Implications of Spikes in the Habituation Process?

Hi (again!) Dr Nagler,

Can you please give me your thoughts on the implications of spikes in the habituation process and the implications of spikes on the potential for tinnitus going away on it's own.

I am 3 months in with tinnitus and, overall, I think I am doing pretty well. I have no emotional response to it anymore, I sleep well, am not on any meds, rarely come on this site (as wonderful as it is) and for the last 3-4 weeks my tinnitus has really settled down - it has been very quiet most of the time, in fact, a lot of the time I can barely hear it. As you can imagine this has been wonderful and I have been hopeful that the tinnitus is potentially going away or I am progressing well with the habituation process.
However, yesterday my tinnitus spiked quite badly (I don't why) and this lasted all day and evening. I went to bed, slept well and this morning the tinnitus is quiet once again.

So my question is, do these spikes mean that I am having a 'step backwards' in the habituation process ? Or is it a sign that my tinnitus will not go away by itself (as I believe happens in the majority of cases) ?

Or is it that overall things are going in the right direction and spikes are just a normal part of the process and doesn't interfere with recovery and / or habituation ?

Sorry for the long winded message Dr Nagler but your input would be most appreciated.

 

For those who have them, spikes are sort of a fact of life. I don't think they have implications one way or the other.

stephen nagler