Shakey Mo's thread of misery

aw Shakey dude that suuuucks. I remember there was a p extensive thread abt tinnitus somewhere on ILE from many moons ago -- I'll see if I can dig it up, there might be some protips in there for u? but huge sympathies, poor Shakes

one time I was cleaning my ears w/ a q-tip (note, never do this, ever) and pushed some wax in and had very strong tinnitus-esque effects for a few days until a doctor vacuumed that shit out. without a doubt those felt like some of the worst days of my life. hope you figure a way out of this shakes.

for a few minutes in the middle of the night last night it seemed to go away and I could actually hear silence and I was like omg silence I miss u

sorry SMC, get well. (or just take more naps) lotta unfortunate health crap on da boards lately.

Shakey this doesn't sound like fun and I'm sorry to hear about it. Hope it's temporary. Have you tried sleeping to white noise? There are some good white noise generators online.

reggae is the only thing I can sleep to

jah righteous

For what it's worth I've had some major middle-ear infections in the past and they were enough to make me nearly pass out. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

well not actually sleeping but reggae is the only thing that distracts me from the tinnitus and calms me down

xp

at least you're in good company:

Headphone-induced TINNITUS

that's the thread I was thinking of

i thought this was going to be the thread where you inflicted misery upon other posters.

there's still time for that
http://img2-2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/070926/misery_l.jpg

sorry this sounds like hell

no pun

that sucks -- sorry shakey. do you think it is headphone/loud music induced?

aw sorry to hear that dog.

Sorry to hear. I've had occasional bouts with tinnitus and assorted wax-related weirdness, and it's irritating as fuck. Hope it clears up.

I have no idea what induced it but yeah as a musician I've spent my share of years next to the crash cymbal. at this point I don't really give a fuck what caused it I just want to a) sleep and b) figure out how to deal with it

Sounds awful -- good luck treating this if treatment is possible.

sorry man. is it ignorable when you're louder situations (crowded room, listening to music, etc)?

also, i don't mean to rub this in at all, but i'm curious because i worry about it a lot -- did you wear earplugs at all when playing and going to shows?

i've certainly had the sensation of tinnitus when going to bed after a loud show, and every now and then i'll randomly get a high-pitched swelling tone in one ear for about 10 seconds, then it goes away. it's been enough to scare me into wearing ear plugs for most of the shows that i play and all of the ones i attend (unless it's acoustic jazz or whatever).

yeah I get intermittent ringing too.

I stood in front of a couple of huge amps at a Drive By Truckers show a couple of years ago and I spend the next day terrified that I'd permanently damaged my hearing, god I felt awful. Now I'm all about earplugs. But i still sometimes listen to my music a bit too loud on my headphones :/

I have heard that other ambient noises can help distract you from it when you're trying to sleep, like the white noises suggestion upthread etc.

Sorry Shakey. Good luck man.

i'll randomly get a high-pitched swelling tone in one ear for about 10 seconds

I get this too, and it's not even the same as the ringing in my ears I get after a show. It sounds like a tea kettle going off in the bathroom down the hall.

^i asked an audiologist about it once and she said to try not to focus on it (ie ignore it the best you can).

Yes, whatever you do, try not to focus on that incessant ringing in your ears that will never, never quit, yes that one just ignore it.

I've never worn earplugs

sounds absolutely terrible, shakey, hope you get better soon!

we're all at the mercy of our bodies, have empathy for anyone who's got it especially rough, hope this is only a temporary condition Shakes

maybe (pending) crying babby will distract u? :/

I had about a two week stretch of constant ringing last year but luckily it went away. I have been very careful to avoid headphones since then and I think it's helped.

that is reassuring. I have a cousin who says he went through something similar (altho it occasionally recurs).

Don't know what to say, that sucks. I became inflicted with tinnitus in one ear over a decade ago, which started immediately after being exposed to a loud noise. It's slowly subsided since then to the point where I don't constantly think of it, although I still find it easier to sleep with a fan or white noise of some sort rather than silence. I also am prescribed alprazolam (Xanax) which has been shown to reduce ringing in the ears in some scientific studies, although it's not specifically approved by the US gov't for that use (but doctors are allowed to prescribe "off label" for unofficial uses). 1/2 mg twice a day, with the nighttime dose an hour before bedtime.

Sorry to hear about this, Shakey Mo. Hope it settles down soon.

Tinnitus usually goes hand in hand with hearing loss (esp sensorineural noise induced hearing loss). Did the audiologist / ENT find your hearing OK? If there's no hearing loss (or not much) I'd be optimistic that this will improve sooner or later.

The only approach I know that helps with tinnitus is masking it: white noise, "nature sounds" or whatever, quiet music. Go ahead and sleep to reggae if your wife can put up with it. Maybe something or the slower and dubbier side?

Melatonin might help you sleep even if the ringing is bothering you, probably worth trying again. I wouldn't expect herbs or other concoctions to help with the tinnitus directly. Sedatives (like Xanax and other benzodiazepines) might help a little with the tinnitus or would at least put you to sleep despite it.

sorry to hear this dude. :( ear problems terrify me.

Anything that attacks your rest also attacks your sanity and that's just awful to have to deal with, even if it is "only" tinnitus. Get well, soon, Shakey Mo, cuz that babby is going to keep you awake plenty enough on its own.

Sorry to hear of this Shakey -- again, like all here I wish you an improvement soon.

i feel bad for you. i've had this for about 5 years now, a constant quiet ringing noise in both my ears. i'm kinda used to it now so don't really pay it any attention but every time i'm in silent places i hear it quite clearly. it mainly sucks when i go to bed. don't really have any tips to offer though

after not sleeping Saturday, Sunday or Monday night finally got a doctor at Kaiser to prescribe me some Ambien at 7pm last night. felt like I was having a total panic-attack-breakdown all day yesterday. managed to sleep a couple hours at a time last night at least, going to buy wave machine today and take it easy. at least my dad is here to help out.

Did the audiologist / ENT find your hearing OK? If there's no hearing loss

audiologist said I have no hearing loss. ENT said this might be a precursor to hearing loss. or it might just go away. who knows.

Just saw this thread, best wishes SMC, and hope you benefit at least from a better night's sleep

thx for all the well-wishing guys

this is really rough

yeah it's a bummer. musician/music lovers nightmare too.

my cousin was having ear problems and his doctor gave him prednisone, which helped, not sure if his case was ringing tho, think it was more of a feeling of blockage/hearing loss.

Ouch. Sorry to hear this. Stay up, man.

best of luck shakey, sorry you're going through this

alex in nyc saved my fucking life when tinnitus came for me. I don't like to talk about it publicly but let me tell you you will be ok and sleep will once again be a thing you have. I will never forget the time I spent unable to sleep because of the ringing though. it was the worst. I am better now. (however i now have offsetting horrible shit that I would happily increase the volume of the tinnitus to be rid of but no takers on that front so far.)

if you don't wanna talk out it publically plz webmail me cuz dude I need some coping techniques/reassurances

esp as a fellow musician

done

feelin 4 u shakey mo

Shakey a close friend of mine had this, similar thing, ENT said "nothing wrong, probz psychosomatic", but he figured it out, I'll e-mail him for some details

well fwiw my problem appears to be totally unrelated to hearing loss/noise exposure

Are you using any white-noise-generating thingy when trying to sleep?

I have it on "ocean night" setting right now or something... I dunno how much it helps really. probably some, just so my bedroom isn't totally silent when I'm trying to sleep.

don't get me wrong tho just1n3, noise exposure/hearing loss is a common cause of tinnitus. in my weirdo case tho, it's not related.

Hm, yeah, I was wondering if you found it helpful. I know folks who swear by them, but have had to struggle with finding the best frequency/sound.

xp

Xp yeah I know yours was just out of the blue, but it got me thinking way harder about this stuff than I had before, I just don't want him taking it for granted just bc its ”fun” to play loud and without earplugs.

Makes total sense that sleep is part of the key to adjusting. I know that even minor things like the floaters in my eyes become much more pronounced when I'm sleep deprived, so it plays that tinnitus would become more aggravating/less backgroundy

I'm glad you're finding some kind of normalcy, shakey! that makes me really happy for you.

fuck, another sleepless night. I seem to have bouts of these recurring every few weeks. just the worst. need better meds but have to wait until my next appt in April...

arggh no sleep, I am losing it

Oh man, sorry to hear. No adjustment in meds?

Kaiser psych nurse just told me to take more of the trazodone, which doesn't seem to be doing much. find myself resorting to the ambien each night, but that only puts me out for a few hours now. and then I can't get back to sleep. which is weird cuz just last week I was sleeping better with a lower dose of the trazodone... I dunno what's going on with me, I feel crazy. I just know what I have now isn't working consistently.

it's like this self-perpetuating cycle of anxiety about sleeping, combined with the tinnitus, just won't let my mind switch off and go to sleep

I've heard that writing things down before you go to sleep is a good way to turn off your brain; dunno how well that'd work when the anxiousness is audible, but could be worth a try.

had an amazing experience at the ENT just now with aero jr - they're checking his hearing (just standard workup stuff) and what they do is play a tone and then after he looks in the direction of the tone a light goes on above it with a little stuffed animal. (pos. reinforcement for looking in the right direction, I figure.) he's getting them all and then at one point he looks to the right when there's silence in the booth, and I think, aero jr., please only look over in the direction when you hear a tone or it makes it hard to measure, only then the light goes on, and I say to the aud tech: "was that 4k?" and she smiles and nods. just absolute total nothing for me in the right ear at 4k. lol at loud music, A+ 4k eradicator would mosh again

well they've given me a prescription for seroquel now

xp

pitch 4k eradicator

ugh totally going through the pharmaceutical grinder here... the seroquel helped me get to sleep but the side effects were awful, felt like I'd been hit in the head with a hammer the day after, just totally slow and groggy. so stopped after two days. now they had me try a different benzo/sleep drug last night, restoril, which resulted in probably the best night's sleep I've had since this began, but this morning I'm super-agitated and hyper. I have an appt with BOTH therapists Thurs am to try and find some long-term solution that will help me sleep without heavy side effects. but I just feel totally discombobulated, going through so many drugs... when will I ever feel normal again :(

so now I am on remeron. so exciting. actually it's been good - my sleep is better, altho I still wake up multiple times during the night. the difference being now I can actually get back to sleep with no problem afterwards. so regular sleep has helped me be less crazy/out of it during the day, which has made the tinnitus easier to deal with. I seem to be going for longer periods where I don't think about it at all now (and by longer periods I mean, like, 15-30 minutes) but that's some improvement. And I don't feel constantly stressed out w/chronic back pain... so this is all good but progress is slow.

so I am now back to sleeping 8 hrs a night. huzzah! I have also resumed pretty much all my regular habits (playing music, smoking weed, etc.) That being said, my tinnitus is still exactly the same as it was the first day I noticed it, and I still find it hard to accept it and not be periodically irritated/depressed by it, but there's pretty much nothing I can do. *sigh*

sleep is an awesome improvement though, am so glad you finally cracked that

It's great to have you back!

congratulations, shakey!

Are you using Remeron to get 8 hours? That is a fantasy amount for me.

i'm glad you're feeling at least a bit back to normal! keep on keepin' on!

yes I'm on 15mg remeron. I take it at night... it's not like ambien where you are like *wham* asleep 15 minutes later but I don't have the panic/anxiety symptoms that were waking me up and keeping me awake.

tinnitus itself is still annoying as fuck, feel like I have to constantly make an effort to think about something else.

xp

what are the side effects of Remeron?

so I am now back to sleeping 8 hrs a night

! congratulations! I didn't get that back for four whole years.

Congrats on the sleep!

Is the Ambien you sometimes use the 12.5mg CR version? It's a dual-layer pill, some kicks in immediately (or within 15-20 minutes), the rest 3-4 hours later to help prevent waking up in the middle of the nite. I've been using that for the last year (after 8 years of taking the standard 10mg version) and it helps immmensely, although I do need to switch to something else temporarily for a week or two every several months so the ambien starts working again.

what are the side effects of Remeron?

I am, fwiw, apparently very sensitive to a lot of medications' side effects and remeron has a very mild side effects profile. the most common side effects are an increase in appetite and cottonmouth (hmm this sounds familiar), neither of which have really bothered me.

lol that does sound familiar

my wife's sleep issues are worse than mine, so I don't know if remeron's an option for her or not but thanks for the info

Congrats on your sleep, weed and music resumption! Funny, the other day a Ray Charles/Milt Jackson (sans horns) piece came on my iTunes and I thought, "Hm, wonder how Shakey's doing."

I don't like how the daily grind of dealing with this occupies so much of my mental real estate. my life is back to normal for the most part but I still get distracted/depressed about it on the regular

well it's been a year. my sleep is mostly back to normal (babby notwithstanding) I'm down to a quarter-tab of remeron a night and expect to phase that out over the next few weeks. so that's good. I can function and do stuff, for the most part. It still bugs me - I have a hard time concentrating in silent environments, or if there's like a silent scene in a movie or tv show for ex. I wear an earbud most of the time at work, which I guess isn't so bad. Chronic back pain persists for the most part, it comes and goes. Maybe a new bed will improve that, I dunno. I try not to complain about the tinnitus much cuz really what's the point, it is what it is and I just have to deal with it.

Congrats on making such huge strides over the past year. I know it isn't easy but it must be heartening to look at the low points and see them far in the rearview mirror.

wtg shakey!

Great to hear, hope things continue to improve.

Hi I mostly lurk but I have (currently) mild tinnitus so I think about Shakey sometimes. Anybody know how he's doing?

He has a new source of misery, reading Tom Disch's The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made of.

Οὖτις ἐμοὶ γ' ὄνομα

Ohh

I am still alive. My tinnitus is the same. I don't take any drugs anymore (well, beyond weed + liqour), I sleep 6-7 hours a night (still getting woken up by a toddler at this point). My back pain comes and goes.

comin up on 2 years Oct 1

thx for asking btw

My wife's got worse this summer but her ENT is starting to think its TMJ. Which would be good news IMO bc there are things they can do about TMJ.

Mine is awful at this precise moment, coincidentally.