Food for Thought

hello everyone,

So I have been suffering with tinnitus for a very short time (7 weeks) and I just wanted to post a little positivity and hope that it may help someone who is struggling. Anyways I just wanted to share somethings that are helping me over come this hurdle in life.

My husband is a recovering alcoholic and in a weird sense, it has been quite a blessing. Our relationship grew stronger and he is a much better person. He battled with severe depression and anxiety to the point that he lost his job. Since he is in recovery (sober for almost 5 years) he continues to work his 12 steps. That’s how the 12 step program works. Anyways, we created, together, a 12 step program for my struggle with tinnitus. (You can find many resources online through AA). At the end of the day, recovering alcoholics and tinnitus sufferers are not much different. We all experience obstacles in life in a different way but it’s how we approach them that makes a difference.
So the first three steps are so very important and I have them listed below.

1. You admit that you are powerless to your tinnitus and your life has become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.

Step three is one of the hardest steps as it’s the step that we accept our tinnitus. I am currently working on step three myself. But it truly is a must (in my opinion) to over come this hurdle.

Another thing i have been doing is keeping a gradutude journal. When ever I feel the anxiety or depression is over taking me I refer to the graditude journal and I think about all the things I am truly grateful for.

Anyways, this is the beggining of my journey towards acceptance. I really hope that this helps someone. Thanks for reading.

 

Hi there,

I like what you have written but i'd like to clarify a few things.

1. When you GIVE power to something good or bad, we will experience the results of our actions. Yes, tinnitus may not go away and we may not be able to cure it (at least for right now, hopefully in the future). I will never give power to tinnitus and have it have power over me and my life. Life at first may seem like it is unmanageable w/ tinnitus, but if one really tries and have patience, for sure it can become manageable. The key with tinnitus is LOTS of patience and time/support. ***Never give power to something, unless it can give you happiness and the results, that you are looking for.***

2. Since I am a man of faith, I partially agree with what you have written. Each day, I ask the man above to give me strength and courage to face my demons/venoms and afflictions. We could have faith, but also we could have faith in ourselves that we are GOING to be ok and will push through our OBSTACLES. It's a mindset that I always preach on this site. Due to such a strong mindset, I am able to juggle this HELLISH life and still come ahead and move past my afflictions.

3. It is 100% up to those that want to do this, but having faith has been very helpful to me.

In the end, it's all about acceptance of the life we have. There is no sugar coating it at all. We accept what we are dealing with. If there is a cure, great...lets get on it and get cured (thats acceptance). If there is no cure, then we still accept our affliction(s) and live our lives.

Bless all

 

@fishbone

Oh wow! I completely understand what you mean about not giving tinnitus the power over your life. I guess the way I take it as I am powerless to make it go away. And in a sense right now tinnitus has taken power over me and my life at the moment is in shambles. Therefore I need to initiate a change. There are so many things in life that we cannot control but we can certainly make the best of it and make changes when we can. As you have! I truly enjoyed reading so many of your posts and find them to be very very encouraging. I certainly don’t want my post to be at all discouraging. It’s just I find that this works for me. And God (or some higher being) will Help guide me.

 

It's ok. your post was still uplifting and very positive. Trust me you are a warrior and I appreciate your positivity, especially when something so rotten as tinnitus hits home. All of us were fragile as a baby, when tinnitus first came into our lives. It's a day by day thing. We cannot rush it. Simply take it day by day, seek lots of support and BELIEVE IN YOURSELF that you will make it. Having faith in yourself is crucial when it comes to tinnitus and to life in general.

Keep your head up and keep moving forward