How to Deal with Vicious Cycle and Panic Reaction to Your Tinnitus — Personal Opinion

Being a newbie to the somatic (most likely) tinnitus and constantly working on avoiding the distress of unstoppable unwanted noise, would like to show support to the fellow souls on the tinnitus discovery and recovery journey.

Little did I know, that I come prepared to deal with the vicious cycle of getting into dark mode and still being in the light of hope and faith and hence into the recovery.

17 years ago recovered from PTSD, and a pretty dark 6 month of my life, the experience gives me strength now to learn about the tinnitus condition and take necessary steps diligently to really know that it will pass and habituation (almost there) will come and that full recovery is also possible:

When I was 23, I joined ski patrol as a volunteer on the weekends and on the very first days after getting all my certification and training was the first on the scene of an accident. 14 year old boy collided with a tree, his injuries were severe. After calling for ambulance on the radio and asking for all hands on deck pretty, all I could do was first aid ABC (airways, breathing, circulation). Next on the scene was our patrol leader, who also happened to be paramedic and firefighter on his day job. He made a decision to call for a medevac helicopter almost immediately. Long story short, the boy made it to the hospital alive and made a full recovery several month after.

For the next few years I was on the ski patrol, that was the most severe injury I had to deal with.
However, it was hard on me psychologically, since, if not for the patrol leader, I would not have made a decision or even knew that "Air Support" was available. What if the weather was bad that day for helicopter to fly?

Due to the internal injuries and loss of blood, that injured boy would not have made it alive in time to get help at the hospital. All those what if questions, drowned me into PTSD dark cycle with panic attacks. I made a full recovery and came out stronger as a result.

Here are the recovery steps which I took back then, which obviously do help me now to avoid the vicious cycle .

1. Step 1: Why me?

The first step in tinnitus and in anxiety and panic state is to seek medical help.
If you believe there is something wrong with your brain, heart, internal organs do talk to your doctor and do all tests that are necessary.
Chances are all tests will be uneventful, really do hope for you that this will be the case.
Then, once doctor tells you that you have healthy heart, no brain issues and other known issues, do BELIEVE your doctor.
But on the other hand, there are people(me included in the past) who will still think that there is still something wrong with.

2. Promise:

It will get better with time. Unfortunately there is no magic pill, but it WILL and DOES get better with time.
Take this opportunity to rebuild your life and you will feel better, be more happier. It's a promise.

Next post tomorrow is with my story how I made a next step to recovery back then.

 

Thank you, I really needed to hear this.

 

**************PART 2:*******************

3. Take a First step. Every success story began with the first step. Every journey starts with the first step.
Choose something you would like to do.
For me it was rollerblading, I have never tried it before, I was a good skier, but somehow never tried rollerblading.
Being afraid to leave house and in and out of panic state, it felt like if I go rollerblading something horrible might happen, like that I am going to fall hit my head and die or my heart is going to stop.
So I still went to the store bough roller-blades, knee guards, elbow guards, wrist guards and helmet
and so I went, it felt like a D-day for me. slowly in a park, remember that near parking lot, car full of teenagers were pointing fingers at me and laughing and one of them shouted be careful, don't fall.
Lol, only if they knew... So I continued, I was fine. That was my first step towards recovery from PTSD and panic.
Then regularly went swimming and started martial arts
Was more involved at my work and got a bonus at the end of the year.
Choose something which suits you, doesn't have to be Sport to get out of the vicious cycle.


4. Talk less about your problem.
What I really mean is do not feel entitled that you can unload your situation on other people, especially your family and friends and become a burden.
As an example my brother to this day has no clue, what I had to go through, only my parents and even though I asked them to never let anyone know I had PTSD and panic issue. For the Tinnitus situation I presently go through only one person knows besides me and medical professionals(it's their work and it's not a burden on them) and it's my battle, I own it.
I share the experience here for benefit of others, who I hope can take some useful information to help themselves from my story.
Do more yourself, yes it sucks, It feels like a D-day everyday and doctors might not know how to help you. Many people have no clue what a vicious cycle is and how to help.
All you hear, well your heart/brain/etc is healthy you have no known issues, we do not know how to help you, you have to learn to live with it. Some doctors will prescribe antidepressants.
Medication might be the right choice for you, I do not know, I am not a doctor, but I made a choice to battle through without medication and it worked in the past and have hope and faith it will work this time too.
The help is withing you. You have been placed in the present moment and it's your choice what you do with the situation, might as well use it to your own advantage.
Some people have been searching for years how to get into the present moment, well panic is sort of the present moment, the Ultimate Now situation.

 

There isn't an answer to a vicious cycle for any health complication, that's just the reality. Anyone who looks for a simple answer will not find it.

 

**************PART 3:*******************
5. The Inevitable End, to which life is the solution.
The end of the life as we know of will eventually happen and that's what you might be afraid of, but at the same time you may sometimes think that it could be a solution to stop yourself of being afraid.
By all means Life is a choice always, it's the greatest gift, however to stop being afraid is the solution. If you accept that eventually it will happen you will stop being afraid of it, not sure how to better explain. Accept your feelings.

6. Sports Martial Arts.
Systema martial art worked best for me to help with the fear. In fact one of the common practices of the Systema martial art is to work with the fear feelings, understand it and dissolve it using, for example, breathing techniques, muscle relaxation, tensing/relaxing techniques, working with your ego and psyche
Systema martial art is capable of fully healing fear disorders.

 

I’ve been dealing with this thing for 18 years now and currently dealing with yet another spike - I hope it’s a spike and not a permanent change.

One thing I’ve learnt over these years is that if you can keep your anxiety / panic levels in check this goes a long way in helping you cope. If you let the worrying set in, it’s a long road out again.