POSITIVITY not INADEQUACY

[Sarah Henderso]

I wanted to start a discussion on a support forum for those with tinnitus who feel that they cannot discuss their condition without it seeming to those around them like an inadequate or minor condition. It's not minor to those who have it and instead of dwelling on this I want to live my life positively and feed this into who I perceive my tinnitus. When I think about it less and just live my life with love and do the best I can, it always seems to respond well to that.

I was diagnosed with tinnitus in my penultimate year at university at 22 years old. My doctor was melodramatic and negative and told me I was very young as a patient with tinnitus and that there was no cure except hearing aids. I'm 22. I don't think I'm ready for that yet. The downside is the longer I leave it, the more there is to rectify however, by the time I am 60 plus, I would not mind hearing aids to improve all round hearing anyway. In 40 years time who knows what we will have researched and found!

So, rather than it being treated as a minor condition, always being compared to more life threatening illnesses, tinnitus needs to be viewed as a real serious area for research and condition for sufferers. And instead of being so negative about it, which I understand from a realism/pragmatism point of view, can we PLEASE stop telling patients in such a negative way and PLEASE stop posting endless articles on "there is no cure and that's that".

Fellow sufferers and wonderful people I'd love to hear your opinion on this.

S X

 

[Lorac]

Hi Sarah, and welcome!
I am assuming that you have hearing loss, since your doctor has suggested using hearing aids. Is that correct? If hearing aids would actually help you, then I'm not sure why age would factor into your decision to use them.
I agree that doctors could do a better job of responding to our condition. They don't seem to understand what a devastating effect tinnitus can have on the lives of some sufferers. It feels like they lump all sufferers into the same category, when in fact there are varying levels of severity.

 

[billie48]

Welcome and thank you for suggesting the positivity approach dealing with T. It is a good combination of positivity and realizing that T is a formidable foe as the latter will force us to deal with its reality. It is not going away or become easier by us being negative and draining our emotional health for it. It actually feeds on our negative emotions. That recognition should make us wiser to deal with T.

I know initially all talk of positivity is in vain. Why? Because the weakness of the flesh when T and its horror is fresh and real. The body's defensive mechanism takes over, the fight and flight response driven by the limbic nervous system and the Amigdala are all taking over our senses.

But over time to give the body time to adjust to the new reality and strange sensation, it will react with less trauma and that is the time our will power to be more positive will gradually gain ground to help stem the tide of the T tyranny over our life. Positivity approach will get better and better and with less stressful response, T will be robbed of its fuel and slowly the brain will be able to fade it out at times and there will be more of more of these that eventually habituation will be on the way.