Can These Medications Be Hurting or Helping?

[Cal18]

I got my T from antidepressants but the tinnitus reaction was late onset (2 months post reaction).

I developed akathisia from trying to reinstate Celexa after protracted withdrawal and the medication went paradoxal on me. For the akathisia, I was given diazepam. I took about 1/2 pill 2x per day for about 1.5 weeks.

Then I decided I didn't need them, about 2 weeks after that I developed ear pain and H as well as severe T.

This seems like a low dose of diazepam for a short period of time but I did tend to be very sensitive.

Akathisia also comes with a full sensitivity of the CNS including to sounds and vision.

Do you think I'm still just in the reaction phase or if the diazapam is the culprit?

After the tinnitus already started I have been put on propranolol and Lamictal. I hope none of these are worsening anything, or would there be any precautions I can take?

I'm considering dropping the lamictal and benzo and going on gabapentin.

Please let know your thoughts on this. Thanks!

 

[glynis]

Have a chat with your doctor or go to him with any findings you have you might like to try.
AD meds can cause tinnitus starting or reducing them and Benso meds and sleeping tablets...lots of love glynis

 

[Cal18]

Question was wondering if benzo could be causing tinnitus. Have you ever seen this even after short term use?

 

[Sorien]

How do you know the meds are causing the t when it developed so long after?

 

[Cal18]

@Sorien - thank you for asking, I appreciate your help. I was actually in a protracted mild withdrawal 8 months after stopping Celexa and I did notice a very mild spike in my old tinnitus (which I acquired from a 2010 paxil withdrawal) but wasn't too worried about it.

You can still have new withdrawal symptoms that far down the line - 8 months (I also had some tingling in my hands which were also withdrawal symptoms). At that time, I was also very stressed for a long period of time. I noticed the mini spikes would pop up at night here and there.

Then because I tried to reinstate the medication, I had a toxic reaction (akathisia) and a lot of really bad things happened. I get adrenaline rushes at 4am, can't sleep most nights, my skin is buring and I have the need to move around constantly. I also had an extreme sensitivity to light and sound. Basically everything about my nervous system have become sensitized. And after all the emotional stress and despair I endured for 2 months (and continue to endure), the tinnitus came on loud and strong. At first it showed up like this out of the blue for 2 days then went away close to my normal baseline which is drastically lower. Then it kept coming back and every time it did, it would stay for longer periods of time especially if I had a stressful night and missed sleep.

So now I'm scared to take anything even though I have to for my condition and I'm worried that because benzos have the same withdrawal symptoms, that if I take them on and off as I have been, they may make things worse because of my predisposition to these medications.

Then there's also the propranonol and lamictal both of which have incidents of making tinnitus worse. I would love to quit all the meds but then I can really forget about getting sleep which will continuously make my T worse.

 

[Florida John]

I got my T from antidepressants but the tinnitus reaction was late onset (2 months post reaction).

I developed akathisia from trying to reinstate Celexa after protracted withdrawal and the medication went paradoxal on me. For the akathisia, I was given diazepam. I took about 1/2 pill 2x per day for about 1.5 weeks.

Then I decided I didn't need them, about 2 weeks after that I developed ear pain and H as well as severe T.

This seems like a low dose of diazepam for a short period of time but I did tend to be very sensitive.

Akathisia also comes with a full sensitivity of the CNS including to sounds and vision.

Do you think I'm still just in the reaction phase or if the diazapam is the culprit?

After the tinnitus already started I have been put on propranolol and Lamictal. I hope none of these are worsening anything, or would there be any precautions I can take?

I'm considering dropping the lamictal and benzo and going on gabapentin.

Please let know your thoughts on this. Thanks!

Your story is very interesting, if I am understanding right, your problems seem to start or worsen on the withdrawl of these drugs,,,,I have some info on gabepentin,,,I have had Tinnitus for 20 years or so, but it was at a level I learned to live with, I was put on gabepentin for neck pain, but made me feel funny so I came off, that was 6-7 weeks ago, i staring feeling ill,,,then woke up at 1 am one night in full panic mode, anxiety, and nausea,,,,went to ER,,,,they gave me something to sedate me, and misdiagnosed me with stomach infection,,,I thought ok,,,,ill get better when I take the antibiotic,,,,bad move they were bad for my ears I would find out,,, I am now believing fast withdrawl from 1800 mg (a weeks time) started it, I am still struggling with anxiety and louder Tinnitus,,,I am now depressed,,,,,seen neurologist today,,,,he says go back on gabepentin,,, and it will help,,,,cant believe that was the only option he gave me, as soon as he heard suicidal thoughts, he washed his hands of me and said see a psychiatrist for depression,,I told him the side effect that comes with the prescription he gave for more gabepentin is suicidal thoughts,,,,go figure,,,,,,,anyways be careful,,,,,if you try it ,,,,start slow dose,,,,and slow coming off it,,,,,we dont have alot of choices,,,all these meds seem to be toxic to our hearing , esp in big doses, try to get by on small doses,,,,,good luck

 

[Rubenslash]

I also got hearing loss and related T due to withdrawal from Zoloft. I will never touch an AD anymore.

 

[Cal18]

Do you think I'm safe for now, at least for the time being while I'm on them? I don't think I heard of anyone getting T while taking them (only during withdrawal). I'm worried about being on them but I'm more worried about coming off at this point while my T is in a very heightened state.

 

[Rubenslash]

Very few people get hearing damage from AD's (I believe it's somewhere in the 1-5% range of all people taking AD's) but given that it is the cause of your T, I would be very cautious in using more of these types of medication.

Anyway I'm not a doctor so I can't give you the best advice here. I know that in my case, I will not use these drugs any more. Make sure that you taper off your medication very gradually.

 

[SilverSpiral]

The negative side effects of a drug are the side effects.
The positive side effects of a drug are also side effects.
So some people view it as, look at all the positive and negative side effects possible, and how common they are, and compare it to the side effects you actually desire, and how common patients find they are treated for their condition by the desired "side"effect. Then look at the most common negative and positive sideeffects, and make a decision.

Do you think I'm safe for now, at least for the time being while I'm on them? I don't think I heard of anyone getting T while taking them (only during withdrawal). I'm worried about being on them but I'm more worried about coming off at this point while my T is in a very heightened state.

So absolutely no T before taking meds, and no acoustic traumas?

 

[Cal18]

All T incidents were meds induced.

 

[SilverSpiral]

All T incidents were meds induced.

Wow, if I were in your shoes there'd be no way i'd risk taking any drugs that might cause more T, unless it is physically life threatening of course. \

But thats just how I am, I had a bad exoerience with 2 or 3 psych drugs i was told would help me, but they didnt really, the years i was on ssris were not good years, they feel bad when you take them at first, they say, give it 2 months and it will work, well by 2 months a lot of the horrible sideeffects were gone, but were they making me feel better? I don't think so. I look back at the years I was on SSRIs as some of the most depressing years of my life. And then once I stopped them I had out of control anxiety attacks and ocd, which made me scared to take anymore medications. Hoping I could find my healthy baseline where I was before i started the darn med]s,

but now, since i got t, my mental state has gone downhill and im willing to carefull take something i believe in, and monitor myself closely to see if it truely helpful.

This might be TMI but the cipralex gave me 0 sexual functiom 0 desore and really made me so passive that i accomplished nothing in those years i was on them. And then coming off of them results in another whole host of problems which wouldnt have to happen if I had never taken them in the first place.

 

[Cal18]

@SilverSpiral Sex is the last thing on my mind right now unfortunately. Yeah, I sort of have no choice right now in regards to the meds. The Clonazepam is the first I plan on tapering off of. I'm on such a small dose but I have to treat it like it's 10x higher when coming off since I'm ultra-sensitive. I think there is a liquid formula I can take a do a taper for several months.

In regards to my first round of antidepressants which I started several years ago, it was fantastic but eventually pooped out after 8 years. Great while I was on it but looking back after quitting I felt like I was in a daze and actually lost years of my life when reality kicked back in.