weird prickling

[Lakeshiker]

hi everyone. Hope you all had a good Christmas. My doctor has been trying me on different medication to help with anxiety. It’s mainly in the mornings Im anxious. I’ve tried sertraline, which kept me awake and made me feel worse. Then they tried Mirtazapine, which seemed to help with sleep and the anxiety but made my T worse and I started prickling from head to toe 24/7. So then they tried procaz, which again kept me awake and made me prickle 24/7. I know it’s better to not take meds but I struggle really badly with anxiety. I meditate at night and try breathing but it doesn’t work. I also get this weird hissing/fizzing in my head, which you can not ignore no matter how much you try. Other days it’s a bit lower and more like a jingle high pitch sound from my ear. I’m having trouble with my ears feeling blocked so I’m steaming and using a nasal spray, not sure it’s helping. I’m started using a drink to sleep from H&B called Unwind Drink. It has

KSM-66® Ashwagandha 300mg

L-Theanine 50mg

Lavender 225mg

Chamomile 250mg

Magnesium 50mg

Glycine 995mg

I started taking Ginko 30mg as well

Even though it’s just a herbal drink I worry I shouldn’t bother. But it can’t understand the prickling, has anyone had this. I asked my doctor and he just didn’t seem to know.

I can handle the jingling sound but the hissing/fizzing drives me insane. I know T does what it wants but I wonder if certain supplements can make it worse. I do have moment when it’s just jingling where I don’t notice it. Only moment at the minute but I’m 5.5 mo the in to T now and feel like I’m not making much progress. I’ve ended up taking 5mg Valium in the morning to help the anxiety and I don’t really want to but I’m off sick and need to get back to work.

mornings are definitely the hardest part. I have T maskers from the NHS but my T seemed to become very reactive when I started the Mirtazapine. It still is, which is when my anxiety got worse. Although it seems more reactive some days more than others 🤷🏻‍♀️

sorry for long post but just wondering if anyone had any advice. I feel like if I could just get rid of the anxiety I’d be okish.

Thanks in advance Tara

[Karlos99]

hi there. Have you tried the dr Claire weeks method for anxiety? I recommend the book highly. It’s called “hope and help for your nerves”. There’s also loads of videos on YouTube. It helped me massively with my anxiety.

Also thst drink you’re taking has ashwaganda in it. Personally that made me feel terrible and made my anxiety worse.

All the best.

[Happyrosie]

it’s virtually impossible - in my view - to say whether this food (or supplement or medication or drink or whatever) might exacerbate T. It might for you and might not for the next person. That’s the beauty of T.

I can see you are dwelling on the sounds that T produces. Again, we all hear different sounds. But the trick is to not continually analyse these sounds but to gradually habituate to them.

I expect you’ve read up all you can on the Tinnitus UK website?

[Spencersmum]

Pharmacology graduate here. I don’t know when you started taking your various supplements etc. in relation to your prescription medication, but many supplements and also some foodstuffs, grapefruit for instance, can interact with prescription drugs.

When you saw your doctor did, you tell your doctor about everything that you are taking, and list the ingredients of everything that you are taking as you have here.

Also, I disagree with your statement about medication. I have needed medication since I was three to prevent seizures. I know what occurs if it is reduced to below it’s therapeutic dose or changed to an inappropriate drug for my epilepsy.

I would say unnecessary medication of any sort can be unhelpful. It is best to go back to your doctor and discuss your symptoms and treatment, than hit the over the counter options.

I recently had a very full on and stressful job. I don’t know what stress is like for you. I have been on Sertraline and found it useless. I swam as my therapy until lockdown. Then I felt like there was a vibration in my chest, especially at night when I lay down. It was external to my tinnitus and heartbeat. I stressed about the blasted vibration too, much as I guess you are doing about your symptom.

I left the job for something I love doing that is much more relaxing and more fun. The people are nicer and although it pays less I don’t care.

The vibration has weirdly stopped altogether.

[Lakeshiker in reply to Spencersmum]

I might ask the doctor for beta blockers for the anxiety? I’m on Prochlorperazine because he checked my ears and they looked ok but they feel full all the time so said it could be an inner ear problem I take 1 x 3 a day. I just have really bad anxiety. I’ll stop taking the supplements and see if the prickling stops.

[Lakeshiker in reply to Lakeshiker]

Is it ok to drink herbal teas? Or is that still classed as a supplement 🤔

I’ve been taking Valium 5mg in morning to help the anxiety. So just the Prochlorperazine and Valium ll be taking if I stop the supplement drink with all that stuff in. Feel a bit depressed though but that could be my T and the time of year. My T is very reactive to sound so it’s a bit of a nightmare. It started when I was taking the Mirtazapine. I hoped it would go once I stopped it.

[Spencersmum in reply to Lakeshiker]

Beta blockers only really address certain symptoms of anxiety as they are primarily a class of drug predominantly used to manage abnormal heart rhythms. It might be better to try and get to the root cause of your tinnitus. I got counselling. I thought it would be a waste of time because I truly believed it started with my tinnitus. I was anxious long before I had tinnitus, I just didn’t appreciate it, and it was at a much lower lever. Counselling helped, not Sertraline or Amitriptyline that I was given for the vibration.

I do think the right medication can be hugely beneficial, but medication just for medications sake is misguided. Speak to your doctor, ask if they would recommend beta blockers. If you have already tried counselling, maybe you need a better counsellor.

[Lakeshiker in reply to Spencersmum]

I’ve been referred to see a psychiatrist, just waiting for an appointment, they said 4/6 weeks just before Christmas.

I’ve had an MRI and seen an ENT consultant. Hearing ok they said. Gave me maskers but I don’t use them due to reactiveness. Consultant said it was anxiety based but I banged my head coming down a mountain in wales. Fell directly on my head. Although nothing showed on MRI so maybe it is stress/anxiety based.

I was taking beta blockers a few years ago for anxiety because antidepressants don’t seem to suit me. I had a very bad breakup with an ex. The beta blockers helped then. Way before my T started..

sounds like you have been on a journey of your own, I hope I start finding my way soon.

[Spencersmum]

Herbal ‘teas’ are usually tisanes, infusions of the dried fruits, flowers, spices or herbs in water. Tisanes have been shown to offer medicinal effects. But I did say usually and I have no idea of the composition of your drink. The mg could actually mean it has been crushed and made into the entire mixture that you are expected to mix dissolve with something e.g water, and drink before bedtime. It seems to be making a quasi-medical claim that it can assist you with sleep.

[Lakeshiker in reply to Spencersmum]

I don’t think that drink helps anyway so I’ll not take it. Or the ginkgo. Just sometimes I use chamomile tea to try calm down. I wish the sertraline had helped. But no sleep for 4 weeks and it seemed to make my anxiety worse. Maybe I don’t need antidepressants just something more for anxiety alone 🤔

[Spencersmum]

This sounds bonkers but I started listening to podcasts and audiobooks and playing cello and clarinet. One particular podcast, I couldn’t stay awake to the end of it! No matter how bad my tinnitus, the music and the guys voice….that was it for me. I’d wake up and it had finished. Sometimes I would try to listen to music our orchestra was playing, turned down and the same thing happened, that I think is more reasonable. The only other thing I find helps is getting physically tired through exercise. I swam competitively and agree with the gentleman who posted that he can’t hear his tinnitus when swimming. The psychiatrist I was referred to agreed to a swim training plan I made up, when Sertraline failed….but lockdown happened. 🤷🏻‍♀️