I have been suffering from chronic tinnitus for about 4 years now. I think my pitch is about 6Khz. I have habituated pretty well, but have a real hard time dealing with total silence. Probably because here isn't any silence. I would give anything to be able to experience silence again! I am a bassist in the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. Amazingly I can still perform my job, but now I am vigilant about loud sound! If I didn't play double bass, it might be much harder. I can put my left ear on the instrument to hear my playing clearly and I hear the rest of the group through my right ear. The left ear I have lost 2/3rds of the hearing and that is where I hear the ringing the most. Anybody on here have more resources to facilitate more habituation?
Habituation = coping/acceptance/mindset + techniques. In my 30 years of experience, I have found that acceptance of the situation is vital to habituation. We can use all the techniques in the world, but if our mindset is still negative, then habituation will be very difficult to achieve.
Acceptance is vital and can work wonders in life and with tinnitus. Sure, it may not be what we like to accept, but if it is happening each day, then I accept it and not fight it.
Basically habituation means, that we are able to live with our condition. Some folks will use hearing aids, that can possibly match the external noises in the world to our internal tinnitus noise. This can work well for some and some do not like it.
Some folks like myself, have LOUD intrusive tinnitus and use nothing to mask and escape from the tinnitus. The one thing that I do is that....I don't dwell on my situation. I don't remain negative of the situation. I accept that yes, these ears are ringing and that's life. I remain in peace mentally and not treat my tinnitus as an enemy. No one likes tinnitus, but if it is, what it is.....then we create extra stress and negativity?
A good mindset and exercise keeps me thriving in my life. Habituation is very possible, it all depends on the person. Some say that habituation is not possible with very high/intrusive tinnitus. That's not true at all, my ears are beyond damaged and my tinnitus is louder than a freeway noise.
I come here to show love and support folks, daily. You can habituate to tinnitus, whether it is loud or not, it all depends on the person, mindset and your strategy
Be well....
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