Daily Mail: Hear What It's Like to Have Tinnitus

Another article on the Daily Mail regarding tinnitus - they love it. Their health articles don’t tend to be well researched, however was interested to read that white noise has been discredited by some.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6167829/Hear-like-tinnitus-kettle-boiling-TV-static.html

 

How I beat my own tinnitus, by the specialist who treated himself

• People with tinnitus miss out on help as their doctors think it can’t be overcome
• Vik Veer, consultant surgeon at London's Royal National ENT Hospital, disagrees
• As his experience shows, it is possible to out-smart the constant ringing sound...
• Reversing this process is key to treating the condition.
• With TRT, the theory is that, by concentrating on something else, the brain’s pathways can be rewired and the tinnitus subsides. For it to be successful, it’s important to find activities — especially at night, when all is quiet — that will absorb your mind so you don’t hear your tinnitus.
• It took around six weeks to get rid of the ringing in my head completely
• Now I’m ‘cured’, I want others to be aware that they’re not helpless: I firmly believe that most people can control their tinnitus.

These articles are so frustrating. Did they have chronic or acute tinnitus? They did research but didn't see the Phase III trial showing TRT is no more effective than standard of care? They're applying their individual experience to millions of people? They can't say one sentence to severe sufferers, e.g. "but we still need medical treatments"?

 

Man these articles really piss me off. How many years is it going to take for people to treat hearing issues such as tinnitus and hyperacusis seriously. We really need more celebrities to raise better awareness. They have done fuck all.

 

I find it concerning that this doctor is an ENT surgeon and still needed to do research on tinnitus which only led him to TRT. He says that the most common cause is damage to the inner ear hair cells, but this could happen to people who had no previous problems. This gives me the feeling that he might not be aware of the possibility of hearing loss which doesn't show up on a standard audiogram.

I know, this is Daily Mail, but as you just said the article fails to distinguish between the different levels of severity in tinnitus, completely ignores the possibility of a spontaneous recovery. He didn't even do TRT, just applied some basic principles of it into his lifestyle and got lucky doing so. Which is fantastic, I'm glad he is well, I think he means this article as an encouragement, but still would have been nice to give a slightly broader picture about tinnitus.

 

https://www.quora.com/How-is-tinnitus-treated/answers/94218197?ch=2&srid=Xx1PD

 

Why doesn't this surprise me at all? This is what TRT does - it spreads harmful misconceptions and further harms severe sufferers. It's horrifying to know that he is a consultant surgeon at London's Royal National ENT Hospital. But thank you for finding it!

• "There are people who say they have tried everything and now it is screaming in their ears. Most of these people have already given up or have an inability to cope with the situation."

This is patient-blaming.

• "People with depression and anxiety are particularly bad at dealing with tinnitus as they have a clinical inability to cope with events. So they slip into tinnitus suffering quicker than most."

Good to know that we can generalize all people with depression or anxiety, if they are suffering from tinnitus it's just because of their mental health issues.

• "The more diligently you do this and the more determined and motivated you are to avoid ever hearing you tinnitus by constant distraction, the quicker you'll get better."

I thought distracting from tinnitus was classified as fear and avoidance behaviour nowadays and is actually counter-productive?

 

He had it for a few months, so it was probably a spontaneous remission. The fact he states he had it and treated it motivated me to go to see him. I got the impression of it all being money motivated though I do hope I am quite wrong

 

The author Vik Veer said "the same thing happens daily when we put on our shirts or shoes, after a minute or so we forget the sensation that we are wearing them."

If his shoes were causing severe discomfort after a minute, he then would be removing them rather quickly. It's nice to have that choice.

TRT is $ manipulated with special interests and none of these players as individuals have severe tinnitus or severe pain.

 

The Vik Veer article reads a bit like an "advertorial".