Speed Up Your Habituation

Here's a method I've been using since the 70's to knock my T down a notch when it flares up. I figured this out when I was a teenager. I'm 55 and it still works for me.

When my T gets annoying, I stuff cotton in my ears for about 2 weeks. During this time 3 things are obviously happening -

1. I'm straining to hear. I think this is good. I used to do an exercise when I'd sit in a quiet room and "Listen" for the quiet 'beyond' the T. It helped, but it bored me. I'm a hyper person.

2. The T is more obvious. Of course it is, I'm shutting out most of the outside sound. And now I believe I'm putting the pressure on my brain to habituate faster. Maybe. I'm not a doctor.

3. My ears are 'healing' from whatever sound blast ignited my T. My spikes are always damaged hair cells from something loud.

I don't know why this works, but after a couple weeks, just when I notice the T is somewhat lower, I pull the cotton out and environmental sounds normal, and the T seems to be gone (or way down) then I go for months okay, til I get a blast. Long ago I discovered this 'trick.' Works for me.

In fact I have cotton in today because a few days ago I was too close to the backdoor of a van when it slammed shut.

 

Thanks for sharing! Allowing your ears to rest does make sense. What if you don't use cotton - does your T still go down at all, or does it take a longer time? Why do you use cotton instead of quality musician ear plugs etc? I am guessing cotton is more comfortable?

 

This is a good idea. The whole
Concept is kinda like when you have a spike, dicipline your ears into only hearing that T and with cotton in it covers all backround noise or alot im guessing which then youl only hear the T.. Then like you said do it for along time like 2 weeks and then when you finally pull the cotton out, outside sounds are finally bein let in your ears making the T sound more quiet cause its now bein blended with enviremental sounds. Greatttt idea!!!

 

Thank you very much Your posts are always inspiring and very down-to-earth.

 

I use cotton because it cuts the outside sound down by about 50% and unlike plugs, you can't feel the cotton. I forget it's there.... see how this works? I forget about the cotton, my ears are high alert - it's almost like my ears are saying, "Shut up tinnitus, we can't hear." Like I said, LONG before I knew what tinnitus even was I was doing this. Without the cotton, yes, it takes a long time to settle down.

 

Thank you so much for sharing!!

 

Cotton is more protective then earplugs???

 

Dear Dr. IWLM...

This may not be a double blind, placebo controlled study of yours, but it matches my experience in relation to "sound rest".

When I stay home, quiet, no phone ringing, isolated (unfortunately), for many days on end...the tinnitus is still loud as hell but "feels" a bit less onerous. It may even be a bit quieter "objectively" (4 screeching kid's worth v. 5 screaming kids worth? Not too much difference but I'll take what I can get!).
Then I go out in the world, get groceries, try and be a human, or whatever, and of course there is sound out there. Even if I avoid loud sounds or have plugs in briefly already...as like you I have many years of preemptive, gut feel, know-when-it's-going-to-happen-louder-sound training, my tinnitus is louder by the time I get home. It's such a relief to get back, even though it sticks the "HANDICAPPED" sign in my face as in: "Can't handle the outside world too well can you Mister???" and some associated depression.
However, three or four days later, in "sound rest" zone again, I don't feel handicapped any more. The tinnitus is more "normal" again, even though I'm sure the objective internal volume is hardly different.

I realize this is not exactly the same as what your "exercise" is describing, but I believe the 'sound rest' aspect is similar. Yeah, it's certainly not the classical sound generators, sound enrichment and all, but by this stage in my life and 58 years of this T thing, I go with what works!!!

Take care, and thanks for your great posts.

Zimichael

 

I tried the supplements, I tried the masking ... I'll go with cotton!