If you're used to hearing the buzzing, chirping, whistling, whooshing, roaring, ticking, clicking or humming noises of your tinnitus, then you may have already explored many different treatment options.
Hopefully, you've seen your medical doctor first - to rule out any medical condition that can cause tinnitus.
Chances are your tinnitus is "subjective," meaning that the noises can only be heard by you and, medically, there is very little that can be done to relieve the noises, including drugs that help tinnitus.
You see, the type of tinnitus that affects up to 50 million Americans can be caused by a wide variety of reasons such as noise-induced hearing loss, stress and anxiety, high blood pressure, prescription and non-prescription drugs to name a few.
And the non-medical treatments designed to relieve the noises of tinnitus include, stress-reduction therapy, white noise-generating machines and even changes in one's diet and lifestyle designed to promote a healthier body.
Not every treatment will work the same for each person, so some experimentation may be required to get good results.
There are even some prescription drugs that help tinnitus, unfortunately none show any long-term cures.
My thought - why compound the problem? All drugs powerful enough to help a medical illness have powerful side effects.
Here are some of the drugs used to treat tinnitus and their side effects.

• Xanex and other anti-depressant drugs.
  Xanex is used to treat panic disorders and anxiety problems.
  It has also been shown to reduce the severity and volume in a large percentage of tinnitus sufferers.
  It acts on the brain and central nervous system to produce a calming effect, enhancing the actions of certain natural body chemicals (GABA).
  Xanex can also be habit-forming (addictive) and encourage abnormal drug-seeking behavior.
  If you suddenly stop taking Xanex, you may get seizures.
  Xanex is a very powerful mind-altering drug with serious side effects.
  
• Heart and Circulatory System Medications.
  For most, if not all sufferers with subjective tinnitus, these types of medications are a waste of time and money and have many serious side effects - too numerous to list here.
  If you happen to have pulsatiletinnitus, usually objective in nature, and is one of the rare types of tinnitus that can sometimes be treated.
  Resulting from problem blood flow or increased blood turbulence in or near the ear ("noisy" blood flow), pulsatile tinnitus can be caused by increased blood flow in the carotid artery and jugular vein - both close to the inner ear.
  Treat the high blood flow (high blood pressure, etc.
  ), and if there is no physical blood vessel abnormality near the ear, your tinnitus may improve.
  
• Anticonvulsant drugs.
  Anticonvulsant drugs such as phenytoin (Dilantin), diazepam (Valium) and Lorazepam (Ativan) are all drugs that are primarily used to prevent seizures (epileptic).
  Side effects include major birth defects such as microcephaly (a small head), retardation of growth and deformities of the face and fingers known as anticonvulsant embryopathy.
  

With all of the new and exciting tinnitus remedies and treatments that have been developed over the years, why put your general health at risk by taking powerful drugs, mostly designed for other illnesses, only to risk some temporary relief for dangerous side effects.
For me, the risk isn't worth the benefit of drugs that help tinnitus.