How Do The Cyclical Tinnitus Sufferers Habituate?

I know having T, for the most part, sucks and Im fully aware of my need to try to habituate. How does someone with cyclical T do this? How can our brain adjust to something that comes and goes on an almost regular basis?

 

My T Sucks (love your avatar)
Mine is cyclical too; I guess that's why it took me a year to habituate. I know the T sufferers reading this could very well be envious (WHAT, you get days off??? I hate you); but the fact is cyclical T causes (caused me, anyways) an emotional roller coaster ride that I REALLY didn't want to be on. On this roller coaster you are taken to great heights (is my T permanently gone??? Could it be???) and then the drop off; the problem is this drop off isn't a smooth ride on rails with a fast/fun turn at the bottom it's just a long drop (crash) and your T is on again -- making you wonder, am I going to get a break??? The anticipation on both ends of this ride is overwhelming and really poses a challenge to your focus (being off the T). I was constantly counting days and watching the clock wondering when it would turn on/turn off.

So, in that sense the process just takes a lot longer. Eventually I did stop reacting to my T and I stopped counting days and watching the clock -- T is in the back of the bus. Even though it took a while, I did finally habituate. In fact, it's screaming right now and I could care less -- it's no different then the loud fan on my computer. You will get there too (as hard as that may be to believe right now).

As far as the roller coaster ride its concerned, I found the more I could control my emotions the better off I was; but that wasn't easy for me (and I would say it's a challenge for anyone).

Mark

 

I am like Mark now. I stop monitoring T nor give it a dime high or low. I go about enjoying my life. Freedom from T at least. But it takes time and a good approach/strategy. If you want to get to that stage, try read up on Dr. Nagler's 'Letter to a Tinnitus Sufferer'. It has good approach and you can begin to write down some cognitive distortions you have about T. These distortions cause us to fear T and so harder to habituate as we tend to perceive it as a threat. If we don't treat it as a threat, then even a cyclical T will be ignored.

I like to use the illustration of a plane right. When the plane takes off, you tend to hear the roar of the engine. Treat it as the high cycle. Then you watch the movies, you don't hear anything about the plane noise. Treat it as the low cycle. Then you dose and wake up. You hear the jet engine noise loud (the high again). Then you read a magazine or get your game APP going. While you are deep into them, you don't hear anything again (the low again). And then the plane descend to destination. You need to stop everything and tighten the seat belt and do some yawning or chewing of gums to balance the change of barometric pressure. You may be aware of the jet noise again. And you land safely. Home sweet home. You meet your love ones. Hug, kiss, may even go out to eat together. Now do you care you have gone through high or low cycle of that annoying loud noise in the plane which you didn't treat as a threat before? Probably not. Most people don't even care what happen in that plane. Assuming you have a job working on the plane daily for life for wages, do you care about that non-threatening loud noise, about its high or low cycle all the time?

This is not a perfect analogy, of course. But similar idea to some of us who just don't care about T high or low each day. We stop monitoring it because we no longer treat the ringing a threat. We just want to focus on the positives of life other than what T will do each day. If it is hard to do yet, perhaps try masking it during the high days so it can be easier to accept those high days as being a reality of life. Eventually it is likely you don't need the masking.