Bloody Birds In My Head !

[vespatone]

I'm a 51yrs old guy who has been living with a auto immune complaint and a neuropathic pain disorder. I've been on various medications now for over 41 years and was surviving nicely until a few years ago when out of the blue the most terrible of any complaints just moved into my head and has been there 24/7 since.

What is this most terrible of complaints you may ask?

TINNITUS! ! !

F***ing B*****d Tinnitus I reply through another flock of epic proportion dawn chorus chirping!

People have said that tinnitus can drive people mad or to commit acts of suicide or murder, I never believed that something as small and ingsanificant as a chirp or whistle could cause so much mental anguish until I started to hear locked in my head that little repetitive chirp.

I believe that medication prescribed to 'ease the pain ' or 'keep me sane' started the annoying little gits (because I know they are there), and now after a few years they've multiplied from a few caged specimens into a flock of biblical proportions.

I've tried stopping or changing my medications several times and once or twice, for an hour or two, I've been free, free from the little chirp or whistle, free from the hoards settling in the trees in my head, free from the howl of the whistles as the train steams through the station in my mind...but it always comes back.

I've been given relaxation excersises to do. I've sat still as stone to meditate. Music has blasted from my earphones just before bed but nothing seems to help in the long term. I can't believe that there's nothing more I can do or try. Hearing aids and earplugs have come and gone so please please please, anyone got anything anywhere that I can try?

I've suffered intolerable pain, broken bones and have had organs explode and I would rather have all these again if it ment that 'Silence ' once more could dwell between my ears.

So again can anybody help me?

[mightydrunken]

Two common causes of tinnitus which may apply to you are NSAIDs like ibuprofen and damage to the auditory nerve. Badly managed diabetes can cause nerve damage, another possible cause is low folate or B12. As vitamins are easy to come by try 800 micrograms of folic acid and 1000 micrograms of B12 every day. B12 is more likely to be deficient as it is tricker to absorb and rarer in the diet.

If you are taking NSAIDs then you are probably on a proton pump inhibitor like omeprazole which reduces stomach acid to almost zero. This can lead to B12 deficiency and deficiencies in iron and magnesium.

I hope you find a solution.

[BigBill]

As we say in America "I feel your pain". I am fortunate that my Tinnitus is intermittent. It seems to be a combination of my meds for Congestive Heart Failure and a mild inner ear imbalance. If they haven't looked at your ear pressures they may want to.

I too have a high tolerance to pain ignoring broken bone and shredded joints. Fortunately I have been able to push the Tinnitus to the back of my mind by distracting myself by intensely focusing on something else. Who knows if that will last as it worsens but since I have always blanked out pain and have always been able to zone out my wife's ramblings I figure my mind is capable of anything I truly commit it too. I can only wish you luck and pray you find a path to follow

[Judmilla]

I agree with the advice from "mightydrunken" and "BigBill". It is most likely due to some medication you took and/or some vitamins you are lacking. Mine was caused by oto-toxic antibiotics they pumped me full of as a child for what they didn't recognize as a "cough variant" asthma. Since I've had it since childhood, and grew up with it, it doesn't actually bother me much. One morning years ago I walked into the laboratory where I worked, and went about my business, and noticed that one co-worker had cotton in his ears. Then a while later I noticed someone else was wearing earmuffs on the job, even though it was July. Then I saw another with cotton earplugs. I thought it was all odd, but just kept doing my work. Finally, someone commented, "you look so calm; how can you stand it?" I didn't know what he meant. "Stand what?", I asked. "The NOISE!", he practically shrieked. "What noise?", says I. "That high pitched whistling!" he said. "We got a new centrifuge today, and the noise is driving us all crazy! How can you be so calm?!?!?" I thought about it a minute, and realized there was one high-pitched whistle that was not in my own head, like the other eight or ten high-pitched whistles were. It's just there. I never think about it. It wasn't any more significant to me than, perhaps, having an extra toe or something. I sincerely wish I could figure out WHY it isn't driving me crazy, and teach others how to achieve that. Now the peripheral neuropathy....., THAT drives me crazy, and I wish someone could help me learn to ignore that. (P.S., BigBill; I really feel for your wife, it is soooo frustrating to be "tuned out" all the time by my husband! Please tell her I understand how she feels about it.)