I'm Reliant on Hearing Aids — Will I Habituate to Tinnitus Again?

Hi

I first got tinnitus in 1983 following a severe ear infection. The noise at that time was unbelievable. I’d just got married and had to move back in with my parents as everyone was really worried about my state of mind. Gradually over a period of 6 months I guess I habituated to the point of not hearing it, but it was still there. I got pregnant 6 years later and back it came. My pregnancy was IVF and the tinnitus became noticeable at about 3 months and carried on till my daughter was about 6 months old. Gradually it receded again until 6 years later when I got pregnant again. Started when I was around 6 months pregnant until my daughter was about 4 months old. Hard to give exact periods of time, because habituation is a strange thing. Since then I’ve had 5 or 6 really bad periods, but habituation has occurred each time.

At the moment my tinnitus is so loud, has been for a few weeks. I wear 2 hearing aids for mild to moderate high frequency loss with inbuilt maskers. It became noticeable again when my audiologist turned the internal part of the hearing aid down instead of up. As soon as I got home the tinnitus was raging again. Went back to get them re-programmed, but by then the brain had started its continual monitoring of the noise and this in turn seems to have made it louder.

I’ve been taking 10mg amitriptyline for about a year, my GP has just upped it to 30mg.

My question is I’ve habituated several times before, but now that I’m reliant on hearing aids, can habituation still happen?

 

Hello @Buzzy1. Thank you for your excellent question.

In the purest sense, habituation is 100% about reaction. So the fact that you are now reliant on hearing aids is irrelevant. As long as you can manage to effectively address your "Barriers to Habituation," things should work out OK for you in time.

All the best with it.

Stephen M. Nagler, M.D.,