Hearing Aids vs Zoloft

[suncityguy]

4 years ago I got tinnitus. Thought I was going to die. Doc gave me Zoloft. Said it would take about 6 weeks. 6 weeks later I could care less about ringing. Year later went off drug. Still could care less. Till a year later when I got sinus infection

Blew my ears up. Year and a half later ringing is worse. Don't know why but don't panic. Everyone's tinnitus is different. Doesn't mean it will happen to you. My ears are screaming now. I know it is from hearings loss from construction... My question is this... Should I go back on Zoloft which worked but made me emotionally numb... or try hearing aids which feed back my tinnitus ...tricking my brain into thinking my ears are fine...

Feedback appreciated!

 

[RB2014]

Depending on how bad your hearing is I would recommend hearing aides. You need a true sound coming into your brain at all times in order for you to function properly. If you don't correct your hearing with hearing aides, you will slowly lose your ability to understand what people are saying and it doesn't come back to you once its gone. The extra higher frequencies will also help to quiet your tinnitus a bit. Its a win, win. Vs Zoloft that will numb you further with no benefits at all.

I only wore a hearing aide in one ear for a long time. That ear now functions fine and I have a good word recognition score. The left ear because it wasnt stimulated has deteriorated faster and now sound is very muffled and my word understanding is pretty bad. I think the nerves die out and the hair cells die faster when you are not stimulating yourself with the proper frequencies. I kick myself every day for not wearing two hearing aides when I was younger.

I hope this info helps.

 

[JasonP]

4 years ago I got tinnitus. Thought I was going to die. Doc gave me Zoloft. Said it would take about 6 weeks. 6 weeks later I could care less about ringing. Year later went off drug. Still could care less. Till a year later when I got sinus infection

Blew my ears up. Year and a half later ringing is worse. Don't know why but don't panic. Everyone's tinnitus is different. Doesn't mean it will happen to you. My ears are screaming now. I know it is from hearings loss from construction... My question is this... Should I go back on Zoloft which worked but made me emotionally numb... or try hearing aids which feed back my tinnitus ...tricking my brain into thinking my ears are fine...

Feedback appreciated!

Get hearing aids first. Try them out. Ask if they can amplify a little bit more of the frequency where your tinnitus is located if the hearing aids do not lessen the tinnitus enough. Make sure they limit the dB of how high something is amplified. Make sure it gets clipped off before a dangerous level of sound comes in. If that doesn't work then you can go back on the SSRI but see if you can take less. The apathy is known as AAS (anti depressant apathy syndrome) and sometimes the solution is to lower the anti depressant amount a little bit. The hearing aids though should lower the tinnitus and ask about getting one with maskers. If the hearing aids do not work you should ask about a full refund and how many days they give you to try them out. They also usually will give you a free hearing check if you go to a hearing aid dispenser. Call to make sure.

 

[suncityguy]

Thanks J. I live in Ontario Canada. Mandatory here that they give you a free month. I am getting masking aids but am more interested in the ones that feed back my level of T tricking brain into thinking my hearing is fine. Audiologist says she has patients who can take hearing aids off up 3 hours before ringing comes back. Interested to see if it has worked for anybody on this site.

 

[suncityguy]

Depending on how bad your hearing is I would recommend hearing aides. You need a true sound coming into your brain at all times in order for you to function properly. If you don't correct your hearing with hearing aides, you will slowly lose your ability to understand what people are saying and it doesn't come back to you once its gone. The extra higher frequencies will also help to quiet your tinnitus a bit. Its a win, win. Vs Zoloft that will numb you further with no benefits at all.

I only wore a hearing aide in one ear for a long time. That ear now functions fine and I have a good word recognition score. The left ear because it wasnt stimulated has deteriorated faster and now sound is very muffled and my word understanding is pretty bad. I think the nerves die out and the hair cells die faster when you are not stimulating yourself with the proper frequencies. I kick myself every day for not wearing two hearing aides when I was younger.

I hope this info helps.

Just wanted to update. Didn't realize how much hearing I had lost in higher frequency do to working construction. Dr said to give hearing aids a month or so but noticed a difference immediately. My T suddenly had to share space with sound I couldn't hear before. I compare it to wearing ear plugs which I always do when working with loud tools now. Putting hearing aids in equals taking ear plugs out.
Thanks for the advice. Would recommend hearing aids to anyone with T do to hearing loss.

 

[RB2014]

Yeah, they really help me. I didnt wear them this saturday and had blaring T all day. Sunday I woke up and put them in and right off the bat the sound was about half of what I had on Saturday. Then as I got involved in my day it went back down to a 1. The key is to keep yourself busy and not think about T and it can get pretty quiet.

 

[Anna V.]

Does that only work for hearing loss related tinnitus?