I still don't know what this is.

I am not really a forum person, but I signed up just to ask you a question. I've had tinnitus for 5 years now. My reaction is still bad, and I don't understand how the horrible feeling and pain in a quiet room is generated by my thoughts rather than it innately being an innately painful thing - like a chronic pain condition. I read a post where you pointed out that pain and tinnitus exist in different pathways of the brain. I try to be mindful and rational - I ask myself what exactly makes this so agonizing? I hear the sound and immediately feel pain. But the pain is not a consequence of me hearing the sound and thinking about how bad it is. It is immediately painful. How can a sound do this to me - can it be that tinnitus more a "feeling" than a sound, but happens to have sound as an aspect of it?

My hypothetical question:
Let's say someone has very loud, screeching tinnitus in his ears but has no concept of tinnitus as a medical condition and thinks everyone else hears the same noises in their head. Will he be uncomfortable in a quiet room? I find it impossible to believe there are people that can have loud tinnitus and be just as comfortable as people without it in quiet rooms. It is uncomfortable even if I don't have thoughts about it.

I read the Jastreboff model. Is the limbic system capable of creating this awful feeling (is it pain? I don't even know)? Can you, Dr Nagler, be in a quiet room and be comfortable or do you need ambient noise?

I'm sorry this is so long. Thank you if you ever get around to reading this.

 

If the person was born that way and it is all that he or she knows, no.

If it came on suddenly, yes.

The "awful feeling" you describe is due to a self-reinforcing feedback loop involving the limbic system, the autonomic nervous system, and the auditory cortex. It is not pain, but looking back on my own tinnitus odyssey, to me it was far worse than any pain imaginable.

Yes, I love being in a quiet room. I stopped needing ambient sound years ago. But my tinnitus? My tinnitus is just as thunderously loud today as it was when it pretty much put me in bed for the better part of a year. The difference is that I don't care. That's what TRT did for me.

Glad to help.

Dr. Stephen Nagler