DonnieB

Just curious if any other people here suffer from a loud, consistent ringing in the ears (tinnitus); and use alcohol to block out the noise.

A sad consequence to that behaviour, I have found, is the ringing in the morning is even more pronounced.

Looking forward to seeing if it is just me- or if others do the same. A most shallow excuse to drink, to be sure- but I used it regularly!

HappyBlue

I've had constant tinnitus for over a year and half now. I never noticed drinking helping it though. I've had it for so long now that unless I think about it I don't really notice it.

Ionray

I didn't have it before becoming an alcoholic and didn't notice it while I was active, but since getting sober over a year ago I now have constant tinnitus in both ears. I asked my doc about it and he said it is very hard to diagnose and treat, so I've just learned to live with it.

I assume its neurological fallout from all the years of abuse. Thanks, alcohol!

Soberwolf

No i havnt

if you think you have tinunitus speak to your doc never try and solve a problem with Alcohol

it always makes things worse

Sulu1

I have tinnitus, most of the time I ignore it these days but it used to really wind me up.

I actually find that drinking makes mine much louder and more pronounced. Another reason not to drink!

GracieLou

This is the same for me. I can ignore it most of the time. I ignored it all day until I read this thread..LOL

Drinking did make it worse.

I have had it over ten years and I have learned to live with it. As I am typing it is getting louder

alwayssober1

Yes I've had noise induced tinnitus for over 2 years now and still am affected by it greatly everyday. When I first got it in 2012 I started drinking everyday, doctors couldn't help me, there was no cure, so I used alcohol as my "medication", to stop the panic, anxiety, depression, to sleep at night and I must admit it worked very well. I would have a awful day then by evening after the 4th or 5th beer I finally got some pleasure out of life, that was that, I was going to become a life long heavy drinker to help cope with this awful noise.

After a year of drinking heavily everyday one afternoon my tinnitus suddenly got worse, it got louder, the tone changed, I found out alcohol is ototoxic (damaging to the inner ear) and all that alcohol everyday had a cumulative effect and increased my tinnitus permanently.

The " one coping mechanism " I was using the first year was actually slowly damaging my ears even more, I was totally unaware at the time, I thought alcohol had no effect on tinnitus because every morning I woke up hungover my tinnitus was the same volume, it was the cumulative effect of alcohol over a year that finally one afternoon made my tinnitus a lot louder.

Tinnitus is evil because you have to avoid loud noises to prevent it getting worse, I wear earplugs every time I leave the house (even though that makes my T intolerable). I haven't worked in years because the only work I can get were in loud industral environments, my life is on hold right now, I always have at least some low level sadness/depression because of the noise, some days are better than others, my only goal now is the stop it getting worse again in the future, for me that's being super vigilant against loud noise and not drinking (even though on really bad days that's all I want to do!). Its not much of a life and hope my situation changes in the future but right now things aren't great!

earlyriser

I suffer from this as well, for as long as I can remember, and well before I became a heavy drinker. I seem to be able to tune it out, though after reading this thread, at the moment it seems louder than ever! I often wonder what it would be like if it suddenly stopped, as I've become so used to it.

I have to bet, though, that like everything else, drinking won't make it any better.

Earlyriser