Sue,
I am new to this forum and I recently just started with my Tinnitus (T) going on 2 months now. Since then, it's had me become such a nervous wreck that I actually got into a wreck. I've been to every doctor under the sun. But I think my condition is a little bit different. Most people usually get their T either from being constantly around loud noises such as musicians or machine workers, etc. I don't subject myself to any of this situations. What I think my problem is, is my "NECK". I have acid reflux and a hiatal hernia so I sleep sometimes with my pillows propped up. One night I feel asleep with my chin bent down to my chest. I don't know how long I fell asleep like this. But when I woke up, my ears immediately felt weird. They had this deafening sound as though I stood completely inside of some loud speaker, then right afterwards my ears felt muffled then my heart started pounding.
I do suffer with anxiety and on occasion panic attacks. I thought it was possibly a sleep panic attack but didn't understand why it would affect my ears. The next night is when the horrific T started for me. This was around June 9 of this year. I went to my cardiologist and had an ultrasound and an EKG, etc. Everything was ruled out and said I was ok and that I need to get rid of my stress. By the way, my husband is frustrated with me, he's never suffered with anything and doesn't get what I am dealing with.
Secondly, I went to my pain mgmt dr and he said NO, there is no connection to the neck and tinnitus. So then I went to my neurologist and he said YES there is a connection. He did an MRI and found that I had degenerative disc disease, arthritis, bone spurs and muscle spasms. He said something is probably compressing the nerves and joints which can cause T. It hurts to turn my head left to right and when I do my T sounds louder each time I move it.
I went back to my pain mgmt dr. this morning and he now is listening to me. He is doing injections in my neck in the joint areas and also a nerve block in my neck in the occipital nerve. I am scared but I hope this helps. I posted this in another area but maybe it will help you.
A neurologist posted an article about T and this is what he said. He said if you walk into a room and you hear an AC running, you forget about it and go about your business until someone brings it to your attention and then you hear the AC again. Your brain DOES NOT detect the AC sound as a threat. When you initially get T, your brain detects it as a threat which puts your body in the flight or fright syndrome which causes high level of stress and anxiety which then makes the T very loud. It becomes a cycle.
He said you have to train your brain to know that T is not a threat, it won't kill you. Once you can come to those terms and also using something like Xanax (which has saved my life), you can start working on training your brain to know it's an aggravating sound but try and listen to pleasant sounds to drown it out. Eventually you push to the back of your brain.
I still to this day after 2 months of having it get scared. But do you want to know how I tone it down?
Did you hear the article of the girl (Amy Copeland)that went zip lining and the zip line broke and she ended up falling into some lake and cutting her calf on the zip line? She went to the hospital and got 22 staples in her calf. When she got home she started feeling sick and went back to the ER. They gave her heavy narcotics and sent her home. Then she got even sicker and went back to the ER. Well a doctor recognized that it wasn't flu or an infection but what she had was the FLESH EATING DISEASE.
She was and still is a beautiful young girl going to graduate school and by the time she left the hospital, she lost both of her arms, both of her legs and part of her torso. (She even left the hospital when released "smiling") Flesh eating disease usually attacks limbs. So I think to myself, this girl would LOVE to change places with someone who is complaining about a sound in their ears/head. This helps me when I get scared of the T to refocus and think to myself, thank God you have arms to put ear buds in your ears, thank God that even though you have T, you can still hear birds chirp, rain, etc. And thank God you can run outside to mask the T with outside sounds. You can google her story for inspiration for yourself like it did for me. Just type in Amy Copeland-Flesh Eating Disease. This just happened a few months ago.
My story is long, but it's because I want to really help you like everyone here is doing for me.
Julia
Member
