Is Tinnitus Really a Mental Thing?

I'm 4 months into high frequency tinnitus after a very loud chord was played from an amplifier directly into my right ear. Since then more and more frequently and now just about every day I have 10000 hz in my head. It will stop for a while ( which is luvvvvverley) and then out of the blue I will feel a definite electronic click inside my head and the tinnitus starts up again. I might be at work or relaxing, cycling or watching tv and then suddenly 'click' and we're off again. So how is this a mental thing? I'm not even thinking about and then suddenly it happens. This leads me to believe in the 'bent/flattened eardrum hair' theory. How can it be a mental thing in my case and what's the point of trying various mental gymnastics to overcome it when there's a definite audible click and mine starts? I've also been taking Valium when it's especially loud. Any suggestions on anything guys. I realise I'm still a newbie in this world but struggling to understand the condition. Thanks for any answers.

 

Its not just a mental thing. Its electromagntic signals percieved by your brain, and they are very physical. However you can use your mental strength to make your brain ignore it, and thats the mental part of it. If you focus and obsess about it, your brain will make it a high priority in your awareness and by ignoring it and not caring, your brain will start finding those signals more and more unimportant and they will be percieved less loud and in the end not percieved at all most of the time. The signals are always there, its just a matter of what your brain makes out of it.

In your case when it comes and goes, it is most likely the physical signals that comes and goes, wich is typical for tinnitus in the beginning when its unstable. The perception part is something that happens slowly in later stages

 

There are scans of the brain that show that indeed tinnitus does exist, however tinnitus is something you can ignore!!

It's after all subjective and you can make your brain get used to it so you can not hear it!

There is a psychological component to tinnitus and it has been showed that it happens often in anxious people with D type personalities (introvert and tense kind of folks)