Mostly was taking 15-17.5, sometimes 20mg. My doctor cold turkeyed me last July which was a risky move but it'd only been 6 months and I gradually went from 5, 7.5, 10mg until I hit 15mg eventually so I didn't seem to have any withdrawal. Once my tinnitus came back significantly worse and I was hospitalized briefly for suicidal behavior and then my doctor put me back on it. I don't know if I'll come off it any time soon because my tinnitus keeps getting worse, especially after trying acupuncture. Been 5 weeks since my last one (had 1 a week for 3 weeks) and my ears are still absolutely wrecked.
I don't know what this guy did but it ruined my life, I can't even go out of town anymore because on the way back, my ears always spike extremely bad. Can't lie down after work if I'm tired or my ears will get extremely bad. I've used niacin recently which was very successful at first but suddenly it doesn't work. I believe it's tolerance but people tell me you can't have a tolerance to a vitamin. Ever since I took an extra gram of it after coming back from out of town a week ago it suddenly stopped working until I upped it to 2.5g but that didn't last, and yesterday I had to try 3g which worked but not as well as 1g was working 2 weeks ago. I asked about tolerance on reddit and nobody thinks it's possible, but if you can gain tolerance to the flush why wouldn't you be able to gain tolerance to it alleviating something? I probably have to stop taking it for a few days or something.
Either way I have an MRI coming up Friday which could possibly find out why my tinnitus is so bad or why I still get headaches a lot. I see a chiropractor tomorrow as well just in case it could be related to my back or neck, I can't see why else lying down would make it worse. My spikes used to go down after lying down but ever since the acupuncture, they don't. My stomach also got really fucked up from the acupunctures, I've had regular stomachaches ever since. All I know is, if the MRI doesn't find anything I'm scared of what I'll do... I also see a hematologist in a few weeks because I have mild anemia and some low red/white blood cell count.
It's possible this is related to my tinnitus but who knows. Niacin increases bloodflow so if my bloodflow to the ears is poor it could explain it, my eardrums literally don't move after all. Something is causing this tinnitus regardless and I don't know who is going to figure it out. One strange thing is that if I'm squatting down and I get up fast, it temporarily goes away while I feel light headed, which I do a lot now after going years without feeling that after getting up fast. Back when that'd happen more often, I'd GET tinnitus while lightheaded, whereas now it goes away for 10-15 seconds.
So yeah things aren't looking too good in my life right now. I would come off the Valium in the snap of a finger if someone found a way to cure my tinnitus. I had faith in the acupunctures because I read of success stories on the tinnitustalk forum but all it did was make mine way worse and give me hyperacusis as well. So any kind of noise, even talking will cause my right ear to begin ringing. Knocking on wood or something too. I didn't have hyperacusis before the acupunctures, so this guy really fucked up something... My stomach was also perfectly fine all year until them too. He did put needles in my lower belly for the first 2 but I didn't have him do that for the 3rd, yet my stomach was even more fucked up.
He said it's to get "phlegm out of your stomach since that could be contributing to your tinnitus" which is just some outrageously weird theory. Wanted me to then try like 10 different herbs made into a tea but I've read about some of them causing people to go braindead, my mother personally treated patients when she was a nurse who'd been given herbs by acupuncturists and 2 of them died. Even if it's not common, I don't know if I want to try the herbs. for all I know it could also make the tinnitus worse.
