Not everyone is the same with their tinnitus. If your tinnitus is keeping you from sleeping, stressing you out, and severely impacting your life and it helps you then trying Xanax for a bit is your choice. It is easy to say to just live with it. Some can, some cant. Taking a medication is better than going insane with it. Do what you feel is right for you.

I feel compelled to add my two cents worth regarding Xanax. I initially took it to help me sleep, but found that it did lower my tinnitus. I worked with my GP and doctors out in Oregon to start a regimen of Xanax daily. I did so for three months and actually increased dosage to 1.5mg. I started having withdrawal symptoms at this dose and absolutely refused to increase because I was already a zombie at 1.5mg. I almost lost my job and my marriage because I couldn't remember to do things at work and my emotions became so blank. I would sleep 9 or 10 hours but feel extremely tired all day. This is because Xanax does not allow a person to get into REM sleep. After three months, I began to taper off of Xanax. When I got down to about .75mg all hell broke loose. I started having major nerve problems in my left leg and foot, muscle jerking, interdose withdrawal, dizziness and other symptoms. When I got down to .25mg I water titrated off which took 4 months! It took a total of nine months to get off of 1.5mg which I was on for only three months.

To this day I still have nerve damage in my left foot, muscle twitching on my left side of my body (on and off) and insomnia. Hind sight would have told me to never start on the benzo. To me it isn't worth it to have a little bit of silence because now I don't have the silence and I am enduring withdrawal symptoms that have been going on for about two years.

Please visit a benzo withdrawal forum to see what people are going through just to get off of the drug. I know others that became so addicted that they have been on Xanax for about 20 years and can't get off of it due to severe withdrawal symptoms.

Shekinah

Shekinah

RoidRage here ... xanax is a trip ... it is the king of the benzos
hands down. It has a strange effect ... hard to describe but I will
give it a shot.

Say your neighbor knocked on your door in August ... and told you
your dog Fido got run over in the street. Well if you crunched down on a zannie ... you would show grief and feel the loose as they peeled Fido off the hot assault and placed what was left into the meat wagon, when the zannie kicks in ... you would be aware of what was going on and feel sad for Fido, but you might also notice what a nice summer day it is ... not a cloud in the sky and a lovely breeze outside ... Poor Fido ... loved that dog ... will miss him much, but you can't beat this weather ... wish the weather was always this nice.

I take xanax .. and I do not plan to stop. The one time I did stop, cold turkey was because I was unavoidably detained. Within 24 hours I had major muscle spasms, I soiled my pants and I believe I had a convulsion or two. Within three days all my symptoms went away and I actually felt awake.

Of course as soon as I got home ... I crunched down on a zannie
and just the bitter pill taste made me feel good. I guess you can
get hooked on 1.5 mg. There are people who pop them like candy.

They help tinnitus because you simply do not care about the sound. The sound is still there ... but you don't care, Fido is gone
you do care about that, but the weather is nice ... so that thought offsets the loss of Fido.... you get the point ...

Klonopin has also been a safe bet for me, when my T gets loud.

It always works for me, even at a .25 mg level.

I only use when I have to. Does lower the T a little bit, but definetly gets your mind off of it.

I could not agree more with Shugaboog--it is better than going insane!

I read Kevin's Hogan's book early on when I got T and I found it very uplifting/hopeful. Which is what I needed in the midst of my despair and hopelessness. The biggest take-away from it for me was to not stop trying things to see what works for YOU. This has been my driving force for two years...I keep trying new things.

The xylocaine perfusion is not mentioned in ATA magazine or, from what I can tell, at T conferences, so I am not sure how helpful it really is. What I have heard of LIDOCAINE perfusion is that it helps with hearing loss more than with T and only is done in the first three months. And 60% success sounds high to me.

In the last ATA magazine there was a clinical trial of Klonopin (a benzo, similar to Xanax, but slightly less addictive). This study showed that 76% of people on Klono had their T volume lowered on it. It's not that it just calms your nerves, it actually increases the GABA in your brain, which studies have shown to help many T people. Klono/Xanax can also cause some people to HAVE T, so that is probably why if you don't have T in one ear you MIGHT hear it in that one. But I think that is pretty rare. If you already have T, it works to lower it.

I have been on 1mg of Klono and never felt weird on it at all. It did quiet my T, esp when combined with gabapentin. You can see studies on that combo online and even if you search for that combo in the search box here in the T forum. I felt a bit groggy at first on the gabapentin, but it didn't last long.

The problem with benzos is they have diminishing returns. There is not a problem with being on them for years if you need them and are not having side effects, but after a few years, you will need to up the dose.

If you can find a good GP to work with you and your T, great, but I cannot urge enough for you to go to a PSYCHIATRIST for your drugs. Others on here recommended this to me and they were SO right. My GP was helpful, but my psych is GREAT. He is more willing to try things when I bring in studies for him to look at.

A friend of mine with very bad T went to the well-known Mass Eye and Ear Institute--and their rec was to give him Klono. He's a REALLY big boy (huge guy) and he was put on 3mg and he has had no side effects from it and it has quieted his T a lot. (I think he is on 2mg now and doing just as well.) If you Google Abraham Schulman, you will see he advocates the gabapentin/klono combo.

BobsDream takes Pramipexole (I had a bad reaction to that and had to stop--it is also used for restless leg syndrome, and it made me trip a lot!) and Lamictal. Someone online on Lamictal for seizures said an added benefit of the Lamictal was it lowered his T significantly. If you Google this, perhaps you can find the comment...I saw it online myself. Trileptal is another seizure med that people taking it for seizures have noted it lowers their pitch perception. I have VERY high T, so I took it with a bit of Klono and it did give me quieter days and a slightly lower pitch of T. I think BobsDream took Trileptal but may not anymore.

Others on this forum have tried Pramipexole without LASTING success (it worked at first, them stopped). Still, clinical studies have shown it does help some T people.

I discovered that the seizure med phenobarbital increases GABA in the brain and reduces glutamate in the brain--two things that some studies have shown help rats and people with T. I asked my psych about it--he suggested I try Mysoline, which changes to pheno in your system. Like gabapentin, you have to ramp up slowly on it. Once I got up to 500mg, I have had a lot of very quiet days. Only thing is, I have to take the generic made by Qualitest. If I take the other brand of generic, it makes me headach-y and sick. I have never tried the real thing (non-generic). So just remember, all generics are NOT created equal--the manufacturers are allowed some leeway in matching the formula of the original med. This is esp true for Mysoline--it even says so on the med-checker my daughter (a PA) uses--and I learned this the hard way.So if one generic of something doesn't work for you, see if there is another brand of generic available.

My advice is to find a really good doc who is willing to work with you and keep trying different things!!

McMurdo ... " phenobarbital " really? I read your post and it sounds
like you have a very .. and I mean very "liberal minded" shrink.
I also agree that shrinks are the best source for meds you may wish to try out ....
Otherwise as one of the posters said ..
"LEARN TO LIVE WITH IT !!!"
easier said than done. But the topic is here is xanax
and it's effects on "T"

Klonopin has a longer half live, meaning it stays in your system longer than xanax. However, while in your system you will feel
tired and drowsy and in my case the sound level of the "T" is the
same. All the Benzos are feel good drugs.

Xanax in my opinion just works faster and lowers the volume, so
I can sleep, it has about a 4 hour half life. To prevent your body from developing a toleration for any Benzo, my best advice is to abstain and just suffer the "T" for a day or two .. best time is weekends. Abstaining will help because your brain will re-adjust
and when you do take a Benzo again you will not feel the need to
up the dose.

Abstaining may also lessen the risk of addiction and xanax is not
something that you want to be addicted to, because getting off it
is hard and can be a real wild ride as was mentioned in another
post.

Let's just say people trying to kick heroin are prescribed high doses of xanax to help knock back their panic attacks while
they taper off on Methadone.

Xanax is not to be taken lightly, boy but it does work on "T"
and anxiety in general. I personally get REM sleep .. when
I fall asleep after taking 1 mg of xanax.

Can't say that personally I never mix it with alcohol, that I never
take it during the day nor can I claim I abstain from it for a few
days at a time ... but you should ..

My dad told me he would kick my butt if he ever caught me smoking ... he was puffin on a Lucky Strike cigarette at the time.
I knew he meant well .. and I never smoked. He could not stop
but he knew it was wrong for me to start ..... lol :-)

Who is kidding who ... Xanax rocks ... period ... you have not tried it
well you are missing out ... it helps with "T" but it makes you feel so
good.

Oh .. give a girl a couple of zz's and then some beer ... rum and coke .. vodka mixed drink .... and chances are you will get lucky .. ha ha ha.

Plus your "T" woun't be as loud while you are banging her ... Deep Thoughs ... by Jack Handy :-)