Habituation May Not Be What You Think It Is...

It's really hard, but I've learned to be 'ok' with it. I never have full days of no tinnitus, but I do get a few hours sometimes. I can find no rhyme or reason for these episodes of (relative) quietness, but if I had to say one thing, it would be exercise.

I really hope you can learn to be okay with it.

 

I think that for a lot of people habituation does, exactly mean that they are not consciously aware of the noise and actually don't think about it very much. Several of my friends are in this spot, including one who has loud, bilateral, multitone tinnitus.

My own brain doesn't really do that very well naturally, but my experience of life since finding a med stack that works for me is pretty similar*: sound always there, always loud, can go hours and hours without thinking about it at all. A couple weekends ago I was out doing small gas engine stuff so I was wearing earplugs, and after a couple hours I realized that despite the plugs I hadn't "heard" the ringing at all. Of course, as soon as I have a thought like that, boom, there it is, but if I am not in a high anxiety / distress state then it tends to fall back by the wayside pretty quickly.

* minus, of course, the fear that one day the meds stop working, but what is life if not uncertainty and risk?

 

Yeah, given tinnitus seems to be brain issue, I am sure there is a lot variability in people’s experience with it. The older people I know that have had tinnitus for >10 years all say they still hear it, it just doesn’t bother them. If it doesn’t bother you, it is no longer a problem.

I can go for long periods where I don’t pay attention to it while working or focused on a task, but the second my mind shifts off the task, it’s there...

 

Of what, may I ask, does that med stack comprise?

 

Clonazepam, Gabapentin and THC. I wouldn’t really expect this to work for anyone else and I also do not think it is a safe or good idea. I have extensive experience being on Clonazepam going back to my teens, my brain is not wired like a normal person’s.

 

Thanks. And have you tried without the THC? Does the Jastreboff protocol work - and can you take Clonazepam long term?

 

I absolutely agree with this. Habituation is something that can be generalized to every chronic disease that does not get even worse over time and has no treatment. We poor people have no choice but to get used to the burden we have to carry and calling it a cure is a bad joke. What else we can do? Jump off a bridge? We have to move on somehow, but pseudoscientists exploiting this fact that we are able to at least partially return to normal life by getting used to this is morbid. Treatments like TRT and CBT should be done only as a temporary needed evil until a real cure is found and not proclaiming this palliative care as tinnitus cure. Oh.

Also, I would add that I think the Success Stories subforum should be at least divided between habituation posting and real success. Because I think that when a person gets bothersome tinnitus, has it for 2-3 weeks and it never goes away despite treatments, they start to panic and the first thing they are going to do is to search for success stories and I don't think they want to read stories like I have raging 24/7 tinnitus and I don't care about it at all and similar ones. Because a person that is not already used to living with any chronic disease will never understand how can one live with a disaster like this. And it will make them even more depressed.

 

I like THC and it gives me much better sleep onset and duration than I get through any other means.

Taking benzos long term is a terrible idea, but that's my plan at the moment.

 

How long did it take for your mom? What was the cause of her tinnitus?

 

It took her a little over a year. We believe it was caused by antibiotics. She can choose to listen to it or not, and when she does, it means nothing to her. Classic example of habituation.

I hope I can get there one day too. Mine is noise induced.

 

I get where you’re coming from, and the anger at no one being able to fix this is apparent. But here’s the thing. Habituation is not a cure, we know that. A cure would be amazing, but we don’t have one and being angry about that is a waste of energy. It’s just not there.

Do you have to give up on people helping you? In some ways, yes. There are things that can help of course, but it’s you that has to live with this, maybe for now, maybe forever. Habituation may not be success to you, but it is for a lot of people because they’ve accepted there isn’t currently a cure and have given up hating themselves and the medical community for not being able to ‘fix’ them.

And think about it, what’s wrong with developing coping mechanisms that other people don’t have to have? If you’re doing everything you can to live your life and enjoy it as much as you can, is there really a problem? If other people habituating and moving on makes you cringe, that’s your issue not theirs.

No one ‘deserves’ any medical issue, but unfortunately we are human, our bodies do things out of our control and not everyone gets away with perfect health. Kids ‘shouldn’t’ die of cancer, but they do. People ‘shouldn’t’ have strokes and be left with locked-in syndrome, but they do. The list could go on forever.

Unfortunately, this is our reality. We have noise. All day every day. There’s often no explanation for it, there’s no definitive solution and no one is coming to save us right now, so negativity towards those who are saving themselves by choosing to let go of the hate and the anger is unnecessary.

My brain is SCREAMING right now because I have a problem with my auditory system. And what? It isn’t actually doing anything to me, it’s just noise and I’m going to tell myself over and over again, as many times as I have to that I’m going to overcome this and have a good life because what’s the alternative? Believe I’m forever doomed because my hearing/brain is knackered? The only person that’s going to hurt is me because the rest of the world will carry on with or without me. This is the choice we all have to make because it’s the only thing we have control over in all this.

 

I've taken them for 25 years. Do what you need to do to stay above ground.

 

Have you taken them continuously for all those years, or just on and off to help you through habituation when you have a spike?

 

I take them continuously. I once went off and I got the spike of all spikes.

 

May I ask what ADs do you take? And how have they helped you? Do they just help you not care about the intrusive sounds or do they lower the tinnitus volume at all for you?

 

In my case, I got so used to my tinnitus that it does not bother me anymore. I can hear it all the time but because it does not trigger any emotions, I am not consciously aware of its presence. Therefore, I don’t care if it is there or not. It does not interfere with my life or quality of life. From what I have have read, this is what many call “habituation”.

 

That seems to be pretty much what it is. For me, I just have a feeling of sadness and loss. I spend a lot of time in the woods alone. I remember loving the stillness of woods at night. It's all gone now.

 

I have once read a post on Tinnitus Talk saying that silence is the absence of external sounds. It may not be easy at all, but I think that if you are at peace with your internal sounds, you may enjoy "silence". You may enjoy the peacefulness of the woods again. I am not sure if it is achievable for some or everyone, but at least it is a different approach which may be worth a shot.

 

Do you go with a dog? Or are you not a dog person?

 

My problem comes when I hear my "silence" all day...

 

I’ve read every success story - I volunteer for this if you want it.

 

Sure, I’ll initially sort to achieved silence/near silence, reduced volume, and no reduced volume but habituation/mindset change, if you think that makes sense.

 

When you are habituated, what % of your conscious energy are you supposed to spend “not paying attention to the sound?”

I feel like I’m at 50% right now.

 

I agree with you on 'bother me' but it is the spikes that hurt.

 

If you don't have hearing loss up to 8 kHz, why do you wear hearing aids?

 

I originally started wearing hearing aids simply as in-ear masking devices. However, I then decided to use a little bit of amplification as well, largely because I tried using amplification and found it to be helpful.

 

In my case it went down to almost 0%. I rarely think about my tinnitus. But for me it is not so much about paying attention, the big win for me was when my tinnitus stopped affecting my emotional state. Nowadays if I pay attention to my tinnitus, it is without an emotional reaction.