Tenacious Tinnitus Club – Ear Pressure, Noise and Hyperacusis

[[Buddie]]

Did your withdrawal hit you in the ears?

After going cold turkey I developed three levels of tinnitus.

The first level was your basic high pitched buzz.
The second level sounded like a dentists drill that was cutting through my ear drum 24/7, I name this sensation "The Drill" and it got really bad every evening.
The third level was like this dentists drill noise had cut through my left ear canal and the drill bit felt like it was imbedded in my brain tissue and vibrating my gray matter to the point I got double vision.  It was the most nasty feeling in the world!

I did a ton of research and collected lots of data and met so many other buddies who were really freaked out with their ear symptoms.

This thread will address Tinnitus and Hyperacusis concerns:
Is it permanent damage? 
Will it ever end?
How long until it heals!
How can I live with this? 
What tricks can aid me as I heal?

In this forum you can hopefully find the answers that are haunting you.

For me it is still my worst symptom to the point where it is my only symptom since all my focus is on it.  If I have other symptoms I do not notice them since this one dominates so fully.

If your tinnitus or hyperacusis is really worrying you ask questions and please post your experience's here.

Thank you and welcome to the TENACIOUS TINNITUS CLUB

[[Buddie]]

Hey, I'm joining!!!

Mine started as soon as my dose got low -- 4 mg or so. I've had it for 9 mos.

It is like a bunch of cicadas in my ears. Yeah, [...], like a high-pitched buzz. It does get lower and louder and sometimes stops momentarily in one ear (that scares me) only to start up again.

I don't have it 24/7 though. When I take my valium at night, I notice once the damned drug works, that it stops. That's a grotesque thought. That I need valium to stop this!

Anyhow if I'm working or engaged in doing something that keeps my attention, I don't notice it so much.

So that's me.

How is it for the rest of you?

[...]

[[Buddie]]

Great thread!!

Been having quite a bit of the level one here lately. Ativan related, I'm sure.

I just keep the noise around me at a tolerable level, to drown it out.

Oddly enough, I wear ear plugs at night, and it doesn't bother me then.

[...] 

[[Buddie]]

Hello I never noticed the ear ringing.... Even when i was taking 2mg Ativan per day last year and cold turkey it.... After ten days I freaked right out!!! For sure!!! And still no ear ringing.... But about a month ago I started taking Remeron 7.5mg and bang!!!!! So as I would wake up around 5 am.... The ear ringing sounded like someone trying to tune in an old radio station...that high and low pitched noise( especially since my house is so quiet at 5am) drove me[...]!!  And tried the Remeron a few more times and each time soon as I woke up tintius drove me insane. So that's it for Remeron for me!!! I'm lucky the benzos haven't done this too.

[...] [...] Canada

[[Buddie]]

I have also found if I have some noise or sound like TV or radio I become distracted and don't notice the T. The T does also get worse if I don't have a good night of sleep or if I become anxious.

For some reason the ear plugs do help but I still have a rain sound playing on my computer speakers all night while I have the ear plugs on. It sort of muffles the rain sound and sometimes the T seems less annoying maybe I am focusing more on the sound of the rain which is soothing


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[[Buddie]]

Hi [...]! You know that this is one symptom that I didn't have so I am here to support you, this thread and other people who suffer with tinnitus. I hope you are coming along nicely with your taper. The only auditory problems I had was "hearing" the radio playing when it was off! :-) Odd but nothing like the seriousness of tinnitus. Great thread and I hope everyone gains some useful info!

Hugs

[...]

[[Buddie]]

mine is more of sizzling sound in the brain.
got this crap about year and a half ago(19 months) after mixing triazolam, retoril, and klonopin for two days.
it's not getting any better. in fact, it seems to be getting worse lately.
crossing my fingers that this will not be permanent along with other[...] symptoms.
thank you for this thread [...].

[[Buddie]]

Had the hyperacusis super super bad during taper--still have it but its gotten a bit better. 

Have the tinnitus always in one ear.  It's constant, no let-up.  Been drug free for 3 months.  Also have ear popping.  My taper was a bit fast.  Was also on Remeron but off it all. Hope the tinnitus eases one day.  It's a really nasty tough symptom, especially when its constant with no let-up.  I feel for everyone who has this nasty ear symptom.  If you have hyperacusis on top of it, it's just terrible.  I had hyperacusis so bad that when I typed on a keyboard, that sound hurt my ears bad--that's how low my sound tolerance level was.  Thank goodness that has improved.  With the T, no real improvement, but i've only been drug free for 3 months. 

[[Buddie]]

I forgot to mention -- I have a white noise machine that mimics different sounds and I put it on loudly for sleep. The rain setting (like [...] says)  works for me.

[...]

[[Buddie]]

Hi [...]
Thanks for starting this thread. My T started a year ago September. I was just below .8mg in my taper and had come down with a nasty case of flu. It's low grade and I'm usually not aware of it but the T hasn't really changed much. It does get a little worse when my other symptoms flare up. I hope something can be found that will help.
[...]