[ultrarapidcycling]

I'm curious how many of you also suffer with tinnitus?

[nacht]

I've had periodic tinnitus all my life. I think it's related to my TMJ dysfunction though.

[Rosie23]

I've had it my whole life too, but I suffered a nasty head trauma when I was a kid and that can cause tinnitus. I never really thought about a possible connection.
But stress and anxiety do make it worse.

[kindachaotic]

Yes, I have tennitis & my ENT doc says it's from TMJ also. The right ear is worse than left.

All I know is stress & depression make a lot worries & I notice it way more.
So you are not alone on this.

Take care.

[AniManiac]

I get tinnitus from Wellbutrin. The higher the dose, the more often it shows up. Otherwise, not much at all.

[Tsunamisurfer]

Yes. The pitch and intensity vary for me.

[ultrarapidcycling]

I guess i just wanna share my thoughts on my tinnitus.Head trauma,tmj,medications,noise damage and alot of other things can cause this.Tinnitus alone can cause severe depression without bp disorder.Depression and anxiety make it worse?Or make it SEEM worse?Both have to be true,i definitely know it makes it SEEM worse when my depression is worse I also know the volume can and does fluctuate at times drastically.
I always assumed my tinnitus was caused by loud music damage due to me "medicating" for depression.I assumed ear damage because it was in both ears even though the left was slightly worse and the tone was slightly different.Its been 24 years so i pretty much gave up hope,20 years ago all i remember was hearing there was no treatment.For anyone who has slightly different tones in each ear,this creates a binaural beat and your brain entrains to a 3rd tone which is a combination of both.NOT good for your mental health i'm sure.
Maybe 6 months ago i went 4 days straight with no food water or sleep.(Followed by 9 days in the hospital)Back on subject,maybe 3 days into that the ringing in my right ear started to drop out and then come back.After several times it stopped ringing completely,but my left ear tripled in volume!I was having SEVERE religious oriented visual hallucinations by the 3rd day.I'm right hemisphere dominant,but i have an unusually high left hemisphere to match.My hallucinations were definitely right side oriented.Which to me translates to my left ear.
For me at times the increased volume in my left ear has been really bad.At the same time not having any discernible(99% of the time) tone in my right
ear has actually been better.I think i got away from my brain creating the 3rd tone and being entrained to it.
So this gets me wondering MAYBE its not in my ear it seems more in my brain.I start reading online and sure enough some tinnitus IS NOT generated in the ear it seems.If you search "neuromonics" you'll find a sound treatment the targets your brain itself.I also saw a post online that said people with tinnitus have highly abnormal brainwave patterns.I'm assuming thats true and some peoples tinnitus probably causes the unusual patterns.But what about unusual patterns from depression and bipolar mania causing tinnitus?I'm just throwing it out there for those of us who are relying on themselves more then their doctors.Im gonna start a new thread-ive has some major success treating my bp disorder recently-please read

[BlueInanna]

I had horrible tinnitus and painful head buzzes from cymbalta withdrawal, lastest 4 months, thank god it's gone now.

[Perna]

There are a growing number of researchers who also believe chronic inflammation can lead to depression and bipolar disorder.

Inflammation is known to make tinnitus worse (this and above from): http://www.tinnitusformula.com/infoc...nts/inflam.asp

I also have tinnitus, always have since I can remember.

[Sophia57]

I have never had it. I don't think it is medically related to BP. It is related to being exposed to loud sounds or music. It damages the hairs which pick up sounds, and then they try and make noise to replace the sound they cannot hear.

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/tinnitus/page2_em.htm

My husband has it quite badly, because of working with power tools. He is not bipolar.

Hmm, I have never been around much loud noise, or loud music, in fact loud music drives me nuts. Reading link tho.. what did my parents do when I was a baby

I have a ringing, and a ticking, and sometimes a gushing heart beat sort of sound. Athough I do have Anemia and my mother also has Meniere's disease.

[greylove]

I have Bipolar 1 and have a constant ringing in my ears that can't be atributed to anything else.

[ultrarapidcycling]

Originally Posted by Sophia57

I have never had it. I don't think it is medically related to BP. It is related to being exposed to loud sounds or music. It damages the hairs which pick up sounds, and then they try and make noise to replace the sound they cannot hear.

My husband has it quite badly, because of working with power tools. He is not bipolar.

One of the first things that jumped out at me was right there "it may be in the ear or the brain".I believed for a long time mine was caused by the damage you describe in the ear similar to your husband.The last time i was at an ent and a full hearing evaluation despite having tinnitus in both ears for over a decade i had PERFECT hearing.When i asked about treatment for tinnitus i was told "you have perfect hearing" nothing can be done.If i had "hair damage" in the ear i would imagine i would have had some level of hearing loss.Then as i said i starved myself for a few days and my right ear stops ringing and my left ear the volume triples.I havent been tested but i feel my right ear still has perfect hearing.My left ear is having considerable hearing loss due to the volume of the sound.I understand the part if you lose certain frequencies i read synapses start to hyperfire to fill in the missing tones.The "neuromonics" treatment is available a half hour from me.I read somewhere treatment was $5,000 but not sure if thats correct.I think i remember evaluation to see if u meet criteria for treatment was a few hundred.I may go just to fnd out what the criteria are.

Some of you have been lucky enough to have tinnitus go into remission with stopping certain meds.For the rest of us is anyone else actively trying to find a cure?Is tmj and menieres induced tinnitus untreatable?

I had minor success.I would put an ear plug in my right(quiet) ear and sleep on my right ear.I would leave my stereo on pretty loud all night.Since im having hearing loss in the left ear i made it loud.Not damaging loud but well above masking.When i woke up my tinnitus was ALOT lower.One morning i had to put my fingers in my ears when i realized it to check which is amazing considering how loud my left ear is normally now.I would be fine and i was working on being happier and my depression at the same time.If something made me mad during the day-BAM it would come back to the normal level.I did this quite a few days and then when i got knocked down here and there with my depression i stopped doing it. In my case i STRONGLY feel its caused by brainwave patterns and i bet thats true for some others.If u search "neuromonics" u can see how close you are to an authorized treatment facility.I think existing facilities are being trained and adding this treatment but i read through alot so you'd have to check again

[ultrarapidcycling]

I also read online recently that biologically we are not programmed to sleep in the silence so many people are used to.Some people have gone to sleep and woken up with tinnitus possibly just from the silence alone.They explained it and it really clicked with me.One of your deeper nervous systems is meant to be attuned to nature and natural sounds at night.Anyones who has slept outside camping if you hear animals moving around everything seems fine.If everything goes silent somethings up predator wise.You may even notice this during the day if everything goes silent around you.They recommend white noise at night to fill in the need for the sounds of nature that would be relaxing to whichever deeper nervous system-i forgot.Informationally the stereo is not working to relax like white noise.I'm definitely gonna give this a shot aimed at tinnitus but my overall depression too.
Anybody here with or without tinnitus use white noise at night??

I cannot sleep in silence. I keep my tv on all night, but I keep the volume too low to make out the words. I've tried nature sounds to help me sleep too.

[AniManiac]

Originally Posted by ultrarapidcycling

Anybody here with or without tinnitus use white noise at night??

I use a wonderful iPhone/iPad app called "White Noise" that provides a variety of background sounds. I use it a lot when traveling since hotels have lots of weird noises. Even the free version is pretty awesome, full version well worth $3.

Originally Posted by Anika

I have a ringing, and a ticking, and sometimes a gushing heart beat sort of sound. Athough I do have Anemia and my mother also has Meniere's disease.

No tinnitus here, but I do get that gushing heart beat sound with moderate frequency when I lay down to sleep. I don't think it has anything to do with BP at all. Or even my brain.

There are, of course, a lot of things, physical and otherwise, that people with BP will share that have nothing to do with BP. Sounds obvious, but apparently not so much. For instance, I remember reading a forum (not here) where someone had brought up something (can't remember what it was). You would not believe how many posters interpreted this as a symptom and self dx'd themselves as probably having BP because they'd seen so many posters with BP say they had this thing! (Wish I could remember what it was!) Non-symptom aside, they'd apparently not realized that people that share a thing are faaaar more likely to post, which of course skews perception. Argh! It made me bonkers. Want to be very clear that I'm not saying that's happening here -- certainly no one's self dx-ing(!!) or really even suggesting there's a link. A link with some meds, certainly, because that can be a side-effect.

Hope that doesn't seem a weird thing to post, it's just something I think about a fair bit and felt comfortable posting it here because people aren't doing it! (So I can be confident that no one will be offended.) No hijack intended. If anyone can think how to make it into a proper thread on its own, feel free!

I really feel for those who do have tinnitus... can't imagine what a nuisance it must be. Btw, I'm not a fan of silence in sleeping either, but the highway takes care of that(!) Lol.

I totally get that IZ. that's why I added that I have anemia. It was a cause of tinnitus that was in the link that is connected with the ticking and gushing sounds. Which I didn't know, so makes sense.

We've had similar threads, like the asthma one. Good point tho, I hope no one would see that as a diagnosing tool. I think the threads can get somewhat biased too because of the way we present a question, " who has this?" Vs "who has or has not ?". Interesting point tho.

[AniManiac]

Originally Posted by Innerzone

Non-symptom aside, they'd apparently not realized that people that share a thing are faaaar more likely to post, which of course skews perception.

The fact that y'all are aware of response bias warms my little social scientist heart.

[kindachaotic]

Ears screaming right now, way worse than usual.

Chewing gum in desperation for some relief. Usually tv is a good distraction, not working...

Does anyone have this get worse before an episode? and during..

Any suggestions? This is worst ever.

During episodes, especially with psychosis, I find that my senses are hypersensitive to the phenomena. What may have been very mild buzzing could soon become a loud droning noise or a high pitched squeal. I don't think tinnitus has any direct relation to BP, but perhaps the way the neurotransmitters operate can effect the way the sound is interpreted. Just a theory.

[moremi]

I have used the white noise app too. Its great. You can get it in the droid market too. Well worth the download.

[nacht]

Originally Posted by AniManiac

The fact that y'all are aware of response bias warms my little social scientist heart.

Naturally. Correlation does not equal causation and all that.

[ultrarapidcycling]

i wasnt thinking any connection with bp and tinnitus in general.I was just wondering how many others here had it.Two friends i had with bp disorder didnt have tinnitus.I'm looking forward to getting something and trying white noise at night instead of music.
Since im further along in breaking out my depression i figured i would try my stereo trick lastnight.I slept 4 or 5 hours then woke up for while.I put an ear plug in my right ear and slept with my right ear down on the pillow so i couldnt hear any sound.I put my stereo on pretty loud and had the speakers aimed at my left ear which has tinnitus.I slept another5 hrs and when i woke up i couldnt believe it.My unbelievably loud tinnitus which is normally at 100 was down to 1!!! i went outside and stood there-it was incredible.It lasted a half hour and then it started coming back but it was still only 30 or 40% and even now its about 50% of normal.I definitely feel the sound is coming from my brain and some of these newer therapies could cure this.A half hour without tinnitus was amazing and definitely something worth fighting to get rid of