Is It Normal to Constantly Think About Tinnitus?

Hello Dr. Stephen,

I am five months into tinnitus from a bout of bad anxiety. I cannot stop thinking about tinnitus and the strange/distorted sounds that I hear. Even when I am happy and cannot hear a strange sound my mind goes to gather my attention to some strange sound from another room or goes "Hey you haven't thought about your tinnitus in a while"

How do I let go? Is it normal to think about/notice your tinnitus everyday/ every hour? Does this improve over time? Do you begin to obsess less and less over sounds as time goes on?

 

@Kyle2737, what you describe is, indeed, normal.

Let me explain ...

As far as your brain is concerned, your auditory system has been invaded by the "Guest from Hell." It's like your not-so-favorite uncle came for a brief visit, but now he refuses to leave. So what happens? Well, your autonomic nervous system, the part of your nervous system that is in charge of protecting you, has to do its job. An example of your ANS doing its job would be when your pupils dilate in a dark room to let in as much light as possible to protect you. You do not make them dilate - they do it on their own. And there's nothing you can consciously do by willpower to make your pupils constrict in that circumstance. The problem with intrusive tinnitus is that your auditory system does not have pupils; the only weapon your ANS has in its protection arsenal is to monitor your tinnitus, which is just about the last thing you want to be doing. To complicate things further, the harder you try not to monitor your tinnitus, the more your ANS monitors it. There's nothing wrong with your brain in this regard. Your ANS is doing exactly what it is supposed to be doing - it's just doing it too well! Things are working normally, but in this particular case it is to your disadvantage. That's how I have come to see it, anyway.

In my opinion the most important thing in letting go is to stop trying to let go. Trying to let go of your thoughts about tinnitus is like trying not to think about a pink elephant. The harder you try not to think about a pink elephant, the more pronounced the pink elephant becomes in your mind's eye.

Another important element in letting go, as I see it, is to arm yourself with good information. Be sure to keep in mind that just because something you read makes good sense, that does not necessarily mean it is good information.

Does monitoring your tinnitus improve over time? It tends to, especially as your ANS very gradually begins to view your tinnitus as part of "self," but try not to put some sort of calendar on it. Of course, you don't want to impede that process, so I think it's a good idea not to spend too much time unnecessarily attending to your tinnitus; we necessarily attend to it enough as is. Examples of unnecessarily attending to your tinnitus would be keeping tinnitus diaries, spending hour after hour after hour after hour pouring over tinnitus sites on the Internet, and talking to your spouse or partner about your tinnitus too frequently - limit yourself to an hour or two a week. There are a variety of strategies, but perhaps that will get you started.

Hope this helps.

Stephen M. Nagler, M.D.