Positive Things I've Learned from OCD and Tinnitus

I wanted to share a few useful things that I've learned. My tinnitus has been better on average since I've employed these things the last week in a big way.

I suffer with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and have had loud tinnitus that has recently taken many forms, from muffled hearing, popping, large different spikes.

OCD and tinnitus share parts of the brain involved with threat responses, I noticed, quite frequently that the pathways that occur neurologically when something upsets my OCD, almost always always cause an issue with tinnitus if not dealt with immediately. This never used to happen and it is my logical assumption that the pathways in the mind, being malleable as they are, have created a breaking point for stress to "escape".

Recently I have managed to overcome this to a degree, and am retraining my brain to deal with the stress in another way, this is working, I'm having way less spikes, my ears haven't popped for nearly a week now (even though I have had spikes that were scary and posted about them)

The way I imagine it is if you were blowing up a balloon, and that balloon has a weak point, when it fills too much it will break there. This is what tinnitus was for me, I would have sudden deafness, followed by very loud spike (fleeting tinnitus, I've been told) and the stress from thinking my hearing was damaged would cause more of them. The obsessions are strong and trying to convince myself that something is true when it isn't is very challenging.

Here are some things I've learned in the last week:

1. Your mind is flexible and can be re-trained.

2. Forcing logic on certain scenarios may be beneficial, because my ears were popping and I want to protect my hearing, I had to force myself to not invoke a threat response when something happens. I have been a lot calmer lately. When something happens that I can't control I try to employ logic. Often when stress has moved on you can see more clearly, I can now do this faster.

3. Tinnitus doesn't always mean hearing loss, I've had muffled hearing for says that has come back multiple times now. sometimes I have had high frequencies sound dulled and they have returned.

4. Caring less about bad things happening will free you.

5. Do not stop medications, taper them. try to avoid as many as you can. Things like a bit of leg pain can be nothing compared to what side effects you might have later.

6. Air and circulation are important.

7. Try and incorporate turmeric and other anti-inflammatory herbs into your life.

 

Great post! Totally agree though I would add another one for myself : Don't let the negativity of others impact the positive progress with your own T

Celebrate yourself, and your struggles. You overcame a great obstacle and you deserve a pat on the back!

 

I was diagnosed with ocd at age 13 and I’m 47 now. I was diagnosed with tinnitus in early part of 2019 I believe. They said I have slight hearing loss and could have gotten it from loud noise. I own my own business. Plowing and mowing etc. I refuse to let ocd or tinnitus take over my life. I’m training my brain now with tinnitus as I’ve done with ocd. And I don’t care what they say about food not mattering because I notice when I eat crap with sugar, salt and caffeine along with the everyday stress I was allowing in my life, anxiety and tinnitus will spike. It’s tinnitus and it can not harm you. It’s an alarm in the brain telling you something is wrong and we need to take action to rectify. Don’t care if it’s anxiety relay tinnitus or noise induced etc, you can get better and live the life God meant you to live. I understand some people don’t believe in God and that’s not what this post is about. Remember you are all WINNERS AND CHAMPIONS!!