"They're Just Sounds"

When I express distress with my tinnitus, someone close to me says, "they're just sounds. Why do you get so upset?" Incidentally, he has tinnitus, too, but it is one constant sound that doesn't change.

What do you think about the statement "they're just sounds?" How I wish I could view it like that. Maybe I can, I don't know.

 

Sounds that cause stress and torture till you adapt to it or calm down is hard for others without tinnitus to understand and don't realise it affects you socially,emotionally and physically and lack of sleep and low concentration and brain fog ....Wow we have a blinking lot to deal with in the early months.

Distress is what tinnitus causes but with help and support It can be turned around and life with tinnitus does get better....lots of love glynis

 

IT is true they are just sounds... You Should really ask yourself what bothers you so much.. The sounds... Or... Your thoughts About the sounds.... My thoughts are much worse than the sound is

 

1. In general, I try not to discuss T with anyone. A key aspect of habituation is allowing your mind to wander away from it and not focusing on it/reading about it. My parents saw how miserable I was with my T after my ear surgery that made it so bad. They saw the depression and anxiety and, like any concerned parents, they asked how the T was and how I was doing. Once I was ready to start the road to recovery, I asked them to not ask me about it unless I myself brought it up. And they respected my wish. They never speak of it and it goes a long way to keeping my mind away from it.

2. Sort of a corollary to the above, but other people just can't understand what you are going through. Its a lose-lose to even bother explaining. Either they are totally in the dark and downplaying it, or, if you somehow convey to them how bad it is, you get a pity/sympathy that you may not want. I made the mistake of playing some T sound file for my wife. And she heard it, put her hand over her mouth, and said it would drive her crazy and that she was so sorry. I immediately regretted playing it for her.

3. In the end, it really is just a sound. It took me months to realize that it wasn't the sound itself keeping me up at night or giving me anxiety. It was my emotional reaction to the sound that was having the truly negative effects. Over time, I was able to separate the two (i.e. consciously noticing the sound didn't immediately lead to a negative emotional reaction). And that was the first true step toward habituation. I'm not fully there yet, but I'm on the right track.

 

Well, for me it quite literally is NOT the sound as such that bothers me , its the buzzing sensation in my brain .
So , yeah ..not Just a sound.

Also , a sound is not just a sound ...it depends on how loud , what frequency , how many frequencies Etc.

I think that this someone is assuming that you both have the same tinnitus which is technically impossible to begin with ..so.

 

Here are some sounds:

Shattering glass
Toddler screaming
Train brakes
Jet engines
Vehicles colliding
Keys jangling
Nails on a blackboard
Pipes banging together
Swords clashing
Blue jay squawking
Dog whistle
Emergency siren

Yes, they're "sounds." Ask your friend if he would like to listen to any of them every day, all day, for months and years on end. Any sound is "just a sound" unless it's discordant and persistent. Everyone has a tolerance threshold; it's just a matter of degree.

Water is "just water," but the Chinese developed a way of turning water into torture, one drop at a time.

Edit to add: BTA video, "Sounds of Tinnitus." Skip the intro and go straight to 0:49.

British Tinnitus Association - Sounds of Tinnitus

 

Yeah, they're just sounds, where sounds shouldn't be.

 

Is your buzzing anything like the second sound in the video cheza posted?

 

Yes. Its more than just a sound isn't it. it borders on the tactile.

 

Sorry to hear this.. Also have this bezing sensation since a couple of days and yes iT is annoying. I have Also days that i 'suffer' a lot.. But really your OWN state of mind can really make you cope better.
Take care all of you. Was not my intention to hurt anyone...
Razah: check your blood pressure... Mind is high and i guess that is where the buzzing feeling comes from...

 

Buzzing sensation i mean

 

I can't believe how many people can't feel the sound? I agree this is by far the worst part of loud tinnitus. For me, some of the shrill loud sounds bouncing around are felt in the ear and in the brain. It's as if I can feel the hyperactivity lighting up in the different areas.

Also, my ear drums seem to tighten in response to the loud beeps and screeching that the tinnitus produces. It's not just a sound for me personally.

 

To some they may be sounds to others they are distress making signals.
Recent research shows that those who do not suffer distress with T process sound in their frontal lobes, wheres those of us who are distressed by T process sound in our emotional centres. This has been proved on MRI scans.

 

I am so glad you changed your picture from the dog. Mixed together with your understandable angry words made me scared to comment on your posts.

However since you wrote so eloquently last week about your suffering you have been on my mind a lot.
You say you fight everyday, especially pushing the noise boundaries, I did that for 6 months with my medical induced T as I have already said.

I wanted to ask would you give my method a try? Which I adopted 7 months ago, briefly gentle sound exposure, reduce stress, relaxation, minfulness, cleansing foods. I do believe it can help. especially as they know T is made worse by stress and obviously T is stressful. You have nothing to lose and all my ideas are non toxic.

I saw a programme this week about people trying to get into work with disabilities, 2 guys had tourettes, both were sent to see an eminent neuro who knew that their ticks were worse in times of stress and under occupation, one guys ticks had come on after a sudden death, yet he had been normal and working over 30 years. When he was calm talking photographs his ticks stopped, the other found a role, actually tree felling and while working his ticks stopped.

I knew immediately this principle could work for us too. Especially as medical induced T is stressful and anxiety creating.

 

Never knew this! But How would habituation be explaned then? Does the process move?

 

I think the findings are recent. I wonder if the reason most of us are still here is because we process sound differently we mostly don't habituate.

 

I did like the dog.

 

Objectively its proof of a variant disease process. It may be though that habituation could still work, but (costs be damned) it efficacy could also theoretically be measured. It may be that those of us who have more emotional processing are those for whom there is a powerful perception of loss and fear accompanying the arrival of the disease.

 

Indeed, in fact my good days are when I can "only" hear it and not feel it.
For me its literally 90% a sensation 10% sound.
Maybe thats a perception thing or something , dunno , sure feels like a sensation rather then a sound.

 

It may just be sounds but for me, not ever being able to switch off such a horrible concoction of high pitches is what makes it so difficult.

 

What many people fail to appreciate that there are many variations of tinnitus and many levels of intensity. So people are going to dismiss the issue as 'just sounds'.

A good analogue is running a rusty nail down a blackboard. Everybody hates that noise. That's one way to express the intensity and aggressiveness of the sound we hear.

 

Damn emotional centres! I want more of a frontal lobe!

 

That's my life too.