The lethal effects of Tinnitus:
Glen's story
According to the British Tinnitus Association (BTA), most people with tinnitus will experience the condition on a mild-to-moderate basis. For others, their tinnitus is so intrusive and bothersome, that it can become utterly debilitating and even lethal.
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By Sam Teesdale
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Glen Mitchell loved music. He and his wife Linda were avid rock fans, it wouldn't have been an uncommon sight to see them both enjoying themselves into the early hours of the morning at a gig.
However, one particular event on an Easter weekend marked the beginning of a devastating relationship with severe tinnitus, a story that had horrifying consequences for them both.
Glen’s story also reveals serious issues with the way in which doctors treat people with tinnitus. Glen and Linda were faced with ignorance from GPs, audiologists and crisis teams as the pair tried to manoeuvre their way through a condition which to this day, is still misunderstood.
Linda explains how Glen's tinnitus began. “We went to a pub over an Easter weekend, 10 years ago. We saw a band that was too loud and we both ended up getting catastrophic ear trauma. I was quite fortunate that my tinnitus cleared up pretty much by the next day, but his never did.
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An average rock concert produces around 100-120 dB of sound - enough to permanently damage hearing in minutes. (Image: Wikimedia)
“The stress and anxiety of it all made it worse for him, and at the end of the day, his condition never got better.
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​“It started off with the initial whistling that you get after a gig. Then he was getting crackling and the out-of-tune radio type sounds. He was getting clicking noises too.”
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Glen experienced first-hand the destructive cycle between tinnitus and stress.
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“As his stress got worse, his anxiety got worse and his terror got worse," Linda says. "He just ended up getting more and more sounds going round in his head. This obviously made his tinnitus even worse and the cycle continued.
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“At one point he was running around terrified because he thought he had bugs in his head because of the clicking and fluttering noises. He actually thought he had bugs inside his ears because of the sensation."
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Musical Hallucinations
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Linda illustrates how Glen suffered musical hallucinations as his tinnitus worsened.
“Glen was a huge rock fan. The joke was that the musical hallucinations that he was getting were actually country and western. Which, if you're a rock fan, is absolute torture in itself,” she jokes.
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The British Tinnitus Association (BTA) explains that “Musical hallucinations are typically heard as short fragments of simple melodies - often from music heard regularly and familiar from youth and especially from hymns and carols.”
Musical hallucinations are a misunderstood aspect of severe tinnitus, as medical professionals often conflate these hallucinations with psychiatric conditions - such as Schizophrenia. The BTA affirms that there is "no connection between the two conditions".
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Musical Hallucinations are one of the less understood aspects of Tinnitus (Image: Sam Teesdale)
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Linda describes how this lack of understanding between the two conditions exacerbated Glen's distress.
“He wasn't aware of musical hallucinations to do with tinnitus, he thought he was losing his mind and that he was going crazy. There's so much overlap between the psychological effects of tinnitus, as well as the impact that it has on one's life. That's what people just don't understand, more so including, the medical professionals.”
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​The trauma to Glen’s ears was so sustained, that the inner parts of his ear were spasming, causing immense pain - both physically and mentally.
“People with tinnitus actually get physical pain from it, because of the tension in the rest of the body. As well as all the psychological issues, there is actual, genuine physical pain,” she adds.
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Tinnitus and sleep
As Glen’s symptoms worsened, his normal sleeping pattern began to unravel. The nights of good quality sleep were gone as he was now plagued by a deafening and worsening level of tinnitus.
“The less sleep he got, the worse his stress got and the worse his symptoms got. Everything is amplified when you're tired. People worry so much about tinnitus because it stops them from sleeping."
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Tinnitus and sleep disturbance share a close relationship. One study from 2019 found that half of tinnitus sufferers experience a poor quality of sleep. The research found that severe tinnitus led to an even poorer standard of sleep.
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Linda describes the problems with using anti-anxiety drugs to treat tinnitus (Audio: Linda Mitchell)
“When someone first goes to the GP and says that they're struggling with sleep, stress and tinnitus, the GP’s knee jerk reaction is to throw amitriptyline at them. Amitriptyline is one of the worst offenders because its side effects enhance tinnitus symptoms,” Linda explains.
“In those first couple of weeks when someone first presents with tinnitus, what they need is good information, reassurance and validation of their fear. Not drugs, because drugs for so many people makes the symptoms worse. A couple of days worth of bog-standard sleeping pills is a better option than chucking someone on anti-anxieties."
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According to the NHS, Amitriptyline ‘is an antidepressant medication, used to treat low mood and depression.’ It works by producing more serotonin - a mood stabilising chemical in the brain.
Amitriptyline, however, has been reported to have a strong ototoxic (ear damaging) effect on patients - something Glen’s GP should have been well aware of, before prescribing it to a patient with severe tinnitus.
Linda's mental state soon began to worsen, along with Glen's. “I wasn't sleeping because he wasn't sleeping. I'm stressed and upset because I can't help him. This man has a super-human pain threshold but this thing, whatever it was, had this normal, happy, healthy man on his knees and absolutely wrecked.”
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“Back then, there was even less knowledge about ear protection and ear damage than there is now. He tried to get support, he tried to get help, he tried to get information, but he didn't get what he needed."
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Linda became increasingly frustrated by the disregard the doctors exhibited towards Glen.
“The end result was that when he did finally see a GP, the doctor just so blatantly didn't give a damn. He gave no help, no advice, but instead gave Glen a prescription for tablets that were actually enough to go away and kill himself with, even though he had told the GP that he was suicidal,” she says.
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Glen and Linda during happier times (Image: Linda Mitchell)
"This thing, whatever it was, had this normal, happy man on his knees."
Just 48 hours after that appointment, Glen tried to kill himself.
“He survived that attempt, but there was 12 weeks after that, of us constantly going around in circles trying to get help, trying to get support or trying to get an improvement in his condition.
“Everyone was telling him to go away and live with it. They didn't offer any assistance, any psychological support or any emotional support. They (the medical professionals) dumped that on me.”
Linda pleaded with Glen's doctors to give him the right support and psychiatric resources. ​
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“I kept saying, ‘He needs psychological support. He needs psychological help. He needs counselling’ especially after the first suicide attempt.
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'What do you think I've been doing?'
(Audio: Linda Mitchell)
“I was working full time and we were in a new area where we had no friends or family around us, which we made clear to the medics as well. All the GP said was, ‘Oh, aren't you lucky, you've got such a good wife supporting you'.​
The chronic inaction displayed by GPs and medics had terrible consequences for Glen and Linda.
“The end result was that 12 weeks after contracting his tinnitus symptoms, he killed himself. He just couldn't cope with the symptoms, and with the lack of support.”
After three months of debilitating tinnitus, Glen took his own life. The combination of severe tinnitus coupled with the disregard exhibited by medical professionals proved to be lethal.
The quality of psychiatric care was so woeful in fact, that the NHS crisis team phoned Glen three days after he had succeeded in killing himself.
“It feels like a million years ago, and again, it feels like only yesterday. Back then the information on the internet was even worse than it is now. Everything that you looked up was horrifying. It was all horror stories - that nothing could be done for your condition," Linda says.​
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Glen and Linda
(Image: Linda Mitchell)
“The support groups that were around at the time weren’t moderated either. People were going online posting their terrible, terrible stories. Glen was seeing it all and he had absolutely no hope at all.
“I was reading the same things but I was picking out positive stories. That's the difference between the person that is suffering and the person that isn't - your mindset is totally different.”
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Lessons to be learned
Although Glen’s story is of a tragic, yet avoidable nature, Linda is determined to share the lessons she has learned.
“The motto of Glen's story is; he was failed because there were things out there that could have helped him. But he couldn't get access to it because of the ignorance of the system.
Glen’s suicide was 10 years ago, and in the decade since, there has been a positive shift for change with regard to how tinnitus patients are treated by medical professionals.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) released an extensive set of guidelines and recommendations for health professionals when caring for people with tinnitus.
"There is help, there is hope. You're not alone"
The document sets out in no uncertain terms how to support individuals with tinnitus. It provides clear guidance on things such as psychiatric support, crisis team referrals, psychoacoustic testing and much more.
Linda describes the guidance as "incredibly important" as it ensures “that the person who has tinnitus is empathised with.”
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She remembers Glen as a "kind and caring man, with an amazing sense of humour and a real love for life, with so much to live for."
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Tinnitus robbed Glen and Linda of so much. It robbed them of their future, their plans and the comforting normality of life that so many of us rarely appreciate.
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For people living with severe tinnitus, simply sitting in a quiet room and being unable to hear the constant roar of tinnitus, sadly remains an unattainable desire.
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Glen was a 'positive and intelligent man.' (Image: Linda Mitchell)
The most utterly tragic aspect about this story is that it could have been avoided; If Glen had received the right psychiatric support, or if his GP appointments hadn’t ended with him feeling more anxious than he did when he arrived.
A simple validation of his feelings and worries from a GP would have done a great deal of help for him.
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However, Glen was denied that support. He was disregarded by the very system which should have protected and cared for him. Although the conversations and guidance surrounding mental health and tinnitus have improved in recent years, there is still a way to go.
Linda believes that everybody should take stock of the important and urgent lessons within Glen's story.
“There is help, there is hope. You're not alone, because the worst thing with tinnitus is that people think that they’re on their own. They don't realise how many other people out there have it.
“It saddens me every time, but there have been so many more suicides since his death. It shouldn't happen because help is available - and that's why his story is so important to tell.”
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While Glen's story is heartbreaking, it is nevertheless an incredibly powerful story to tell.
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His story serves as a reminder that help is out there for people suffering from tinnitus - arguably, now more so than ever.