Terrible Few Days / Marijuana Made Tinnitus Awful

[LostOutWest]

Hi all -

Just posting to talk through this rough patch. I'm 15 days into tinnitus.

For a few days last week, I thought I was making some progress - felt like things were quieter, I was coping well, felt like vitamin therapies and prednisone may have been doing some things. I had some pretty quiet periods, and waking up each day was not that bad. Evenings always a little tough.

However, last two days have been a nightmare. Sunday night was not easy to manage the situation, resulting in bad sleep. Unfortunately, to calm down last night before bed, I thought some marijuana would relax me. Really bad idea. My ear ringing shot up like a tidal wave - it was the scariest experience I have had to date with this situation. For the next few hours I was pacing and walking around the house, begging God for relief. Dramatic but true - it was insanity. I was able to drift away to sleep for a bit after a few hours, woke up a few hours later, and it seemed to come down a bit. I woke up in the AM not feeling back to my baseline, and felt horribly devastated that I lost my progress or that this spike will stay up and permanent. It's just been a really bad day. The anxiety of all of this is becoming unbearable and I'm getting both sadder and more scared. Harder and harder to calm down, which I know makes it worse. I'm really not sure where to turn. My ENT ran tests and basically left me in a 'wait and see' situation.

Tinnitus started 9/22. I still suspect that this has a lot to do with B12 and D vitamin deficiencies, but not getting a lot of support on those theories.

Thanks for listening.

 

[AquaKane]

Sounds like you need a different strain of weed, something a little more chill. Having conversations in our head about the ringing certainly doesn't help, but you know that.
Vitamin D is a suspect of mine also. My T has been around for about a year or longer, Loud in the last year, so I may have had it slight before. Had annual blood work done for a physical and the Dr. said I am a little low on D3. So this week I started supplements for it. Now to wait and see...
Good luck.

 

[LostOutWest]

Sounds like you need a different strain of weed, something a little more chill. Having conversations in our head about the ringing certainly doesn't help, but you know that.
Vitamin D is a suspect of mine also. My T has been around for about a year or longer, Loud in the last year, so I may have had it slight before. Had annual blood work done for a physical and the Dr. said I am a little low on D3. So this week I started supplements for it. Now to wait and see...
Good luck.

Hi - thanks for your reply. Wanted to update on this post in case anyone else is searching for weed and tinnitus information. The day after smoking was awful - was anxious and nervous and scared all day from the awful experience. However, throughout the day, the noise levels seems to continually go back down to normal. I would say we are back at baseline, 36 hours post-marijuana. I don't really like marijuana anyway, so I will never be touching it again. Slept really well last night really out of pure exhaustion. Woke up feeling okay enough about the situation. Life will have to go on.

 

[Michael B]

I've heard others say marijuana made their tinnitus worse.

 

[LostOutWest]

Hey all -

I'm in week three of tinnitus onset. No one is really sure why this happened - no noise event, some suspicions around vitamin deficiency and stress. It's been a rollercoaster few weeks. I'm on day 10 of prednisone, which I don't think is doing much but who knows.

Around the second week, I saw some improvement and thoughts I was on the right track. The buzzing left and it became more of a hiss. Last weekend I had a really good day with all of this and was just living my life, didn't bother me much.

Had a bad experience with some marijuana that left me rattled, but that all seemed to calm down. However, it seems like my tone has changed, and I'm not hearing more of a high pitch tone, that feels like it fleets in and out even minute by minute. I feel like it stops (or, I am more able to tune it out) for moments and minutes, then it returns. However, it is easier for me to sleep on my side now as the ringing directly in my ear is not as bad. Seems like this new tone is more "in my brain" than in my ear, if that makes any sense. The hissing has seem to have left.

Is this all normal? Is this a good sign or a scary sign? Anyone have a point of view on all of the changes? I'm 38 years old and in relatively good health otherwise.

Taking it one day at a time over here.

Thanks to all that read and provide feedback.

Tim

 

[BuzzyBee]

I'm not a smoker but had the opportunity to try medical marijuana from a dispensary. Not one strain was helpful, and I tried a few -- mainly high cbd strains. Results were basically zero in terms of anxiety reduction, and then usually shortly thereafter I'd get some sort of change in tone (not a good one!) or have panic attacks. The only studies I could find concluded that cannabis exacerbated tinnitus rather than helped it. Everyone is different etc. etc. so I don't regret trying, but wouldn't go near it again.

@LostOutWest You mentioned Prednisone helped. Maybe you'd have good luck with a turmeric/curcumin/ginger blend. Seems like a few people on the board have had some success with that.

 

[annV]

Is this all normal? Is this a good sign or a scary sign? Anyone have a point of view on all of the changes?

Tinnitus changing and moving that way is not uncommon. I think a changing tinnitus is a good sign.

It seems like you analyze your tinnitus a lot, a tip is to not focus on it and think of its characteristics.

 

[linearb]

It took me a while with significant T to enjoy weed again.

At this point you're early enough in -- don't bother. Set it aside for some period of time.

Tinnitus started 9/22. I still suspect that this has a lot to do with B12 and D vitamin deficiencies, but not getting a lot of support on those theories.

weeellll, that's because those are incredibly uncommon pathologies for tinnitus, and the usual explanation is "some amount, possibly not even a detectable amount, of hearing loss which leads to mild brain changes which can in turn cause severe tinnitus in some people". If a deficiency is the issue, generally supplementation will correct it.

Sounds like you need a different strain of weed, something a little more chill.

This wasn't my experience. A year in, I could not smoke low-THC indicas without losing my mind over the ringing. Five years in I was smoking high-THC sativas again. I don't think that weed is so much a "chill" drug as much as a drug that tends to amp up whatever else is already going on -- frankly I'd describe it as far more likely to be dysphoric than actual hallucinogens. So, any time someone is in a high distress state where their limbic system is clearly going haywire, I think hot baths and meditation are a good idea, and weed is a bad one.

 

[GoatSheep]

My tinnitus has changed plenty. Can't say whether it's good or bad.

Started as crickets. Then was crickets in the right ear and staticy in the left ear. Then became solid tone in both ears. Then mostly stopped in the left ear. Now back on both ears but lower in left than right. Moments of fleeting tinnitus. At one point wearing ear plugs sounded like a corkscrew twisting in my right ear but that only happened once and went away thankfully.

Hopefully yours changing is a good sign and it's healing.

 

[LostOutWest]

Tinnitus changing and moving that way is not uncommon. I think a changing tinnitus is a good sign.

It seems like you analyze your tinnitus a lot, a tip is to not focus on it and think of its characteristics.

Thanks so much Ann. You're completely right about my tinnitus analysis. I'm actively trying to just stop searching for it, or charting the changes. No point.

Thanks for your encouragement on the changing tones. I suppose 2.5 weeks into this isn't nearly enough time to even begin to analyze it.

Your reply was very much appreciated.

 

[LostOutWest]

It took me a while with significant T to enjoy weed again.

At this point you're early enough in -- don't bother. Set it aside for some period of time.

weeellll, that's because those are incredibly uncommon pathologies for tinnitus, and the usual explanation is "some amount, possibly not even a detectable amount, of hearing loss which leads to mild brain changes which can in turn cause severe tinnitus in some people". If a deficiency is the issue, generally supplementation will correct it.

This wasn't my experience. A year in, I could not smoke low-THC indicas without losing my mind over the ringing. Five years in I was smoking high-THC sativas again. I don't think that weed is so much a "chill" drug as much as a drug that tends to amp up whatever else is already going on -- frankly I'd describe it as far more likely to be dysphoric than actual hallucinogens. So, any time someone is in a high distress state where their limbic system is clearly going haywire, I think hot baths and meditation are a good idea, and weed is a bad one.

Thanks Psychedelic. Reply and thoughts so appreciated. My tinnitus was likely a cause of a lot of things, including stress, diet, maybe too much headphone time - all that. It's a complex problem, likely with complex causes. Who knows what will happen here.

As far as marijuana, I'm pretty much set on not touching that stuff again. I don't really like it, and if it isn't going to calm me down, what's the point. I think CBD has not been helpful either for me, despite not being psychoactive. So, we'll just leave all of that alone.

Thanks for taking the time to read and write - really helpful.

 

[LostOutWest]

My tinnitus has changed plenty. Can't say whether it's good or bad.

Started as crickets. Then was crickets in the right ear and staticy in the left ear. Then became solid tone in both ears. Then mostly stopped in the left ear. Now back on both ears but lower in left than right. Moments of fleeting tinnitus. At one point wearing ear plugs sounded like a corkscrew twisting in my right ear but that only happened once and went away thankfully.

Hopefully yours changing is a good sign and it's healing.

Thanks for the perspective from your experience. Always nice to know that despite this weird disease, that others are riding the wave of weirdness together.

How is your tinnitus doing these days, about 4 months in if I am reading your profile date correctly? Any progress?

 

[GoatSheep]

Thanks for the perspective from your experience. Always nice to know that despite this weird disease, that others are riding the wave of weirdness together.

How is your tinnitus doing these days, about 4 months in if I am reading your profile date correctly? Any progress?

I take clonazepam and have been for 3 months. It lowers the volume and allows me to sleep. Could not sleep even on various other meds before that. So, unfortunately, I can't give you an accurate depiction of what it currently would be like unmedicated to know if it's better or worse persay.

the first month was pure hell. At its worst my subjective rating would be 8/10. So intrusive I couldn't perform simple tasks in some cases. So I'm scared to go back to that.

 

[LostOutWest]

I take clonazepam and have been for 3 months. It lowers the volume and allows me to sleep. Could not sleep even on various other meds before that. So, unfortunately, I can't give you an accurate depiction of what it currently would be like unmedicated to know if it's better or worse persay.

the first month was pure hell. At its worst my subjective rating would be 8/10. So intrusive I couldn't perform simple tasks in some cases. So I'm scared to go back to that.

Thanks for sharing. I'm glad that the clonazepam is giving you some relief and keeping you functional. If it's lowering the volume, then that's better than suffering through the 8/10 days. Wishing you the best.

 

[GiuseppeBolt]

Sounds like you need a different strain of weed, something a little more chill. Having conversations in our head about the ringing certainly doesn't help, but you know that.
Vitamin D is a suspect of mine also. My T has been around for about a year or longer, Loud in the last year, so I may have had it slight before. Had annual blood work done for a physical and the Dr. said I am a little low on D3. So this week I started supplements for it. Now to wait and see...
Good luck.

How is your tinnitus after the D3 supplement?

 

[GiuseppeBolt]

Tinnitus changing and moving that way is not uncommon. I think a changing tinnitus is a good sign.

It seems like you analyze your tinnitus a lot, a tip is to not focus on it and think of its characteristics.

What do you mean think of its characteristics?