Terrible Week ...

[Dr. Nagler]

Hi All -

Let's say your ears are absolutely screaming, and you are having a real "bad ear day." In fact, your tinnitus has been like this for days, and it's more like you are having a bad ear week!

Is there anything that you can do to pretty much guarantee that next week will not be as bad as this week? I know one, but I'd like to get your ideas on the subject before I give you mine. Think about it.

sp

 

[I who love music]

When mine scream, I stuff the cotton in because I know loud sounds are going to make it worse at that point. Also, for some reason, when I put a small pillow or rolled up towel under my neck in bed, the mornings are a bit quieter.

 

[Hudson]

Try to keep my mind occupied, that's about my only strategy.

 

[Martin69]

I really don't know. Please enlighten us.
The only strategy so far I see is living life as good as possible, keeping busy, distracting and habituate on the long run.
My T screams every day. I don't know how a good week looks like.

 

[Beth]

Please let us know! I'd love to know what to do to have a few minutes respite from the anxiety and fear I feel. When I'm not thinking about it I don't hear it, which I guess applies to all people with T but days like today, whatever I do, I cannot stop thinking about it and if I do, it just gets louder to keep me focused on it. So please give us some advice ASAP!! XX

 

[Lisa88]

Have had a bad 5 months since t onset. Being awoken by doubling t at 3am every night. I would say a good night's sleep would help. But just can't seem to achieve that. And my t is getting worse. CNS not getting a chance to heal.

 

[Dr. Nagler]

So the question I posed was whether or not there is anything you can do to pretty much guarantee that next week will not be as bad as this week.

Well, people who truly suffer from tinnitus (as opposed to those who happen to have tinnitus but do not suffer) quite naturally tend to view the world through the prism of their tinnitus. And it makes perfect sense that they do so. So when wondering what they can do to make next week better than this week, their first thought goes to what they might do to get their tinnitus to settle down a bit so that they will have a better week.

I have been at this a long time now - twenty years next month. And I can tell you that in most cases the search for a way to predictably lower the volume of tinnitus for any appreciable length of time is much more apt to be frustrating than it is to be successful. Just when you think you have found the solution, your tinnitus is apt to change the rules. Moreover when you see the world through the prism of your tinnitus, you are allowing your tinnitus to drive the bus. You are making compromise after compromise because of your tinnitus.

So my suggestion for making next week a better week than this week has nothing to do with your tinnitus. I want you to little by little start driving your own bus. I want you to little by little start moving your tinnitus towards the back row of seats. And I want you to do it regardless of how loud or pitchy your tinnitus might be at any given point in time.

If you want next week to be a better week than this week, then make a firm commitment to devote a few hours next week to improving the life of somebody in your community less fortunate than you. As I suggested in another thread - drive for Meals on Wheels one day a week or serve in a soup kitchen or help out in a battered women's shelter or take a panhandler to lunch instead of tossing a dollar his or her way or ... well, any number of things. Make a commitment to do it, and then keep that commitment. Just do it for a few hours next week. And the following week. And the week after that. Do it week after week - and then, over time, you cannot help but begin to see the world more as a person who happens to have tinnitus and less as a person whose tinnitus has him (or her). Best of all, this principle holds true regardless of how loud your tinnitus might be!

In my opinion.

sp

 

[Asian]

I try to go out as much as possible and that makes it less noticeable when I am busy

 

[Grace]

Try to keep myself calm and collected and if i need the help, i take one of my anxiety meds.

 

[Harold]

Beth you should keep busy in a room or place that does have sounds ,, Do Not stay in a quiet place , unless you listen to a portable radio with ear plugs .......In time you will get used to it and you will not have many fear days .

remember panic and fear is really a waste of time and energy ...... Its not easy to keep busy all day long but
try and keep busy mostly when your feeling T fear starting... just put on a radio right away and keep focused on the station.. either talking or music .. it will help you .. i hope you feel better BETH

I read DR Naglers report above and i agree totally.... He has his Tinnitus 20 years i have high Tinnitus over 40 years Since i cam back from heavy combat in 1968 from the Vietnam war and my leadership in the 4th Division.
Keeping busy distracting yourself like being a soup kitchen volunteer an hour or so each week is one way to think of something other than your T.. My T is the loudest according to the VA from firing weapons over 12 months by my shoulder and EAR> I have the high whistle T in both ears with noise induced hearing loss,,,, all from the war......anyway i keep distracted and busy with a radio or being in crowded places or when the weather
cooperates i'm down by the seashore walking with friends or sometimes alone ,but focusing on the ocean sounds and people talking sounds , the birds making there noises etc....There are places and things to do to take your thinking to various places away from the T.....Young people working in places that keep them moving around
rather than sitting all day at a desk are better off .. walking and other physical activity when ever possible to do is a healthy way of distracting......stay away from any form of ASPIRIN products , this is a huge NO NO for the T.
Talking on a cell phone is a great distracting activity, but to much can get the T more activated... unless you can lower the cells volume, and the same goes for a radio should you decide to try that for helping the fear of T.
Taking a shower every night before you go to sleep , can help relax any fear of the T , but i suggest listening to a low volume music station , while relaxed for sleep....I find i fall to sleep many nights with the TV on low volume, as i get interested in various shows and the distraction , just moves me to sleep.. I must find a way to have the TV shut off itself at a certain time ....I hate waking up to the TV running ,,,,For those having more difficulty
falling to sleep with the Tinnitus on the mind . you can buy Melatonin liquid bottle of 1,5 mgs up to 3 mgs later on and try a 3/4 dropper full before sleep... COSTCO sells a bottle of Melatonin, in pill form in the 3 mg ....and the price is real cheap....In the meantim T people should try going to sleep early about 9 pm or 10 pm latest
and do not eat anything for three thats 3 hours before bedtime....for eating before bedtime thinking or felling that will relax you more is a NO NO.. it will only make the body work harder on digesting and will keep you up the night....Do not drink any booz to sleep it will onl y make the T and sleeping more uncomfortable ....the warm shower is much better.....hope something helps some one in here with the T.... and over time you will look back and remember that your T issue becomes tolerable , and you will get used to it and the tricks to deal with it.

 

[Giovanni]

Well, remarkably I would sit by my fireplace. And today I did it and realized my T was gone, I almost cried.. I plugged my ears and heard nothing... It was absolutely divine. But I know this is only temporary for me.

 

[kmohoruk]

So the question I posed was whether or not there is anything you can do to pretty much guarantee that next week will not be as bad as this week.

Well, people who truly suffer from tinnitus (as opposed to those who happen to have tinnitus but do not suffer) quite naturally tend to view the world through the prism of their tinnitus. And it makes perfect sense that they do so. So when wondering what they can do to make next week better than this week, their first thought goes to what they might do to get their tinnitus to settle down a bit so that they will have a better week.

I have been at this a long time now - twenty years next month. And I can tell you that in most cases the search for a way to predictably lower the volume of tinnitus for any appreciable length of time is much more apt to be frustrating than it is to be successful. Just when you think you have found the solution, your tinnitus is apt to change the rules. Moreover when you see the world through the prism of your tinnitus, you are allowing your tinnitus to drive the bus. You are making compromise after compromise because of your tinnitus.

So my suggestion for making next week a better week than this week has nothing to do with your tinnitus. I want you to little by little start driving your own bus. I want you to little by little start moving your tinnitus towards the back row of seats. And I want you to do it regardless of how loud or pitchy your tinnitus might be at any given point in time.

If you want next week to be a better week than this week, then make a firm commitment to devote a few hours next week to improving the life of somebody in your community less fortunate than you. As I suggested in another thread - drive for Meals on Wheels one day a week or serve in a soup kitchen or help out in a battered women's shelter or take a panhandler to lunch instead of tossing a dollar his or her way or ... well, any number of things. Make a commitment to do it, and then keep that commitment. Just do it for a few hours next week. And the following week. And the week after that. Do it week after week - and then, over time, you cannot help but begin to see the world more as a person who happens to have tinnitus and less as a person whose tinnitus has him (or her). Best of all, this principle holds true regardless of how loud your tinnitus might be!

In my opinion.

sp

Thats a really good way of putting it @Dr. Nagler . I'll be honest, since I've been started controlling my anxiety, volunteering for a local environmental group, getting out in the world and simply realizing that my situation could be a lot worse (I could have a more debilitating condition, be born in a more war torn area of the world, not have the loving parents that I do etc...)!! Well once I started doing that then both my H and my T started to ease a bit; and have continued doing go.

I still have my the occasional "Bad Ear Day", but I am defiantly having way more "Good Ear days"

 

[AlecP]

I am trying to get myself into the mindset that Tinnitus is just part of my everyday life now and that it is simply not worth thinking about, even if I have 'bad days' . In the same way that your hair grows and you don't care because you just go and get it cut, I am trying to just view my T as a life process that I now have that is unimportant to think about. That is how I try and get through each week, and on the 'good days' I find myself thinking about T less and less.

 

[Dubbyaman]

Dr. Nagler. Have u ever tried rtms?