You Guys, I'm Losing It Here (Also I'm Brand New Here)

Hi everyone. I've been reading and I see that I am pretty new, having started my struggle in January of this year. Yesterday was my breaking point. I lost it at work (I'm a behavior teacher in a high school, so this went over great). My colleagues freaked out. I think they thought I was going completely mental.

Quick Back Story:
MLK JR Weekend 2017...I just woke up with roaring in the ears, left is worse than right. In total, I've seen two Urgent Care doctors (before I knew what was happening to me), my primary care, an ENT, and an ENT specialist. I've had about 8 hours of tests, been on at least 10 medications, ranging from nose sprays to antihistamines, prednisone, water pills, and antibiotics. Nothing. Tomorrow will be my second visit to see an acupuncturist. I'm not too hopeful, but I am desperate.

I am so very cranky and irritable. I'm angry. I can't find relief unless I am asleep or have earbuds in my ears. Of course, the volume goes up and down. Recently it's been very, very loud. I gave up diet Coke completely about a month ago. I have just one cup of coffee a day. I don't smoke, I don't drink. I go to the gym 5 days a week and recently starting cycling too. I have been on the same anti-depressants/anxiety medications for years.

Now my friends and colleagues are coming at me with all kinds of advice. And I love that they care about me, but I am overwhelmed....Plexus Nerve Powder, Ginko Biloba, essential oils that are $100 for a vial the size of a chapstick, cognitive behavior therapy, cranial massage, chiropractic, sound therapy and much more.
Anyway, that's me. So nice to meet you and read your stories too.
Much LOVE!

 

Hi Michelle,
So sorry you are having a very hard time; I so understand. In the beginning, I felt that way too. I've also spent thousands of dollars on most of what you are doing or thinking of doing with pretty much no relief. Acupuncture & massage helped relax me, but didn't affect the T. I still have a massage a couple times a month though.

What has helped me:
Watching my intake of salt and salted products, sugar, caffeine (not all caffeine is in coffee) & aspirin containing products. Some foods make my T spike through the roof; it seems I'm sensitive to salicyclates. I'm currently seeing a cranial specialist that is helping as well. I did see one years ago & it didn't help at all. This one was referred by a firend and since his approach is quite different, I'm seeing an improvement. He said I have a compressed cranial nerve. The noise level is now reduced from a 8-9 to a 5-6 on an mostly daily basis. I don't take an anti-depressant, as I heard they can spike the T in some people; I just don't want to take the chance. I do use (sparingly) Xanax at night to help me sleep. I try to keep my anxiety down; I do deep breathing & modified yoga. Do your best to get the noise down to a manageable level. That's what I've been able to do & now I can ignore it much better. Best of luck!

 

Hi there. Thank you so much, for your kind words. I so appreciate them. And I will take your advice. I so want to ignore the noise. I have to figure out a way. I'm going to look at my food. Massage sounds great, I can totally get down with that.
I appreciate your words.
Michelle

 

Hi Michelle
Thank you so much for introducing yourself! I'm relatively new to the group to, although I've had tinnitus for almost half of my adult life (turned 60 last year). I can imagine you must be at your wits end! I'm so sorry. I've been there too the last couple weeks after an unexpected spike in my T. I'm finding the best thing for me is to try to ignore it and get on with my life. It does seem to fluctuate - some days much better than others. Last night, I met friends for happy hour. Had a white wine sangria (trying to avoid red wine, some say the sulfates aggravate T), got a nice little buzz, chatted with friends and went to a Pittsburgh Pirate baseball game afterwards. Tinnitus the whole time but didn't pay attention to it. I also gave up Diet Coke and like you have one coffee a day. I do some meditation and a tiny bit of yoga, and walk as much as I can. I think it's fantastic you go to the gym and have started cycling! I too take a little bit of Xanax to help me sleep occasionally and take the edge off the anxiety. Have you tried any benzo's to get you through this rough patch?

Sometimes when it's particularly loud, I'll talk to it, - "Hi T! Yep, I hear ya. What's up?" Like making friends with it, and moving on. Someone on the forum gave the advice of training your reaction to the T to be emotionally neutral and I really grabbed on to that. You are so lucky to have friends and colleagues that love and care about you! Sometimes these kinds of things bring out the best in people, don't they? And I LOVE this forum! Just knowing I'm not alone in this buzzy world makes all the difference lol!

I'll pray for you and send nice quiet comforting thoughts! xoxo Rosemary

 

@Michelle Mahurin
The most common cause of tinnitus is exposure to loud noise. Before the tinnitus onset. Did you attend clubs, concerts or the cinema often as these places can have loud sound? Did you listen to music through headphones/earbuds regularly? If your tinnitus was cause by loud noise/sound, it's probably a good idea to set the volume on your earbuds as low as possible. If you can do without using them so much better.

Some exercises (aerobics) can make tinnitus worse for some people particular running. Either on hard ground or on the treadmill. This is due to impact under foot travelling up through the body to the head and auditory system. Please click on the link below to read more about this. I have written an article on tinnitus, treatment and coping methods that you might find helpful. The link is below.

Michael
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/06/us/inner-ear-may-take-beating-from-high-impact-aerobics.html

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-a-personal-view.18668/

 

@Rosemerry Thank you for your response. It's nice to read that you're able to lead a normal life. I appreciate the tips, I don't drink wine, so that's good...beer very rarely.
I appreciate the prayers. Thanks so much,
Michelle

 

@Quiet please OMG the struggle is real, as I learn this system. I want to make sure you saw my response to your kind comment.

Hi there. Thank you so much, for your kind words. I so appreciate them. And I will take your advice. I so want to ignore the noise. I have to figure out a way. I'm going to look at my food. Massage sounds great, I can totally get down with that.
I appreciate your words.
Michelle

 

Hello Michelle, sorry about that. What AD and anxiety-meds do you take? Some of them can be ototoxic
God bless you!

 

Hi everyone, There is such good advise and support on here. We are so lucky to have such intelligent and thoughtful people to compare notes with.
The hard impact aerobic exercise tip is actually a good one. It always makes my T spike for hours after, so now I use a recumbent bike to get my heart rate up.
The relaxation aspect is true. That's why I do deep breathing, modified yoga & take Xanax. I used to take Xamax every night, but have tapered down to about 2 - 3 x a week. It's a great tool and should be considered if there are no addiction issues.
I experimented & found that I can have an occasional social alcoholic drink (never wine) that doesn't spike the T & lets me feel like a member of my social world. I usually just have a plain gin, vodka or white Tequila with seltzer. I resented that at one time, I didn't want to even leave my house and interact meaningfully with others. I went to work, came straight home & cried.. allot. Not anymore. Know there is hope to modify the beast. Once you get a handle on that and don't give it the importance it doesn't deserve, it will turn around. Like a bad tempered child; YOU are in charge, let it know that. Love to all.

 

Thank you for sharing you story with us. I'm freaking with this too. And I'll be honest I'm really scared. Mine has come on suddenly. I had a cold at Christmas and then it moved into a sinus infection. I ended up at urgent care on Sunday. I had been a little dizzy and full in my sinus's for a few weeks. This young female doctor prescribed Amoxicillin for me. I never take that. My regular doctor always gives me a z pack and it works perfectly with no side affects. The first two days on Amoxicillin were ok and now today I leaned over in the classroom where I teach music and when I stood up its like my ears filled up. Everything sounds muted, muffled and a have a slight ringing. It's been 12 hours with no relief. I am slightly dizzy. My blood pressure went through the roof too. From ANXIETY!! I was afraid to take the Amoxicillin tonight but friends said I should stay on it. I called my regular doctor this afternoon to see what I should do. But she didn't get back to me. I did a saline nasal spray, took the antobiotic and some Benadryl. I've heard when people get tinnitus it doesn't go away. Sadly my mom has it and I'm afraid this will be my fate. Please tell me there's a chance it will go away. I feel for you and everyone else on here. Its a terrible fate!! I too workout several days a week, eat fairly healthy, I don't smoke, I've never done drugs and rarely drink. What do we do?

 

I suspect your T is more related to your infection than the antibiotic, but nobody can know for sure of course. Correlation doesn't mean causation.
There's a good chance your T will subside once your infection goes away (but it can take weeks!).

Good luck!

 

For your info: Amoxicillin is the least ototoxic medication of the two vs. a "z-pack" (or mycin-antibiotic). So... that's not the cause.

But perhaps this is:

 

That is too much to deal with, and you don't need to do all those things. Ginkgo is more likely to help people whose tinnitus is related to circulatory problems. Cranial massage is good for the relaxation effect. Chiropractic might help if a cervical disk or something else which affects the neck or jaw is out of alignment. Cognitive behavioral therapy is fine, see Dr. Hubbard's story. (He's a member of this forum.)

Sound therapy usually means masking or sound enrichment (making sure your environment always has some form of sound in it, as opposed to absolute quiet). Sound therapy is helpful as far as coping and serving to take your focus away from the tinnitus.

You don't need to spend hundreds of dollars for essential oils, but massage therapy with essential oils (especially lavender) can definitely help. You might also want to look into mindfulness meditation, which has been shown to be beneficial in reducing the symptoms of tinnitus.

Do some research on this forum about the methods listed. Choose which one(s) you can relate to, and don't worry about the rest. Other than that, do your best to keep your anxiety level down.

It can be very hard to deal with tinnitus in the initial months, but that doesn't mean it's going to stay that way.

 

There is another side of sound therapy that's targeted at reducing your T volume. Acoustic Coordinated Reset Neuromodulation as well as Windowed White Noise have shown a certain level of success (research available on pubmed) to actually reduce the intensity of the T symptoms. To some extent, Notched Music therapy could also be lumped into this.
These are strategic, not tactical weapons. They take months to go through and can be quite annoying, but they are very different from sound enrichment and masking, both in their nature and their goals.

 

I wanted to keep it simple for now, as far as what therapies to try .

I've used ACRN with some success, enough success in my opinion to where I can honestly state that my tinnitus has definitely improved. I noticed a bit of improvement within 6 weeks, I think, but it was over a year before there was significant improvement. Oddly enough, the tones didn't bother me at all, I kind of tuned them out. I also do intermittent fasting, which I believe has helped, as well.

I have 5 chapters in my book (Living With Tinnitus) devoted to ACRN and audio notch therapy, including comprehensive DIY instructions, even though I decided not to use audio notch.

You're right, clinical trials have proven them to be effective. But like everything else with tinnitus, it doesn't work for everyone.