For me it was ototoxic meds that made my tinnitus severe, and I just took half the daily dose of lexapro(Escitalopram in Sweden) for five days, and Phenergan(Lergigan in Sweden) for two nights to sleep better, it was sadly enough to give me a really bad reaction. You don't have to take it for many months, it's just like acoustic trauma, some people never get tinnitus, even if they play the drums for 50 years, when others can get it from just one club night, a single gunshot, or taking a sleeping pill for the first time. Bad genes or bad luck I guess? Maybe it's the combination that is really dangerous, that many of these meds can amplify preexisting tinnitus, and the risk for severe damage is a lot smaller if you don't have broken ears to begin with?
It's hard to draw a line here, the only truth seems to be that some people are sensitive to medication, and the medical industry must know this, that at least somebody will get these reactions, and bad enough to get there lives destroyed. But there are always casualties in war, and to make an omelette you have to crack a few eggs. In the big picture maybe these meds save more lifes than they destroy, but it's not so funny to be one of the cracked eggs, it actually makes you feel like an egghead, and even more when many doctors, friends and familymembers don't even believe meds can have these side effects