Is My Experience Unique? Could I Be Making Things Worse? Help!

[Allie]

I feel worried that my experience is unique, and that I won't be able to acclimate for this reason. I've talked with a number of friends who have tinnitus and are doing alright - but mine is different. Sometimes, it's only T.V. static noises. Sometimes, it's a super high pitched (so high pitched it's hard to hear) chirpy or tinkly or staticky noise. Sometimes it's ringing.

Mine isn't one noise. It isn't consistent. Sometimes it's quiet. It's also not "in an ear". I can hear it in my ears, sure. Especially the ringing noises. But it's also in my head!

To make matters worse, for the past few days, I have had a new ringing in one ear that was never there before, and I swear, it only comes when I'm afraid it will and lasts about 10 minutes. The other day I got a hearing test, and worried that it might affect my tinnitus, and I got the ringing. Then yesterday, I took a sleeping medication to help me sleep and was afraid I'd get the ringing, and I did! Can tinnitus be caused psychosomatically?

I'm so scared this one ringing will stick around! Is there anything I can do to avoid that? Wear ear plugs? Not go out?

 

[Ed209]

I feel worried that my experience is unique, and that I won't be able to acclimate for this reason. I've talked with a number of friends who have tinnitus and are doing alright - but mine is different. Sometimes, it's only T.V. static noises. Sometimes, it's a super high pitched (so high pitched it's hard to hear) chirpy or tinkly or staticky noise. Sometimes it's ringing.

Mine isn't one noise. It isn't consistent. Sometimes it's quiet. It's also not "in an ear". I can hear it in my ears, sure. Especially the ringing noises. But it's also in my head!

To make matters worse, for the past few days, I have had a new ringing in one ear that was never there before, and I swear, it only comes when I'm afraid it will and lasts about 10 minutes. The other day I got a hearing test, and worried that it might affect my tinnitus, and I got the ringing. Then yesterday, I took a sleeping medication to help me sleep and was afraid I'd get the ringing, and I did! Can tinnitus be caused psychosomatically?

I'm so scared this one ringing will stick around! Is there anything I can do to avoid that? Wear ear plugs? Not go out?

Tinnitus and our emotional health (psychological health) go hand in hand. In most cases they both affect each other which is why you shouldn't let it dominate your thoughts. Before long it will consume you, and then it gets even harder to break the cycle.

If you go anywhere loud, always use ear plugs. Other than that, try not to change too much about your behaviour. At my worst I became scared of a lot of things that I now realise was unnecessary and was making me worse.

Don't underestimate the emotional side to all of this. It can have a very real and powerful effect on your symptoms. This is driven by our central nervous system, and endocrine system, which learn and adapt to our behaviour.

I was a jumpy mess; now I'm relatively normal.

I sometimes wonder if we didn't have so much access to information - via the internet - whether we'd be better off, mentally speaking. Some of us unwittingly turn into hyperchondriacs and add more stress to our stress.