September 13, 2024 • 13 mins
Welcome to today's episode where we delve into the relentless and often misunderstood condition of tinnitus. Our host shares personal experiences of living with this pervasive ringing in the ears, drawing attention to the struggles that many face daily.
From the challenges of concentration and sleep to the quest for relief through various medications, this episode provides a raw and honest look at the impact of tinnitus. We also touch on other health issues like head injuries, MS, migraines, and the effects of different medications.
Join us as we explore the importance of mental health, the role of antidepressants, and the significance of finding joy in life despite chronic health challenges. This episode is a call to awareness and understanding for those who may not realize the true burden of tinnitus.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello, everybody, and welcome to my podcast. First off, I want to apologize.
I don't really have the best equipment, so this podcast may not sound like all
the other guys, but I'm doing the best I can.
Okay, so this podcast is about tinnitus. If you have a head injury or MS,
(00:22):
this is something you might deal with.
And a lot of people that don't have it may discount tinnitus,
but tinnitus is terrible. I have tinnitus.
And for those of you who don't have it, imagine never having another moment
of quiet for the rest of your life.
(00:43):
You are constantly in a ringing environment that is pervasive. It never ends.
It's constantly drilling into your brain no matter what you do.
You're trying to concentrate and there's ringing going on and it never ends.
That's tinnitus. And it can be, I don't know, maddening at some points in time. It's terrible.
(01:13):
A lot of people with tinnitus will just constantly be trying to do something
to avoid that noise, and it's mind-bending.
And there's nothing anybody can do to it for it. It's the nerves that are receiving
sound going to the brain that are damaged, and that causes that noise. And...
(01:41):
I don't see how people don't just go absolutely out of their minds dealing with tinnitus.
The VA has some pretty strict rules for tinnitus. They don't rate it very high.
I don't get it.
(02:01):
I've had it for a lot of years because I have a lot of different things that I have to deal with.
So tinnitus isn't the top of my list, but there are times my tinnitus is so bad,
I think that there's like a group of locusts, like a giant swarm of locusts
(02:22):
flying around behind me.
It's yeah it's horrible and that's
not something that that is easy to deal
with it gets so loud that it's hard
to it's hard to go to sleep with it because it's
just this terrible terrible noise that's
constantly ringing in your ears and uh
(02:45):
you know you want to have like music playing to have drowned it out and you
you're always trying to find some way to drown it out and it it just drills
into your mind and it makes it very hard to concentrate so yeah that's not it's not.
It's not a good thing to have so that
(03:08):
tinnitus is just horrible so i
thought i'd bring that up there are some medications they can give you for it
but yeah uh there's nerve medications that that'll give you gabapentin is one
of them i'm on gabapentin i haven't seen a lot of negative effects from gabapentin
i've been on a lot of different nerve medications over the course of my,
(03:31):
history uh topamax is one of them uh topamax is more for um.
Uh, migraines, um, I always have this like elephant sitting on my head type thing.
I don't know how many of you have migraines, but I think Topamax is one of the
first things they'll prescribe you.
(03:52):
I haven't had a lot of negative reactions to Topamax.
Everybody says it'll make soda taste like crap, but I haven't noticed it.
But gabapentin, I haven't had any really negative effects from.
I am on quite a few antidepressants.
(04:16):
I actually kind of like the antidepressants I'm on. They seem to have evened me out.
I think when I had my head injury, I had a big personality shift.
I wasn't ever a very angry person before that.
I was fairly even-tempered, but when I had my head injury, I became a very angry person.
(04:41):
And that pretty much stuck with me.
It never really changed, and that's not good because I was never that kind of guy.
So when I went, got used to my antidepressants, I kind of shifted back to the person I was.
But I had a problem where I got my doctor prescribed adamantidine and bupropion.
(05:06):
And the levels were pretty high, the amount, the dosages.
And that really messed me up. I was like hallucinating, seeing bubbles and froth.
Shaking like a leaf and having some really
bad problems but so
i had to kind of figure that out and i had
to come off adamantadine uh you have
(05:29):
to be careful with the medications your doctor
gives you i don't know you know if your doctor very closely monitors you then
yeah that's fine maybe he takes care of you a lot better than mine does but
you've got to be careful because Because some of those medication combinations
can really hose you up, man.
(05:50):
Adimedidine, bupropion, and something in the mix of what they were giving me
really, really toasted me.
I was shaking all over the place, seeing things, urinating myself.
It was definitely not a good deal. So I had to take myself off of adimedidine.
And finally i got
(06:13):
you know leveled out again but adamantadine is
a medication that they give for uh people
with ms that have fatigue problems and it's the first line of medication they
give for people that have fatigue problem i'm going to tell you what if you're
on adamantadine and they're giving it to you for fatigue i would tell your doctor
(06:35):
no and get off of it right now
because it is a nasty drug.
Um, I would go on menophthalin or whatever they call it. Um.
Provigil is another name for it.
I mean, it is a decent drug to be on, uh, but they'll tell you it's non-addictive.
But if you do look at the studies that, um.
(07:02):
The studies that they have on it now, you'll find that it is actually an addictive drug.
A lot of people do get addicted to it and they have to go to places to,
you know, go through a withdrawal.
So I would actually be careful about taking it.
(07:23):
And when you do decide to go off of it, wean off of it.
Don't go cold turkey because the doctors will tell you, well,
this is a non-addictive substance, but yeah, it, that's not true.
Um, it is a very addictive, it is an addictive substance to some people.
Uh, some people don't have problems with it, but some people do have problems with it.
(07:47):
So definitely be aware of that.
Um, and if you're on the MS drugs,
I've gone over this before be very aware that the MS drugs are kind of a hit
and miss situation You know a lot of them can mess you up a lot of them,
Don't have a real good track record of doing anything good for you You know.
(08:14):
The antidepressants are fairly decent at helping you.
I've seen a lot of good benefits taking my antidepressants.
So I have to say that I've been impressed.
And I'm not a real, I don't take medication. I'm just not that kind of guy.
(08:35):
They gave me a narcotic for pain, and the bottle's still there.
It's like 10 years old. I never opened it because I'd rather be in pain than,
than zonked out. I want to be part of life, right?
I want to experience life as it, as it happens. I don't want to be,
you know, totally wasted. And that's a problem, right?
(08:58):
Um, I understand that these illnesses and diseases kind of hurt and they do
put us in this situation where it's hard to participate in life,
but But you don't want to be zonked out and missing life.
I mean, life is there for you to enjoy. So try to enjoy it as much as you can, right?
(09:19):
Why be zonked out and not enjoy what life you can have, right?
Try to have as much of it as you can and have it your way.
Don't let people tell you, well, don't do that, don't do that.
Enjoy your life the way you want it. Because for us, life may not be shortened,
(09:39):
but it is definitely curtailed.
It's not what everybody has. I know I can't drive, right?
I can't walk very far anymore. I can't.
I mean, my life is definitely curtailed. So enjoy it the way you can as much as you can.
Don't let people take away what little life you can actually enjoy.
(10:02):
You know and don't let them judge you fuck being judged man.
I will never let anybody judge me again.
If they don't want to be part of your ride, tell them to get off,
man. You know what I mean? That's something that's important.
(10:23):
If you can't exist in their realm, then tell them to step off,
man, and enjoy the life that you want.
Being happy is what's important.
You know, for people like us that, that actually have these autoimmune diseases
and these, um, PTSD is a horrible one, man.
(10:47):
If you're suffering from PTSD and that type of trauma in your life,
it, try to enjoy what you can.
Don't let other people judge you and push you into a corner. Try to be happy.
Even the even the smallest little happiness and joy in your life is important
(11:09):
You know tiny little things that make you happy are important.
I Can't tell you how how much The tiniest little joy in my life makes me makes me happy, you know, I,
So, yeah, you know, and something else I had, I got to be really honest with you.
(11:34):
Don't be afraid to step out of your box, you know, go on a little trip.
If you can go, go out in the sun. If you can be, be as adventurous as you possibly
can, because those things, those things are wonderful, you know?
Anyway, I don't really have a lot more to talk about. Tinnitus was my point this time around.
(11:58):
And tinnitus is, you know, it's not really a life-threatening medical condition.
It's not really a, it's just a horrible freaking thing to deal with, man.
It's, it's terrible. And people just don't, they don't count it as,
you know, well, tinnitus, blah, blah, blah.
Imagine never having a moment of quiet again, the rest of your freaking life.
(12:21):
That is, that's torture. I mean, if you put somebody in a room and made them
listen to a ringing sound 24 hours a day, seven days a week,
the Geneva Convention, I'm telling you, freaking people that are against torture
worldwide would come after you.
And that's what people with tinnitus have to deal with.
(12:43):
And for some reason, the medical community is like, well, that's just the way
it is. You know, it shouldn't be that way.
It's ridiculous. ridiculous it's absolutely insane you
know why would why why is it not like that that's what I want to know is why
is it like that why are people with tinnitus written off like that it's not
acceptable man there should be people working on it around the clock trying
(13:07):
to figure out how to stop it it's not okay anyway I'm signing off thank you
for listening to my podcast.
Hello, everybody, and welcome to my podcast. First off, I want to apologize.
I don't really have the best equipment, so this podcast may not sound like all
the other guys, but I'm doing the best I can.
Okay, so this podcast is about tinnitus. If you have a head injury or MS,
(00:22):
this is something you might deal with.
And a lot of people that don't have it may discount tinnitus,
but tinnitus is terrible. I have tinnitus.
And for those of you who don't have it, imagine never having another moment
of quiet for the rest of your life.
(00:43):
You are constantly in a ringing environment that is pervasive. It never ends.
It's constantly drilling into your brain no matter what you do.
You're trying to concentrate and there's ringing going on and it never ends.
That's tinnitus. And it can be, I don't know, maddening at some points in time. It's terrible.
(01:13):
A lot of people with tinnitus will just constantly be trying to do something
to avoid that noise, and it's mind-bending.
And there's nothing anybody can do to it for it. It's the nerves that are receiving
sound going to the brain that are damaged, and that causes that noise. And...
(01:41):
I don't see how people don't just go absolutely out of their minds dealing with tinnitus.
The VA has some pretty strict rules for tinnitus. They don't rate it very high.
I don't get it.
(02:01):
I've had it for a lot of years because I have a lot of different things that I have to deal with.
So tinnitus isn't the top of my list, but there are times my tinnitus is so bad,
I think that there's like a group of locusts, like a giant swarm of locusts
(02:22):
flying around behind me.
It's yeah it's horrible and that's
not something that that is easy to deal
with it gets so loud that it's hard
to it's hard to go to sleep with it because it's
just this terrible terrible noise that's
constantly ringing in your ears and uh
(02:45):
you know you want to have like music playing to have drowned it out and you
you're always trying to find some way to drown it out and it it just drills
into your mind and it makes it very hard to concentrate so yeah that's not it's not.
It's not a good thing to have so that
(03:08):
tinnitus is just horrible so i
thought i'd bring that up there are some medications they can give you for it
but yeah uh there's nerve medications that that'll give you gabapentin is one
of them i'm on gabapentin i haven't seen a lot of negative effects from gabapentin
i've been on a lot of different nerve medications over the course of my,
(03:31):
history uh topamax is one of them uh topamax is more for um.
Uh, migraines, um, I always have this like elephant sitting on my head type thing.
I don't know how many of you have migraines, but I think Topamax is one of the
first things they'll prescribe you.
(03:52):
I haven't had a lot of negative reactions to Topamax.
Everybody says it'll make soda taste like crap, but I haven't noticed it.
But gabapentin, I haven't had any really negative effects from.
I am on quite a few antidepressants.
(04:16):
I actually kind of like the antidepressants I'm on. They seem to have evened me out.
I think when I had my head injury, I had a big personality shift.
I wasn't ever a very angry person before that.
I was fairly even-tempered, but when I had my head injury, I became a very angry person.
(04:41):
And that pretty much stuck with me.
It never really changed, and that's not good because I was never that kind of guy.
So when I went, got used to my antidepressants, I kind of shifted back to the person I was.
But I had a problem where I got my doctor prescribed adamantidine and bupropion.
(05:06):
And the levels were pretty high, the amount, the dosages.
And that really messed me up. I was like hallucinating, seeing bubbles and froth.
Shaking like a leaf and having some really
bad problems but so
i had to kind of figure that out and i had
to come off adamantadine uh you have
(05:29):
to be careful with the medications your doctor
gives you i don't know you know if your doctor very closely monitors you then
yeah that's fine maybe he takes care of you a lot better than mine does but
you've got to be careful because Because some of those medication combinations
can really hose you up, man.
(05:50):
Adimedidine, bupropion, and something in the mix of what they were giving me
really, really toasted me.
I was shaking all over the place, seeing things, urinating myself.
It was definitely not a good deal. So I had to take myself off of adimedidine.
And finally i got
(06:13):
you know leveled out again but adamantadine is
a medication that they give for uh people
with ms that have fatigue problems and it's the first line of medication they
give for people that have fatigue problem i'm going to tell you what if you're
on adamantadine and they're giving it to you for fatigue i would tell your doctor
(06:35):
no and get off of it right now
because it is a nasty drug.
Um, I would go on menophthalin or whatever they call it. Um.
Provigil is another name for it.
I mean, it is a decent drug to be on, uh, but they'll tell you it's non-addictive.
But if you do look at the studies that, um.
(07:02):
The studies that they have on it now, you'll find that it is actually an addictive drug.
A lot of people do get addicted to it and they have to go to places to,
you know, go through a withdrawal.
So I would actually be careful about taking it.
(07:23):
And when you do decide to go off of it, wean off of it.
Don't go cold turkey because the doctors will tell you, well,
this is a non-addictive substance, but yeah, it, that's not true.
Um, it is a very addictive, it is an addictive substance to some people.
Uh, some people don't have problems with it, but some people do have problems with it.
(07:47):
So definitely be aware of that.
Um, and if you're on the MS drugs,
I've gone over this before be very aware that the MS drugs are kind of a hit
and miss situation You know a lot of them can mess you up a lot of them,
Don't have a real good track record of doing anything good for you You know.
(08:14):
The antidepressants are fairly decent at helping you.
I've seen a lot of good benefits taking my antidepressants.
So I have to say that I've been impressed.
And I'm not a real, I don't take medication. I'm just not that kind of guy.
(08:35):
They gave me a narcotic for pain, and the bottle's still there.
It's like 10 years old. I never opened it because I'd rather be in pain than,
than zonked out. I want to be part of life, right?
I want to experience life as it, as it happens. I don't want to be,
you know, totally wasted. And that's a problem, right?
(08:58):
Um, I understand that these illnesses and diseases kind of hurt and they do
put us in this situation where it's hard to participate in life,
but But you don't want to be zonked out and missing life.
I mean, life is there for you to enjoy. So try to enjoy it as much as you can, right?
(09:19):
Why be zonked out and not enjoy what life you can have, right?
Try to have as much of it as you can and have it your way.
Don't let people tell you, well, don't do that, don't do that.
Enjoy your life the way you want it. Because for us, life may not be shortened,
(09:39):
but it is definitely curtailed.
It's not what everybody has. I know I can't drive, right?
I can't walk very far anymore. I can't.
I mean, my life is definitely curtailed. So enjoy it the way you can as much as you can.
Don't let people take away what little life you can actually enjoy.
(10:02):
You know and don't let them judge you fuck being judged man.
I will never let anybody judge me again.
If they don't want to be part of your ride, tell them to get off,
man. You know what I mean? That's something that's important.
(10:23):
If you can't exist in their realm, then tell them to step off,
man, and enjoy the life that you want.
Being happy is what's important.
You know, for people like us that, that actually have these autoimmune diseases
and these, um, PTSD is a horrible one, man.
(10:47):
If you're suffering from PTSD and that type of trauma in your life,
it, try to enjoy what you can.
Don't let other people judge you and push you into a corner. Try to be happy.
Even the even the smallest little happiness and joy in your life is important
(11:09):
You know tiny little things that make you happy are important.
I Can't tell you how how much The tiniest little joy in my life makes me makes me happy, you know, I,
So, yeah, you know, and something else I had, I got to be really honest with you.
(11:34):
Don't be afraid to step out of your box, you know, go on a little trip.
If you can go, go out in the sun. If you can be, be as adventurous as you possibly
can, because those things, those things are wonderful, you know?
Anyway, I don't really have a lot more to talk about. Tinnitus was my point this time around.
(11:58):
And tinnitus is, you know, it's not really a life-threatening medical condition.
It's not really a, it's just a horrible freaking thing to deal with, man.
It's, it's terrible. And people just don't, they don't count it as,
you know, well, tinnitus, blah, blah, blah.
Imagine never having a moment of quiet again, the rest of your freaking life.
(12:21):
That is, that's torture. I mean, if you put somebody in a room and made them
listen to a ringing sound 24 hours a day, seven days a week,
the Geneva Convention, I'm telling you, freaking people that are against torture
worldwide would come after you.
And that's what people with tinnitus have to deal with.
(12:43):
And for some reason, the medical community is like, well, that's just the way
it is. You know, it shouldn't be that way.
It's ridiculous. ridiculous it's absolutely insane you
know why would why why is it not like that that's what I want to know is why
is it like that why are people with tinnitus written off like that it's not
acceptable man there should be people working on it around the clock trying
(13:07):
to figure out how to stop it it's not okay anyway I'm signing off thank you
for listening to my podcast.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.