Progress or Setback

Wow, this is stuff is tough. Went to see an Audio yesterday about getting Aids with maskers. she was confident with my moderate hearing loss they would help, will be in in a week, Came to work , had a decent day. Usually when I get home around 7pm I head straight to my bedroom and watch TV. not tnite, I actually ate dinner in silence by myself, my T was ringing but no prob ( my family already ate) then I went upstairs and surfed the web- again in silence no problem. Watched some TV until 12- T was ringing but ok-even tried to go to sleep without my usual .5 klonopin, slept till 7:30pm. Woke up miserable?? By 11am I had to pop a klonopin to calm me down, first time I remember taking one during the day. Whats up with that-is this a small step forward and something to be expected? I am so confused??? Please tell me I am going in the right direction, but need to expect detours

 

You're going in the right direction Kevin. You will have times where it's a bit rough but it's just part of the journey but you are making progress so try to be positive. Remember it's a process!

 

How long have you been using the klonopin for? If you've been taking it on a pretty consistent basis, you may have experiencing minor withdrawal symptoms because you missed your usual nightly dose. Something to consider!

 

Kevin, you're absolutely going in the right direction so keep at it. You did so well which is why you felt worse!! I'll try to explain what happened. You managed for quite some considerable time to 'live with' your tinnitus and not react to it so your subconcious was getting the message (probably a fairly new message) that the sound was not a threat any more. So you went to bed and your concious mind slept but your subconcious never sleeps so it was busy making sure you heard this sound louder than ever just to make sure it was a safe enough sound to be ignored. This is why habituation is so difficult and not a linear progress because you have to keep not reacting whatever the sound does and when you start to make progress it will up the volume to check if it's safe to ignore, and that's when it gets difficult. The fact that this happened. even though it was so awful, means that you are making progress and if you continue to try not to react (it will be impossible all the time so don't beat yourself up, just do your best) you will have longer and longer periods like you had in the daytime where it's there but you just don't care. That is habituation of reaction and habituation of perception will usually automatically follow this. I wish you well.