Now I begin to freak out!!! Hearing loss + tinnitus in the left ear

[txQC]

Ok, severe panic disorder with agoraphobia and cardiophobia here... High or very low blood pressure with a weak pulse rate all the time now, a lot of chest pain, severe constipation and pain in my stomach and a lot of others symptoms that I have since a while now.

I have one new "anxiety" symptom since 3 days and another one who is bigger than before and I think I begin to freak out a lot! It's a lot disturbing for me cause I can't ignore that symptom.

I already wrote that I had tinnitus in my 2 ears. The new symptom appear only in my left ear. Since 3 days I have a hearing looss of about 70% in the left ear. Now, everything sound really weird, it's like i'm sitting in the middle of a tin can. I hate that feeling, I can't have a normal conversation with someone cause the sound is very weird and disturb me...same for the phone cause I hear nothing, even with the right ears the sound is weak... music, TV, everything amplified the tinnitus, the buzzing sound and the hearing loss... even if I don't seem to have a hearing loss in the right ear, the sound is really weird... If someone walk in the house, I hear it like a very big echo sound, with a lot of bass sound... that's a lot disturbing. Don't want to dramatize here, but I really wonder if anxiety can do this...

What make me a lot anxious is the fact that it's hapening more on the left side. All my symptoms are worse on the left side, the pulsating veins with the headache pain on the left temple of my head increase also about 50 %, it's on the left side so I feel a lot anxious about that. I can feel the veins pulsating all the time now. I also have red eye on the left side, little blood vessels in the corner of my left eye are red, that's never happening before. I also have  a poor blood circulation on the left arm and hand, if I go outside, my left hand becomes cold after 1 minute and the right hand is still hot, the left arm is numb most of the time. Even if I shake it, massage it, the arm stay numb.... BUT once in a while, my left hand will become clammy and red, so I guess it's not a bad circulation problem?

I wait for the phone call of my cardiologist. I call him last week and he is a lot busy, I spoke with his secretary and she said that they had to ask for my medical folder to the medical records of the hospital and when they will recieve my medical folder, the cardiologist will take some times to look at my folder and call me back. She said that he will not call before 1 week... that's a long time for me.

I wonder if hearing loss and tinnitus can be purely anxiety related OR since they happen only on my left side, it's a heart problem?

Like I wrote, I always had tinnitus but they never bother me cause I was hearing them only at night, in a quiet room... I was able to listen to my music or the TV without problem until 3 days ago... now listening to music of the TV make me just more anxious and the more I think about it and the more I hear the tin can sound  and the more I become anxious. The tinnitus and the hearing loss seem to be worse each day...

I have some eardrops at home, they are made of antipyrine and benzocaine, they are for pain and inflammation. Do you think they can be useful?

I don't had any sinus problem, no cold, no infection, nothing at all... and never had otitis problem as a kid...

The only one thing I can see who can worse the tinnitus is the fact that I take 8 mg of Klonopin every day since I read everywhere that benzodiazepine at high dose can give more severe tinnitus, but I don't use other meds for now, no aspirin, only tylenol once in a while, when my headache become more severe but only 2-3 times a week and low dose of 325 mg...

What I can ask to my Cardiologist when he will call me back? I had a stress test for my heart with a echography of my heart, I also had several ECG, I had a 24 hours Holter monitor test... with the exception of the mitral valve prolaspe, he didn't see anything wrong... so I wonder what kind of tests I need to have to be sure I don't have any blocked arteries... Nuclear imagery test?

Anyways, thanks for any advise I will recieve!!!

[john1234321]

Hi,

I have experienced all these symptoms and now they are mostly gone, except when I get a fear of something over a sustained period.  I am on the road to recovery.

I suppose there are a few things you need to know about your condition.  The first is that you could actually recover very quickly if you were to adopt the correct attitude towards your symptoms (I'll explain this attitude in a moment), but that you probably won't because you'll improve-falter- improve-falter, etc, on your way up to recovery, and this takes time. However, 3 months would not be unrealistic providing you are in a good environment.  So don't feel limited by your poor exhausted body- it will get better as your mind strengthens.  

Another thing to realise is that you dont need pills to recover.  However, you are taking them so why complicate things by removing your crutch, eh?  Just don't rely on them to reduce your symptoms- you are going to do that yourself.

And the way to do this is to face them.  If you are honest, you are afraid of your symptoms, and this is normal- new ones keep appearing, they are weird, they are ever present, they are distracting. But they are not actually painful- not like someone hitting you. They are weird (i hate tinnitis as well, but by the end I was able to just about ignore it) and not nice but not painful either.  And another thing- they are not harmful.  Your heart was designed to go much faster than this. And your blood pressure higher also.  Put the pressure gauge away- it is precisely this fear of harming your body via these symptoms that is releasing more adrenalin which in turn makes your heart thump faster and intensifying the other symptoms.

So this is what I mean about attitude- you need to try and adopt an attitude of accepting your symptoms for the time being.  They arent harmful or painful so accept their discomforting presence, knowing that by doing so, your adrenal glands will calm down and the symptoms subside.  But accept on many levels- that this acceptance wont come naturally at first, that the symptoms wont go away at first, and that their intensity could increase despite days of improvement.  You are going to be a beginner at this and it is tricky, despite its apparent simplicity.  If in doubt, just accept.  And as you improve, dont forget to keep facing the possibility of setbacks.  You will gain confidence and then lose it again- you will get better and apparently get worse again.  You will be alternately happy and then frustrated.  But if you are willing to let time pass, you will notice that things come together, that the setbacks get better, and finally you will be there- exactly where you used to be but a better person for your experience.

When you are faltering during recovery, never lose hope.  Never stop believing that this is the way and give up.  I promise you that if you stick to this advice you will recover.  You will need additional help, however.  If you can find a counsellor who isnt so concerned about uncovering some obscure reason to explain your anxiety (your anxiety is merely fear of the state you are in.  Nothing else), and who can instead support this approach, with additional ideas, great.  

Once you find acceptance of your symptoms, you must wait for time to pass for your nerves to calm down.  And this is best done by keeping yourself occupied.  You're probably really wrapped up in your illness right now, listening in to your sensations and without so much care for the world around you.  Well, you're gonna go back into the world so stop obsessing over your illness and, as much as you can, pursue other interests.  It wont be easy at first but will get easier with practise. And if you find yourself at times eagerly seeking occupation to hide from your symptoms, come out and face them again.

This is, I promise you, an explanation of what is wrong and how you need to recover.  For more details and support buy "Self Help For Your Nerves" by Claire Weekes, which is basically the long version of what Ive just said.

Hope this helps :)

OH yeah, and actually DO it!

p.s. how do you find acceptance?  its finding a sort of feeling of detachment for the sensations you are experiencing. Look for it.  Let go. Your brain may be telling you you can't but ignore it.  Once you find it the adrenalin will reduce and you will feel a bit hazy, in a nice way, and you will sleep much better, feeling refreshed afterwards.

[Alisonj29]

Its funny how when we are not in a heightened state of anxiety we are able to rationally explain our feelings and symptoms. But when we are anxious not even a team of doctors could tell us that we are ok. With your BP it likely reacts with your anxiety. Although mine is low I know when anxious it can rise quite quickly.
That is too bad that you had failed CBT attempts. I have always wanted that as an option but I would have to travel two hours a day for weeks as its not offered where I live. Plus the wait is insane.
I do hope she finds what will work for you! All the best

[txQC]

Hi Alison!
             Thanks for your answer ;-)

I totally agree with you... anxiety can cause it for sure and I know it BUT it's like the anxiety was blocking the rational part of me and I can't stop thinking that since almost all my symptoms are worse on the left side of my body, I have a heart disease. Google should be banned for peoples with anxiety disorders... lol

I was looking for my symptoms on google and fall on some studies about sudden hearing loss and heart diseases who are linked together... so it's not helping me to think rationnaly and that's what I write that google should be banned! lol

You know, I live with tinnitus (low constant sound) in my both ears since i'm 25 years old. They don't drive me crazy usually since i'm used to them.... I hear them at day time and more at bedtime but I don't care... Anxiety makes me more vulnerable to them now. The tinnitus appear because I had an employment in a noisy environment for 10 years in a row and I saw a lot of heavy metal shows in the 90's, I always listen to my music with the earphones at the maximum volum level ( I stop doing this 3 years ago when tinnitus got worse)... You know, when you are young, you don't think about the time you will be older and you dont care about the dammage you can do to your body... anyways...  the sudden hearing loss I have in my left ear since yesterday his worrying me a lot, it's worrying me a lot because I also have pulsating veins on my left temple of the head and pain on the big jugular veins on the left side of my neck... so I wonder if it can be a blood clot in that artery. It's like my symptoms follow a line from the bottom to the top of my body but only on the left side.

This morning, even if I sleep 8 hours in a row, and that's not happening often since a while, the hearing loss is still there, it's worse than yesterday so it's not related to the lack of sleep for sure.... just hearing my mom walking in the house is somewhat unbearable, that's loud and the sound is echoing in my left ear to the point that it's driving me crazy. I don't understand what happen and I can't stop wory about that. It's impossible to ignore that symptom... I can ignore the numb left hand or arm, but I can't ignore the hearing loss and echoing sound...I fear that it will be another anxiety symptoms who will stay ON forever... like the chronic headache... since music is all my life and it's the only thing in my life who make me feel good, I can't imagine living with a hearing loss problem, especially if I hear a semitone lower on the left side...

Anyways... to answer to your questions... I don't take any med for now, just the Klonopin/ 8 mg day... I had some Beta-blocker RX by my family doctor in last december (acebutolol 200 mg x 2 a day) but I took only 1/4 of a 200 mg pill and had very bad orthostatic hypotension so I don't take it again. My blood pressure go from one to the other all the time... it can be as low as 100/60 and jump to 140/90 in the same minute... Sometimes I feel more dizzy and feel out of energy, like I will pass out ( and I pass out 3-4 times in the last 6 months), and I think I have low blood pressure but if I take my blood pressure with my own machine, my blood pressure will be perfect at 120/70... other time I feel like I have high blood pressure, I have heavy chest pain, like someone his sit on my chest and my ears are red and I feel hot and I take my blood pressure and it's lower than usual around 105-110/60... For the pulse rate, it's the same... can be very low for me around 50-55 (my normal in the past was around 90 at rest) with a pounding sensation in my chest, like my heart beat very hard and will stop... and one minute later, it can start going crazy and be up to 180, even if i'm sit in the same position and didn't had any trigger for that raise in the pulse rate.

Now some usual thing for me, like taking a shower, will induce a very fast heart beat of 160 and more, if i'm alone at home I have to take my shower with the front door of the house unlock and same with the bathroom door cause I fear of having a heart attack, the phone is always near me also...so if I seek medical emergency, they will find me more easily.... most of the time, I avoid to take my shower alone at home, I always take it in the morning, before my parents leave the house to work, if I take it alone at home, most of the time the fast pulse rate will lead to a panic attack... Same thing if I have to go in the basement, since my bedroom and my computer are in the basement, I have to go there often and if I climb the stairs too fast or too often, I have a panic attack...

What I hate the most are not the panic attack who are trigger and predictable (like when i'm sit in a car or in my shower), I hate more the out of the blue panic and cardiovascular symptoms... When i'm alone at home, i'm more prone to panic and have more cardio symptoms... so i'm not surprise to have 4-5 panic attacks in the whole day if i'm alone.... but when i'm not alone at home and feel safe, I feel a lot more worry about my heart when I have out of the blue panic, who happen often also...that's hard to explain...

I just think that my entire body is weak now, who let it prone to the anxiety and i'm not surprise that I experience newer symptoms almost every week... something have to be done but my PDoc say it'll go away by itself over time... he don't want to RX antidepressant meds again cause he know I will not tolerate them... and he his maybe right, I don't know... but when I ask him how many times it will take to my brain to overcome the panic disorder and agoraphobia, he answer that he don't know... he say 6 months, 1 year, 2 years... he can't answer... so I feel somewhat hopeless... My only hope for now it's my new Therapist... and since I had 3 Therapist  (CBT therapy) in 2010 and no ones was able to reduce my symptoms and I became worse, I have big hopes in her... she use different approaches, not only CBT and gradual exposure therapy, so I hope she will find the best therapy approache for me...

Anyway, thanks again ;-) Have a nice day !!!

[Alisonj29]

Is your BP high or low or does it go from one to the other? When I had high BP it affected my ears, it also affected my ears when I needed to come off my BP meds as my BP was too low. Same with my pulse, if it gets down in the 40's it affects my hearing. Do you take Beta blockers at all. I know that they can affect your ears. However, I too without high or low BP or any underlying issues suffer from ringing in my ears as well. It drives my crazy. I have to sleep with earphones in and music playing most of the time just to sleep. I would suspect that it is not your heart at all. I take Klonopin and never noticed any hearing effects from it.
I hope you are able to find answers, but to answer your question, Yes anxiety can cause it.

[txQC]

I just notice that when I open the phone, if I put the phone on my left ear, I hear a difference in the pitch of the sound, the sound in my left ear have a lower pitch than on the right ear... Funny no? Never experience this in the past... So it's maybe not a hearing loss that I have right now but more a change in the pitch of the sound?... I wonder if adrenaline have something to do with that?

I know that some meds, especially old anticonvulsive meds like the "Carbamazepine" can produce auditory side effect like perceiving sounds about a semitone lower than previously and the inverse effect like notes sounding higher his also reported. Usually, that side-effect stop when peoples stop that med... Since the Carbamazepine is a voltage-gated sodium channels and can potentiate GABA receptors, I wonder if the Klonopin I take each day can be the cause of that ear problem???