Focusing in a Silent Room While Habituated

Is it possible, if you're habituated, to focus on something in a silent room (like studying) without noticing your T?

 

I think it might depend on your personality type. I'm a bit obsessive about my hearing so I think about it quite a bit whether it bothers me or not.

I can certainly be in a quiet room without it bothering me. But I will notice it. It just won't have my primary attention.

 

It is possible you just have to forget about the T. Its easier said then done, but it is possible. If you do something that is distracting enough then you will forget about it for a short period, but I think your brain will always try and bring you back to it somehow or you will remember you had it and come back to the sound. It also depends on the loudness of the T. If its very soft that day, then you would have a good chance to forget while studying, but again I think it would only be for a while.

 

No, it doesn't bother me but I will still hear it....

 

The times that I have done the best, I've often found myself sitting in a relatively silent room, realized I'd been doing so for ~an hour, and hadn't thought about my T. Of course, as soon as I have the thought, I can hear it, but if I'm not feeling bothered by it then it fades away. It is not dissimilar to doing something, realizing my foot feels cold, and then going back to ignoring it.

 

I wish there was an easy way to forget about it or an easy way to distract yourself to forget about it. I spent many many years not even noticing it until recently. The only times I had noticed it was when I was in a hearing booth and they put you in complete silence. Now all I can do is think about it. I have to get back to the way I thought before.

 

I focus on complex subject matter in a silent room (my office) Monday - Friday, from about 8 AM - 6 PM, and I rarely notice my T. Yes, it is possible, and over time very likely you won't notice your T....

 

What changed?

 

I stressed out over work and home for 6 months with a pretty crazy schedule. In december I started having panic attacks, H and very loud T. The H amplified the T to the point where I thought I was living in a box. It got crazy loud. My hearing has slowly been getting worst and I really never noticed the T much. I really didnt know what was happening to me. Thats when I tried the clonazepam. It was more for the panic attacks, but I noticed it dropped the T by a bunch. Been taking it ever since. I have been tapering off, but this week I noticed when I stopped taking it I was having trouble sleeping so I got back on. Then off again, trouble sleeping. I just started an SSRI to help and I'm tapering off the clonazepam. Next I'll have to taper off the SSRI in a month or two. At the end of the day my body still isnt right which is why I can't sleep. The SSRI is helping to quiet down the T or really just get it back to baseline, but what I didnt notice before, I cant stop thinking about now. I might have gone my entire life just happy as a clam with T and not noticing it if not for the 6 months of stress.

 

I do it everyday, sometimes all day.
But if I listen FOR my T, there it is.

 

I was thinking about this thread last night, because I realized I'd been in a silent room for 40 minutes and hadn't thought about it at all, despite prior ingestion of some things that generally ramp up my awareness of it.

I was painting cat cartoons. It must soothe the soul.

 

Yes, cats and squirrels do that. :3