tinnitus for a few seconds, is that normal?

Alcohol spikes my tinnitus only when I'm to get sober smoking does not spike my tinnitus. I don't drink coffee but that does not spike it either, only spicy food spike my tinnitus?

I think don't have spikes only maybe sometimes at night. 8 of 10 nights I have no problem sleeping. I take 25 mg of trazodone (lowered from 150 mg in 2 months) and 25 mg of quetiapine (ketrel) for sleep, can't sleep without it.

Still very depressed and irritated by the sounds. I have about 5 sounds. My biggest problem is that I think about it 90% of the day? How long did it take you to stop thinking about it???

I'm 32 years old and have no hearing loss.

What do you think about reactive tinnitus. Will it get better or worse?

I sometimes have ear pains sometimes in right, sometimes in left, never both at once.

 

[billie48]

My biggest problem is that I think about it 90% of the day? How long did it take you to stop thinking about it???

Welcome to the forum. When T is new and foreign, we fear the sound. It is the fear for this T sound that keeps our brain so fixed on it. If somehow your fear of T is gone, then the brain will slowly switch to treating T not a threat. It will take some time and more understanding about T for the traumatized brain to rewire and build new neural pathway to process the T stimulus as a neutral sensation, like the plane noise during flights. The brain can tune out loud noise if it is treated as neutral stimulus and not a threat. How so? Remember the flights you were in, and when you were deep into watching a movie, that your brain was not aware of the all-encompassing jet noise around you. It was loud but not threatening. So the brain fades it out from your consciousness when it is too busy watching an interesting movie. Just imagine the pilot suddenly announce that there is a problem with one of the jet engine and the plane needs to turn back for emergency landing, instantly your brain will zoom on that jet noise to make sure it is not shutting down. It is now considered a threat and now it will get all the attention of your brain. So the sooner we accept T and treat it not the threat, the faster the brain will learn to normalize to it and will fade it out of consciousness when your brain is busy with something else, especially meaningful things or interesting hobbies. Hope that makes sense.

 

[Bartek]

Hi,
Thanks for the response do you have any knowledge about reactive tinnitus does it at least go away ? It is more bothersome than my other tinnitus because it is hard to mask. Can you mask your tinnitus during the day ? like driving the car or some other ways ? when i drive my car i can hear only my reactive tinnitus?

 

[Bartek]

AND what is this normal that after hearing to music sometimes when i take my headphones of i cant hear my tinnitus for for about 3 seconds ?

 

[billie48]

Hi,
Thanks for the response do you have any knowledge about reactive tinnitus does it at least go away ? It is more bothersome than my other tinnitus because it is hard to mask. Can you mask your tinnitus during the day ? like driving the car or some other ways ? when i drive my car i can hear only my reactive tinnitus?

Yes I know about reactive tinnitus as I have the type of high pitch T that is known to cause this effect, that T seems to get louder with some sounds. Actually this may just be a form of hyperacusis which I also had. When I have some monster spikes, I usually can expect to have reactive T for a few days afterwards. This is how it is for me and so yes, I know what it is. Don't worry too much about this though as it tends to fade in intensity after a while. A full blown hyperacusis is much harder to deal with. I have had bad H too and it turned all normal sounds piercingly hurtful sometimes with ear pains. H will force you to wear earplugs as the sensation is quite unbearable when every normal sound seems to drill through your senses. Reactive T is a much lesser condition than H. So take it easy and it will pass.

 

[billie48]

AND what is this normal that after hearing to music sometimes when i take my headphones of i cant hear my tinnitus for for about 3 seconds ?

That seems to be the effect of 'residual inhibition'. This is a phenomenon that happens when you hear some sounds which have similar frequency as your T, resulting in not hearing T for a short time. You can google search that to learn more about it.

 

[Bartek]

Thanks for the info and the kind words