New to Tinnitus Because I Started Wellbutrin. There Must Be a Cure.

[SQRLGRL]

Hi.

I started Wellbutrin 2 weeks ago and have developed a very loud, very annoying high pitched electrical sounding tinnitus.

Is there a way to reverse this?
How can this be permanent? I want to scratch my ears off for some quiet. Help.

 

[billie48]

Welcome to the forum. There are conflicting stories about this drug, some saying it being ototoxic, others including Dr. Ancill (who is in the Doctor's Corner) thinks it is not. Here is a post he made on this drug a little while ago:

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/wellbutrin-and-tinnitus.2267/#post-25602

There is chance that your T will fade over time especially if your T is caused by something else that is treatable. So don't panic as anxiety and stress are bad for T. If it gets too annoying, you may want to mask it with soothing sounds. Have you tried masking yet?

 

[billie48]

In case you are not aware, there is a current thread here in which the OP said after stopping Wellbutrin, the T just slowly fades. So it is reassuring that your T may follow the same positive fate. Let's hope so. God bless.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-since-october-—-getting-better.25650/

 

[GregCA]

I started Wellbutrin 2 weeks ago and have developed a very loud, very annoying high pitched electrical sounding tinnitus.

Is there a way to reverse this?

Possibly.

How can this be permanent? I want to scratch my ears off for some quiet.

Don't we all...
Sometimes it's permanent, but for you there is a good chance it'll go away if you discontinue the meds that seem to have triggered it: talk to your doc about it.

 

[El222]

Hi @SQRLGRL I am so sorry that you are having a hard time. I can totally relate. You can read my story at the link provided by @billie48 above. I have a complicated history so it's not entirely clear what brought on my tinnitus but I'm pretty sure that Wellbutrin was an aggravating factor at least. I have read theories that it's not exactly that Wellbutrin is damaging your ears; rather, Wellbutrin's stimulant properties can amplify and bring to the surface pre-existing tinnitus. This feels right in light of my experience. I was on Wellbutrin for 2 months. I quit for good (after tapering down) a little over a month ago and it's been steady progress in the direction of healing ever since then. It wasn't only tinnitus; I also was completely unable to enjoy music and being exposed to it gave me anxiety. I couldn't listen to it and I also couldn't make it myself (I'm a singer-songwriter, so these hearing issues have come as a real kick in the gut). That symptom took 18 days to go away completely but I'm relieved to say that I am completely back to normal in that respect. The tinnitus is taking a little longer to dissipate completely but I do feel that I am doing very well at this point and better all the time. When things were at their worst, I used white noise apps on my phone to help me get to sleep. Spotify also has a lot of good tracks. Even with these, I was only getting sleep in 1-2 hour increments at a time. On really bad nights the increments were even shorter and I would only get 2-3 hours of sleep overall, all night. It was a bad time but I got through it. I think you will too.

Edited to add: After stopping Wellbutrin, as you know my tinnitus did not immediately go away. But I also noticed that some of the desirable effects of Wellbutrin stuck around for a while. For example, I'm a pretty bad procrastinator, but on Wellbutrin I was an efficiency machine, and this continued quite strongly for a while after I stopped taking it. My slacker ways seem to be returning at the same gradual rate as my hearing, but I feel like I'm still doing a little better in that department overall. One thing that helped me to change my relationship to my tinnitus is to tell myself that the tinnitus is a sign that the Wellbutrin is still working in positive ways. I think it's maybe just taking a super long time to completely leave my body. I may have some lingering tinnitus, but damn if all my Christmas presents aren't wrapped early this year! Usually I'm scrambling on Christmas Eve to get them all done.

 

[dnl]

Hi @SQRLGRL, any update on your tinnitus? I think my case is pretty similar to yours.