Severe Acute Noise-Induced Tinnitus: Xanax Reduces the Intensity — Looking for Safer Alternatives

[Marcuso22]

Clonazepam is probably the better benzo for daytime use. It spreads the relief out more than the short and fast acting Xanax. I can take it in the day and I don't get that heavy frontloaded doped up feeling. Also, I never exceed 1mg a day and I've never experienced withdrawls.

I tried Amitriptyline but it didn't do much.

So you take it on a per needed basis, not regular daily use for years? Do you take anything for sleeping? I can't sleep without taking my medication. The loudness of the tinnitus is far too loud. Even with .5 mg Xanax & 10mg Nortriptyline I am having difficulty staying a sleep or getting back to sleep when something wakes me up. When I try to nap in afternoon all I do is toss and turn because I'm only taking smaller dose of Xanax during day.

Have you tried Nortriptyline?

 

[Marcuso22]

I feel for you. I have severe unilateral tinnitus from Meniere's and a bad acoustic trauma involving a firearm. I have been off work for six months and my tinnitus is typically 10/10 roaring @ 500 Hz. It's so loud it drove me to attempt suicide in July of 2020. I have OCD bad too so it makes it impossible to ignore.

My tinnitus will randomly go down in volume like now. I had a steroid injection in the ear yesterday and it was so painful. No change until today at 5pm. Went from 10/10 to 3/10. No idea why. It has been doing this after chiropractic adjustment of the cervical spine as well. It's so strange because all of the fullness is gone right now but was intense earlier.

Nortriptyline does help regardless of all the BS on here about it being ototoxic. When you are in our state who gives a fuck about that. Ativan and Xanax will help. Stay away from THC it will make it worse. Alcohol will also make it worse.

Supposedly your symptoms will improve. Mine have not. I keep getting worse. I guess I am the exception to the status quo. Just do what you have to live your life. At the end of the day it doesn't matter what anybody here has to say it's on you.

Just be careful with Xanax. Don't take it for more than three or four weeks at a time or you will have withdrawals. I have heard they are living hell.

How long were you on Nortriptyline, and what dosage? As far as Xanax, for me it's now nearing two months.

Do you take anything for sleeping or are you able to sleep without medication?

My tinnitus is far too loud to not be taking medications to reduce the tinnitus level.

 

[Jrblovsky]

How long were you on Nortriptyline, and what dosage? As far as Xanax, for me it's now nearing two months.

Do you take anything for sleeping or are you able to sleep without medication?

My tinnitus is far too loud to not be taking medications to reduce the tinnitus level.

I sleep with an old metal box fan in my room. It's quite noisy and helps sometimes. Like last night I fell asleep in like 10 minutes. The night before I was up until 7am. 5am the night before. I only use Xanax when it's getting me and only take .25 mg. Mostly during the day is when it bothers me the most. When I was working I couldn't concentrate at all without Xanax. Nortriptyline I take 40 mg per day. Been taking it for roughly 5 months on and off. Start at 10 mg and you tinnitus will possibly go up for a few days and then dramatically go down in volume. The main thing with this torture is to try your best to stay away from it. If you can use a masker, get one.

Do you have hearing loss? If so mask near your hearing loss frequency and the noise will disappear.

I don't know how bad your losses are but let me assure you mine is really extreme. I cant get out of bed some days. Everyone is different and it's hard to say what will help.

 

[Tweedleman]

So you take it on a per needed basis, not regular daily use for years? Do you take anything for sleeping? I can't sleep without taking my medication. The loudness of the tinnitus is far too loud. Even with .5 mg Xanax & 10mg Nortriptyline I am having difficulty staying a sleep or getting back to sleep when something wakes me up. When I try to nap in afternoon all I do is toss and turn because I'm only taking smaller dose of Xanax during day.

Have you tried Nortriptyline?

I pretty much do take the Clonazepam daily, 0.5-1mg. When my ears are at their worst, I'll take a 0.5mg in the morning and another by evening. I haven't tried Nortriptyline, just Amitriptyline 25mg and it basically made me drowsy and dried the hell out of my mouth. Didn't affect my tinnitus.

As for sleep aids, well, I used to rely heavily on Valerian and Melatonin. But these days I'm back to my old self, consuming copious amounts of cannabis. So I'm usually trashed enough come bedtime, lol. I'm basically ripped 24/7, spikes be damned. Certain strains are potent enough to knock you flat out, doesn't matter if it spikes your tinnitus cause you're gonna fade away eventually, lol.

 

[Marcuso22]

I pretty much do take the Clonazepam daily, 0.5-1mg. When my ears are at their worst, I'll take a 0.5mg in the morning and another by evening. I haven't tried Nortriptyline, just Amitriptyline 25mg and it basically made me drowsy and dried the hell out of my mouth. Didn't affect my tinnitus.

As for sleep aids, well, I used to rely heavily on Valerian and Melatonin. But these days I'm back to my old self, consuming copious amounts of cannabis. So I'm usually trashed enough come bedtime, lol. I'm basically ripped 24/7, spikes be damned. Certain strains are potent enough to knock you flat out, doesn't matter if it spikes your tinnitus cause you're gonna fade away eventually, lol.

Were you ever on Xanax? I know you said you feel Clonazepam is better for day usage but I wasn't sure if you were saying that from personal experience.

 

[Marcuso22]

I sleep with an old metal box fan in my room. It's quite noisy and helps sometimes. Like last night I fell asleep in like 10 minutes. The night before I was up until 7am. 5am the night before. I only use Xanax when it's getting me and only take .25 mg. Mostly during the day is when it bothers me the most. When I was working I couldn't concentrate at all without Xanax. Nortriptyline I take 40 mg per day. Been taking it for roughly 5 months on and off. Start at 10 mg and you tinnitus will possibly go up for a few days and then dramatically go down in volume. The main thing with this torture is to try your best to stay away from it. If you can use a masker, get one.

Do you have hearing loss? If so mask near your hearing loss frequency and the noise will disappear.

I don't know how bad your losses are but let me assure you mine is really extreme. I cant get out of bed some days. Everyone is different and it's hard to say what will help.

I have to go for another audiogram but my first one showed just below normal hearing loss for my age with right side worse which is the ear that suffers with hyperacusis or reactive tinnitus (sorry Michael Leigh). I don't think I want to continue with Nortriptyline. I took 10mg for 10 days now before bedtime with Xanax I take during day/night and the other night I took 20mg of Nortriptyline and I woke up with this piercing high frequency squeaky sound in both ears which went on the whole day driving me crazy. At least with the Xanax it lowers the high extreme tones down to more of a hissing sound which I find much easier to deal with. The problem I have with Xanax is that when I take it during day .5mg and I end up resting for couple hours I wake up with shortness of breath or perhaps it might be hypotension. It just feels like my heart is beating too slow.

 

[Marcuso22]

I understand. I also needed medication when my tinnitus first emerged - for me, it was Diazepam. I took it while waiting for a long term medication (Mirtazapine) to kick in. Now I don't take any medication. Just because you need it now, doesn't mean you will need it forever.

Mirtazapine was suggested at one of my visits at hospital but they weren't ENT specialists. I had read Mirtazapine can cause tinnitus so I didn't want to take it. They wanted me off the Xanax which was working so I wasn't interested. What dosage did you take of Mirtazapine? And for how long?

 

[Tanni]

Mirtazapine was suggested at one of my visits at hospital but they weren't ENT specialists. I had read Mirtazapine can cause tinnitus so I didn't want to take it. They wanted me off the Xanax which was working so I wasn't interested. What dosage did you take of Mirtazapine? And for how long?

30mg for about a year.

The biggest issue we face here when wanting to try a medication for sleep/anxiety/depression is the worry that it will exacerbate tinnitus. For me, I refused any medication at first because I was so afraid to take the chance. But my mental health was in such a desperate, terrible place that I had to take something, and for me it worked out fine. No issues at all.

You will get very different advice on this forum regarding this issue as some feel you shouldn't take any drugs. But that decision is yours to make, and depends entirely on how you feel, as you know better than anyone else whether you need that extra help or not. My opinion:

Some medicines are more dangerous for the ears than others, and the chances of Tinnitus being exacerbated by some of them is quite slim. You will always find at least one instance of someone getting tinnitus/exacerbating it from any medication or activity, so look for the number of instances and use your best judgement.

If you have a search on this forum for the following three, they tend to be the most regularly used on this site. I know quite a few people on here who have used them with no problems (myself included). But please do the search, read people's experiences, and make the decision for yourself, along with your doctor:

Mirtazapine
Amitriptyline
Nortriptyline

 

[Jrblovsky]

30mg for about a year.

The biggest issue we face here when wanting to try a medication for sleep/anxiety/depression is the worry that it will exacerbate tinnitus. For me, I refused any medication at first because I was so afraid to take the chance. But my mental health was in such a desperate, terrible place that I had to take something, and for me it worked out fine. No issues at all.

You will get very different advice on this forum regarding this issue as some feel you shouldn't take any drugs. But that decision is yours to make, and depends entirely on how you feel, as you know better than anyone else whether you need that extra help or not. My opinion:

Some medicines are more dangerous for the ears than others, and the chances of Tinnitus being exacerbated by some of them is quite slim. You will always find at least one instance of someone getting tinnitus/exacerbating it from any medication or activity, so look for the number of instances and use your best judgement.

If you have a search on this forum for the following three, they tend to be the most regularly used on this site. I know quite a few people on here who have used them with no problems (myself included). But please do the search, read people's experiences, and make the decision for yourself, along with your doctor:

Mirtazapine
Amitriptyline
Nortriptyline

Much agreed about the advice on here. In all honesty I have talked to a lot of people on this forum and many of them have no or mild hearing loss at most. It seems those people are most worried about taking drugs. In my personal experience I tried listening to this advice and landed myself having multiple nervous breakdowns but everyone is different. I have a lot of hearing loss in my right ear and normal hearing with no loss or tinnitus in my left. Just do what you need to get by. I hope someday I can go back to work being I just turned 34 years old. All the work for my post graduate degree and I can reap the benefits.

Best of luck
Josh

 

[Kenilworth]

The Xanax works to reduce the level of intensity but I hate the way

Are you still on Xanax? I took it once for a couple months and cold tapered it without being aware of how bad things can get.

I just recently had an acoustic trauma and things are unbearable. I'm thinking of taking Xanax for a longer period because I'm struggling to cope.

My experience was from acoustic trauma a month ago and without taking Xanax I wouldn't be alive.

Did your spike eventually settle down after the acoustic trauma?

I just recently had a trauma. I'm afraid the spike may be permanent.

 

[Sayeed]

Are you still on Xanax? I took it once for a couple months and cold tapered it without being aware of how bad things can get.

I just recently had an acoustic trauma and things are unbearable. I'm thinking of taking Xanax for a longer period because I'm struggling to cope.

Did your spike eventually settle down after the acoustic trauma?

I just recently had a trauma. I'm afraid the spike may be permanent.

What dosage did you take before? How often and how long? My doctor says it's safe for me to take every other day at low dosages .25 mg but I don't take it more than twice a week.

 

[Kenilworth]

What dosage did you take before?

I took .25 mg Alprazolam occasionally for about 2 months. But since the trauma I'm considering taking it every night or every other night, just until things eases.

I'm suffering from severe tinnitus. If yours is mild, I would suggest taking the med only when you need it. Please don't quit the meds suddenly. Taper within weeks or months.

 

[Blackbird1016]

Hey I have the same exact thing re Xanax. Try Kava root supplements - it's a benzo like effect that shouldn't downregulate GABA. Downside is it can be hard on your liver, but for me it's a godsend - reduces volume and smooths sound.

Do you still use the Kava supplement?