ear problems - tinnitus of benzo withdrawl

I was on 30mg of restoril for about 2 months.  Made the big mistake of cutting it 50 percent overnight to 15mg (doctor told me to do this).  This is before I joined benzo buddies.  Have developed tinnitus/ringing in ears and severe anxiety/insomnia.  Not sure if its best to go back up to 30mg per night and start the Ashton taper or ride this 15mg out.  Praying the ear ringing won't be a permanent thing--I realize it was a shock for me to go from 30mg to 15mg overnight.  By the way, going from 30mg to 15mg was the advice of my doctor---most of them no nothing about benzo tapering.  Any advice from my benzo brothers and sisters is appreciated!

 

Thanks!

Hello goga -

 

A lot of benzo buddies have reported the tinnitus thing, myself included.  I never had tinnitus before benzos.  I'm just over seven months off and it's still hanging around - it gets louder when I'm stressed.  Supposedly it WILL fade away, and for many people is one of the last symptoms to go.

 

Here's some info I found on benzos / tinnitus on an "Ask a Neurologist" type site:

 

"Tinnitus, along with many other neurologic symptoms, can be precipitated by benzodiazepine withdrawal. This is clear, and it is not too surprising given that the central nervous system is replete with GABA receptors, the ones upon which the benzodiazepine molecule acts.

 

Because the auditory nerves and auditory processing circuitry of the brain have GABA receptors, they are vulnerable to its effects--especially the effects of its withdrawal, as this involves, in effect, a stimulation or amplification of the nerves. During withdrawal, stimulation of the nerves can trick the brain by sending non-sense signals that the brain must then try to interpret (make sense of). If this is in one ear, you might experience this as tinnitus. If it is in both ears, your brain might interpret it as a buzzing, sizzling, or crackling within the brain (due to the "stereo effect").

 

Symptoms occurring during a gradual dosage reduction are typically less severe, but they may persist as part of a protracted withdrawal syndrome for months, even after total cessation of the drug. Approximately 10% of patients will experience a notable protracted withdrawal syndrome. Protracted symptoms tend to resemble those seen during the first couple of months of withdrawal but usually are of a sub acute level of severity. Such symptoms do gradually lessen over time, eventually disappearing altogether."

 

Thanks for that post.  I really appreciate your feedback.  These benzo's are like poison. I will never ever take them again.....!  It's just sucks that we have to live with constant ringing/buzzing in the ear.  Makes it tough to sleep, especially. 

 

I agree that you should see a Dr but some thing you can do in the mean time is get some really good omega 3  supplement . I have heard from many people that this helps a lot . I have been taking them from the beginning of my withdrawals and have only had occasional ringing . Good luck and keep us up to date with your results so we can all benefit from your findings .

buzzing/ringing still in the ear.  but I made the mistake of a drastic taper.  actually dr. told me to do it.  they just don't know....its very sad.  I also need my sleep though.  its a catch-22.  these drugs are like poison.

Doubt a supplement will help this one, but.....ya never know. Its such a common symptom! SO common!

Someone here calls it the "screaming ears" and I can relate. Mine started to come and ago this past month. Wish it would just go away!

east

Its amazing how common this is with Benzo withdrawl, i brought it up to my GP and she told me it wasn't a symptom of WD,

IT'S my worst symptom and pretty much the one very few that is hanging tough. It has started to give me a break every other day though so I'm hopeful that this SLOW trend will continue until it's gone. 

Whatever is going on neurologically with ear symptoms, I believe it gets compounded and amplified by muscle tension in the neck, jaw and head -- which benzo w/d is definitely capable of causing or exacerbating.

 

You can't really do anything for the neurological side of it besides wait it out, but you can definitely relax and head and neck muscles. What's worked best for me at this point is a combination of trigger point massage therapy and meditation. The meditation can really help you relax about how severe and awful this all is, too.

I've heard the tinnitus is one of the last benzo w/d symptoms to leave.

 

I have "screaming ears" also  but it's definitely worse when tired or stressed.  It gets worse in the evening when I'm tired from the day to the point of finding difficulty hearing the TV!  It's worse in my right ear for some reason (which is screaming as I write this!).  Then, by morning, it's better, still there but not too noticeable.

 

I know someone who completed his taper a few months ago, tinnitus was a big problem for him when he jumped but it has gotten a LOT better for him now.

 

It will pass.

 

love gts

 

 

gts: thanks for the reply: how long have you had the tinnitus?  has it improved at all?  are you able to sleep?  I can't.  wondering what coping mechanisms you are using for sleep? 

I know you asked gts, but I'll answer anyway:

* white noise at bedtime (I sleep with a fan)

* trigger point release (I saw a physiotherapist for a while, now I just release the points on the back and sides of my neck myself)

* mindfulness meditation, every day

* better diet and regular exercise

* when I notice it enough during the day to be bothered by it, I put on headphones and music

* I got a couple 'relaxation fountains', little indoor tabletop fountains, at wal-mart for $20. They have 3 tiers that the water rolls down, but I removed the bottom two so that the water falls further and makes more noise. During times when this symptom has really stressed me out, I have set those up on a table next to me and run them.

 

At one point I searched this forum for old tinnitus threads, found a few people who were really distraught by it a year or two ago, and emailed them to ask how they were doing now. They ALL got back to me, and they all said that their ringing was either entirely gone, or diminished so much that they barely thought about it anymore.

 

I firmly believe that out of everything I've listed, meditation has been the most important piece to getting to a place where I often don't notice my ringing for hours or even days. Diet and exercise are really important for healing overall, and the other stuff I listed is just masking the noise (but that can also be a really important tool to start to feel like you've got some control over this).

 

If you didn't have this problem at all before you cut your dose too quickly, you could consider going back up to your full dose for a few weeks to see if the symptom subsides, and then reducing much more slowly. That said, I tried to do that and more or less let my tinnitus guide my taper, and I've still had rough patches where it's been really, really awful for a few weeks, all the way along. That's why I think that strategies for learning how to tolerate the sound better are so important.

 

We have the 'advantage' of having this condition as a result of drug withdrawal, which means it's almost certain to go away or get a lot better within a year or so. Some people who have never touched a benzo develop severe tinnitus which never goes away, and from what I've seen online almost all of them still get to a point where they don't think about it very much. If they can do it, so can we!

Hi Spengler: Really good advice.  Thanks so much!!!!

how is everyone's t doing in these thread? i know goga and east recovered

i am bumping this thread.

did anyone recover from this?