Acceptance vs Habituation

[i.m]

What are the main differences between these two terms? According to your experience, what is the best of the two?

I'd like to understand what is the best solution under the psychological profile for tinnitus

 

[Zora]

Hi @i.m I am not habituated , but from all the success /Habituation stories I read (and I read a lot) it seems like acceptance is the first step towards habituation.

you have to accept that it is there and that it's not going away. also not giving T power over your emotions is important.

I am almost 4 months in, and it still makes me very sad sometimes...Bit I guess its just a matter of time that I will habituate.

How long have you had your T?

 

[i.m]

How long have you had your T?

18/02/2016, I will always remember this date However my ENT is so sure that my type of tinnitus has nothing to do with the ear but with neighbors ear muscles which somehow affect the cranial nerves.

But beyond that, if I have to live with tinnitus, I'd like to know how the psychological side works, and then I wondered what is the difference between the two words.

 

[Dana]

@i.m
1) Is your T continuous, or only when you contract certain muscles, or do certain moves with your jaw or neck?

Regarding your question is think the same as Zora, that acceptance has to come first, to be followed by habituation.

Acceptance means, as I understand it at least, not to be upset/angry with your T anymore, to accept it to dwell in your head/ears, to not wish to kick it out of your head, to not think about methods to silence it anymore.

Habituation means, as I understood it, to get to a state when you are no longer aware that T is in your head/ears, and to hear it only when you listen and look for your T. In the same way that we get habituated to the sound of the fridge, or of a wall clock, that we can hear only from time to time, after which we become again oblivious to it, we do not notice it anymore.

They both come after a shorter or longer period of time, for other people in a few months or sooner, for some people ..it doesn't.

I think that the allegation that the possiblity to habituate does not depend on the severity of T, whether it is intrusive or not, small or screaming, constant or with spikes, is BS and an offence to the poor sufferers with severe T.
When your T is very loud, intrusive, you can not explain the habituation giving the example of the sound of the fridge, or a clock, or the outside traffic, etc, because with severe T the only sound you could compare it to is an fire alarm, which is a sound the cannot fall into oblivion, otherwise it would not serve its purpose and it would be replaced with another sound that cannot fall into oblivion. There are such sounds, in our heads, as T sounds, or in nature, or artificially made.

2) How loud is your T?

 

[i.m]

@i.m
1) Is your T continuous, or only when you contract certain muscles, or do certain moves with your jaw or neck?

Continuous. When I move my jaw, it becomes louder ( Somatic T ). According to my ENT and the maxillofacial doctor, it is caused my excessive muscle tension, caused by chewing toooooo much gums everyday ( 8-10 hours only chewing ) using the left part of my mouth. This Friday I have to return to the medical study to pick up "something" that I have to keep in your mouth for six months.

2) How loud is your T?

I really don't know. I can't "measure" my T, I can't give a number of "severity" from 0 to 10.
I just know that there is a sound in my left ear, 6-8khz, and that every exam I did is fine. The only problem is sleeping, since i need total silence to rest.

 

[Dana]

You say on your status that "it's not your T my main problem, it's my lack of English grammar knowledge".
If that is the case, you will habituate in no time.


Your grammar needs just a few tiny adjustments in the order of the words in a sentence.
This site is not a site good only for T sufferers, but for learning English, provided that you take as teachers only the people who are speaking it correctly. I think/hope you are able to make the difference. Markku, Zimichael, Sailboardman, dboy, linearb are excellent English speakers. (the list is not complete). The first thing you have to do when using this site is to get over your shyness caused by the fact that you are aware that you are making mistakes. Nobody cares how your speak. If your message is understandable, and even when it is not, it will be answered. Rates are given only for T levels.

 

[i.m]

@Dana well never say never My first priority about T is to reduce its volume, so let's see if the diagnosis of both my ENT and maxillofacial about muscles ( and I saw some posts here talking about external triggers ) is right.

In the meantime i'd like to handle my psyche, for example with the mindfulness, but also understanding such terms like "acceptance" and "habituation" and all that psychological stuff about this condition.

The only hard thing I have to accept is the silence for my sleeping ( unless my brain will recognize the T like a background noise )

Unfortunately where I live, English is taught really badly, and this is the result of this non-teaching

 

[Dana]

If it's a real fact that your T is from your muscles only, you should try treating those muscles first (with the mouth guard, physiotherapy, botox, self massage, taught on some YouTube videos) and only if you do not succeed with that, to give up and accept the T and wait for habituation.

With your history of intense chewing the diagnosis is possible. I hope you gave up on chewing. Theoretically you have to eat for a while only soft foods, but that I personally found not so easy to do

I really do not know what to say. Indeed the T from contracted muscles is very loud, louder than some types of T, but also smaller than other types.

I suppose there are articles about mindfulness on the Internet.

When you are stressed your T may go up, because your muscles will get more contracted, although you may not be aware of that.

 

[i.m]

If it's a real fact that your T is from your muscles only, you should try treating those muscles first (with the mouth guard, physiotherapy, botox, self massage, taught on some YouTube videos) and only if you do not succeed with that, to give up and accept the T and wait for habituation.

With your history of intense chewing the diagnosis is possible. I hope you gave up on chewing. Theoretically you have to eat for a while only soft foods, but that I personally found not so easy to do

I really do not know what to say. Indeed the T from contracted muscles is very loud, louder than some types of T, but also smaller than other types.

I suppose there are articles about mindfulness on the Internet.

When you are stressed your T may go up, because your muscles will get more contracted, although you may not be aware of that.

Amazing! You just described every symptoms I have Actually i won't take any chewing gum for the rest of my life

At the moment i eat very very slowly, without any "hard" food, like bars biscuits etc

 

[Ulalena]

Did anyone here ever have ear tubes put in to help with negative pressure then have the tinnitus get worse

 

[Mentos]

The difficult part of accepting T is that it's not enough to accept in once, I have to accept it everyday. Many times I felt like I accepted it and was happy, and the next day I had to go through the same proces again. I think from that perspective T is different versus any other physical disability. If one looses his hand for instance I think he goes through the proces of acceptance but after some time he does not think about it anymore, new situation just becomes new normal for him/her. In my view with T it's different, you have to go through the acceptance proces over and over again everyday. That's what makes it so difficult to cope with.