Describe habituation ...

Someone on the British Tinnitus Association website said in reference to her tinnitus habituation (though she didn't use that phrase) that she "can only describe it as looking at a shape through a net curtain … you know the shapes there but if you look at the net the shape merges in to the background so you’re no longer aware of it."
For those of you who have habituated I would love to know how you would describe it.

 

That seems like a weirfd analogy and I'm not sure I follow....

I wouldn't claim that I'm fully habituated as I'm very much aware of my tinnitus. However, even though I'm aware it doesn't cause me any distress. In fact, no matter how loud my tinnitus gets, I can sleep even without any type of background noise.

But even though it causes me no distress and it doesn't keep me from doing anything I enjoy (usually), I cannot say I don't care about it. If I could do something to get rid of it, I would.

 

I'm 95% there. And the 5% difference is when I care about it.
So I would describe habituation as "not giving a damn."

 

Like everyone else said plus a good idea of it that someone on here used before that made sense to me is for example when your driving in the rain and you have your windsheild wipers on and how they go back and forth but you
Rarely notice it so you have to stop and think and look for it to notice it

 

Thanks Grace and Adam & Matt, sounds like a good thing to aim for and if I don't get there naturally I think I will go the TRT route.

 

I was fully habituated for 4 years and the only way to describe it is this"true habituation is where you have no emotional or mental connection with T it means less to you than a scab on your elbow or a piece of grass growing on your lawn.Sure you hear it when your in bed but your so use to it that your breathing would grab your attention before the T would.Basically it plays no significant role in your life whatsoever.Your obviously a female(LondonGirl)let me put it like this losing a hairband would be more upsetting.Sorry if that sounds like dick guy thing to say

 

It is a good thing to aim for, because unfortunately, it is virtually the only proven method it seems. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of promising sounding treatments coming out. But as of what is available right now, habituation is basically it. We can't do anything about tinnitus yet, but we can change our response to it.

But I think a cure is inevitable. Even if it appears that tinnitus is low priority, what isn't low priority is hearing loss. And since most cases of tinnitus seems to be connected with hearing loss, perhaps a cure for hearing loss will end up curing tinnitus as well.

 

Yup definally.. Like you said habuitations the best lead we have right now while waiting for a good treatment to come out.. And like you said hearing loss is being researched other then tinnitus so i think by this there gonna find a connection to T and break it somehow.. Just a matter of when

 

habituation is just not fraking out anymore ... sound remains the same as always. just your emotions less out of control and life seems to go on as before ... but it never is the same untill silence comes back.

 

Habituation to me is that life goes on with T high or low. In fact your brain is so used to T and not considering it being a threat that it simply tunes it out of consciousness when it has other more important things in life to attend to. The highest form of T habituation is that you are not even aware that it is being there until some one mentions about T. That happens to many people with T for years, habituated and not often exposed to the subject of T like us here. Unfortunately, that is the price to pay for being compassionate to the suffering of the new T sufferer and staying behind to help them out. But it is all worth it when you see people get better. It is a dilemma for the T veterans, to leave or not to leave. But even if we are more aware of T, it doesn't make a difference to our life. Most T veterans just don't care about T high or low, aware of it or not. They have habituated.

 

Billie, people like you are not allowed to leave.
T veterans are the ones saving lifes here.
I am looking forward becoming also one at the end of my journey.

 

My brain tunes into it way less often. As long as there's anything else to listen to - the sound of my fish tank filter, some music, people talking, I won't hear my tinnitus without specifically putting my mind on it. Only time I hear it nowadays is when I have headphones on with nothing playing, or when I'm going to sleep. I don't even hear it in the morning many days.

 

For me: The T is there, often I don't notice the T, and when I do it doesn't bother me.