Poll: Does Habituation + Distraction Make Your Tinnitus Volume Go Down (Or at Least Seem to)?

I'm just curious to know what other people's experiences are.

 

By habituating to tinnitus, you guys mean, having it but not paying any attention to it?

 

I'm not habituated by a long shot but I have noticed my T dropping considerably (from my perception) when I am very relaxed and totally distracted by what I'm doing. This can be something like playing a video game, getting a massage, watching a series I love, as long as it takes up my full attention and I'm relaxed.

I also had a couple of moments after for example some Yoga where I could here the tinnitus (I think) but it was completely gone from my awareness or something, it's kind of hard to explain, it's like it's there but it isn't ...

Really gives me good hope for habituation, it's kind of like what Julian Cowan Hill says in his Youtube videos, it's like letting go of tinnitus (or at least the obsession and emotional reaction towards it) and the perception will fade.

But like I said, not habituated by a long shot so who knows what it will be like.

I spoke to a guy who has tinnitus, he is a craniosacral therapist so quite a zen guy and he told me he accepted it very fast and started meditating to it and approaching it as something positive, like a healthometer, he said that after 3 months (that's incredibly fast) it started to fall from his awareness and he now only hears it very faintly in the distance if he really focusses himself on it or when he is really stressed but once he calms down he ''loses'' it again.

Another acquaintance of mine has very loud tinnitus (so loud he sometimes can't even hear his conversation partner) but he told me he never really had a very severe emotional response to it (maybe just wired differently), he accepted it and after about 6 months fully habituated to it. He hears it all the time he says but as long as it is not in his awareness aka brought up by someone he does not take notice of it. He only notices it when going to bed but it does not bother him at all, I was quite dumbfounded by this ...

Just goes to show that habituation means something different for each and every one, the main thing is that one is not emotionally bothered by tinnitus anymore ... Would be nice to have it fade from perception though ...

 

Same here Chris. Some days I feel almost normal when I am caught up doing something. Silence is my enemy, and I dread waking up in the middle of the night. I did buy a white noise machine for sleeping, and when I do wake up in the night I force myself to focus on the machine instead of the buzz in my head.

I love to read, and really focusing on what I am reading helps push the T out of my mind too.

Best wishes,

Dan

 

Really get that, I hate it when I wake up at night listening to that damn sound, what helps me sometimes is to watch self hypnosis videos on Youtube or just watch a very boring documentary on Netflix.

I also bought this SoundPillow which you can play sounds on from your phone, I use an app called RainRain and it really helps me with sleep. I have a bluetooth speaker with ambient noise in my room as well at night, this site called mynoise.net has amazing sounds for this. Maybe this is could help you too if you were to get bored of the white noise.

Sleep is not too difficult for me though since I'm still on sleeping meds but will need to quit those eventually ... not quite yet though ... I need my sleep.

I do notice that I can handle silence (or relative quietude) for longer periods of time as opposed to where I would literally jump out of my skin at first. Still can't say I find it comfortable though but all in due time I suppose.

 

Habituation means that you can still hear your tinnitus but are not bothered by it (or at least perhaps it has dropped down to "mildly annoying" status). If you totally can't hear it anymore, you aren't habituated, you are cured.

In my case, I consider myself pretty well habituated, I can go about my day without it being an issue and I don't notice it while I am engaged in some activity — I do however hear it for example in the quiet when I am relaxing or trying to go to sleep, it's usually high-pitched ringing/buzzing like a little electrical storm in my head, but it's more "just there" and not tremendously bothersome. I've found that I can relax with the sound going on and that was totally impossible at first, though I do still sleep with background noise. I do not believe that it is any "quieter" because I have habituated, it is simply less of a distraction and anxiety factor. (I have it pretty easy I think, though, compared to others; my tinnitus has become increasingly mild over the months and the volume is rather low at this point compared to how it was in the beginning... I attribute this to healing rather than to habituation, but achieving habituation is surely more difficult if you have a more loud and distracting sound.)

 

The is basically what I meant. In other words, it doesn't bother you so your brain "tunes it out more" and you don't pay attention to it as much because it doesn't consider it to be a threat. Also, when you do notice it, it doesn't cause any negative emotions.

 

Habituation means hearing your tinnitus and not being bothered about it. It does have limitations. A person can habituate to tinnitus at a mild or moderate level but if it becomes severe and this levels is sustained, very intrusive, then it can become debilitating and cause problems where medication like clonazepam can help. An example of this is a person that has fluctuating tinnitus. It can be: silent, mild, moderate or severe.

Michael

 

I am really starting to understand why people talk against habituation. It sounds like it really isn't a thing. Giving it a name makes it sound like it is some sort of semi-biological process. In reality it dhould just be called 'acceptance.'

I have 'accepted' my chronic pain but still doesn't mean I am any better off than when I first got it. Sounds like it is not improvement at all but rather 'strength of the mind' mumbo jumbo.

 

Habituation is a real psychological process and is a bit different than "acceptance", and it does not apply to just tinnitus. It basically means that conscious response to a stimulus is diminished after repeated exposure, as your brain begins to understand that it is unimportant.

For example, when you've been walking around all day, you don't constantly consciously perceive the feeling of your socks on your feet. (You probably do now that I mentioned it.) Your brain tunes out the sensation as unimportant, probably almost immediately after you put them on. You can feel your socks if you think about it, or maybe if you notice something strange like one of them has developed a hole worn in, but normally it is completely out of your realm of thought. This is habituation at work.

You also habituate to sounds. Ambient noises like your AC unit running, the sound of your laptop fan whirring away, or the sound your car engine is making while you're on a long drive could be things that you stop perceiving after a while. People don't go nuts over these sounds. Depending on your sensitivity, you could possibly habituate to non-constant sounds, like perhaps the sound of planes flying overhead if that is something that happens frequently in your location (as in, you totally wouldn't notice that a plane has flown by unless something out of the ordinary happens to draw your attention to it).

Tinnitus is tougher because it is normally a rather unpleasant sound. I don't think that you can achieve habituation without first achieving "acceptance" because you have to be able to experience tinnitus without anxiety before your brain will allow you to tune it out. CBT can help with this. For some people, habituation comes quickly and easily (these people won't be complaining on tinnitus online forums), and for some people it takes a while to get there. If/when you habituate, it becomes just another piece of background noise that your mind can easily tune out, but is never actually completely gone.

 

I really need to do yoga.

 

I am still working on habituation, but I definitely notice my T less when I am distracted by things such as work, studying, conversations with others, etc.

 

When a person habituates to their tinnitus they will understand what it means. For each person the habituation process is different but when it is achieved, the end result is similar for everyone. I have written many posts on it and they can be accessed on my "started threads" Read any of @fishbone posts, he is a fine example of what habituation to tinnitus is and what it means.

Michael

 

My volume never goes down. If I fixate on this loud volume, it can be very depressing. Instead, habituation/distraction shifts the mind from observing/listening to the tinnitus to not dwelling on it. Some folks have low tone tinnitus and some have loud tinnitus.

Habituation/coping is key to dealing with tinnitus. You will never know, if your tinnitus will go away, so learn and develop strategies to deal with it...from the very beginning...

 

@fishbone - absolutely spot on as usual.
You know, you are so consistent, and so ‘right’ you’re getting predictable.
(I’m not complaining.)
The best help is, to tell it like it is. x

 

Being honest is the best policy, especially when it comes to ordeals that.....can change people's lives

 

Yes, Maybe because I have a lot more on my plate than just tinnitus, and I believe others like myself, do too

 

I know this is an old post but thanks so much for this thorough answer. My tinnitus has been bothering me for the past few days I think because of my dysautonomia and my anxiety acting up and this was helpful to read again.