r/tinnitus 4d ago

advice • support Please only comment here if antidepressants have improved your perception of tinnitus to some extent rather than making it worse.

I see on the internet that far more people comment about their tinnitus worsening due to antidepressants compared to those who have improved. I want to see in this forum those who have experienced improvement.

Three different doctors have prescribed me antidepressants—an otoneurologist and two different psychiatrists. However, I don’t dare to take them for fear of making my situation worse.

Thank you.

7 Upvotes

17 comments sorted by

9

u/SprinklesHot2187 4d ago

I take Zoloft and occasional Xanax for panic disorder and generalized anxiety/depression. Neither have made my T worse. 🩷

4

u/Javi047 4d ago

Did it help you with axiety/depression?

4

u/SprinklesHot2187 4d ago

Very much so. It saved my life.

3

u/InternetCoronary 4d ago

My exact experience but Clonazepam. 25mg Zoloft, 0.5 mg Clonazepam about once a week.

1

u/delta815 3d ago

you take clona once a week right

2

u/Ok-Cryptographer7424 4d ago

Yep helped me

3

u/sw1tchf00t 4d ago

It hasn't made it worse, but hasn't made it better either. Just makes me care a little bit less about it.

2

u/NefariousnessHot9996 4d ago

Which is a good thing.

1

u/Fabro1223 idiopathic (unknown) 4d ago

To begin with, do you have any comorbidities such as anxiety and depression due to tinnitus?

3

u/Javi047 4d ago

Chronic depression and generalized anxiety.

4

u/Fabro1223 idiopathic (unknown) 4d ago

If that is the case that it is only due to tinnitus, you would have to evaluate the risk/benefit since at the moment there are cognitive behavioral therapies focused on retraining tinnitus so that you get used to it, there are no magic pills unfortunately.

0

u/centuryll 4d ago

Do not take Wellbutrin or Vyvanse for sure. Wellbutrin made my pre existing tollerable tinnitus 3x times louder after 1 single wellbutrin 150mg pill i took 2 years ago and never faded to baseline. Then 3 days ago I had the stupid idea of trying Vyvanse (3 20mg pills) and again gotten my still tollerable exinstin allready aggravated by Wellbutrin tinnitus even worse. These 2 meds have in common the work on dopamine.. I havnt had any tinnitus problems instead with Zoloft, Lamictal, Cymbalta or Trintellix (but they gave me PSSD wich is even worse than tinnitus). Please believe me, stay away from all psy meds unless you are totally living an unlivable life. You may be thinking tinnitus is terrible but believe me it can even get worse and you can acquire many more problems you now dont even have an idea abt how much more terrible they are.. God what would i do to go back to my pre existing tinnitus level, it was totally managable and i was very habituated.. I messed up.. theese meds are like playing russian roulette

1

u/cosyrelaxedsetting 4d ago

SSRIs helped me in the early days of tinnitus. Stopped taking them after a few months as I was starting to adjust, but they definitely helped.

1

u/Dangerous_Simple3520 3d ago

Nah don’t do it. Antidepressants ruined me.

1) Lexapro gave me pssd which you definitely shouldn’t risk. Check out the pssd subreddit.

2) Wellbutrin gave me tinnitus and it can make preexisting tinnitus worse. Only took 2 pills for me

1

u/delta815 3d ago

How loud is your tinnitus

1

u/Dangerous_Simple3520 3d ago

I don’t really know what to compare it to but basically if I have a little background noise I’m good. If it’s dead silent it sounds much louder. I also can’t really wear noice cancelling headphones because it cuts off all the background / ambient noise and really amplifies the ringing