Tinnitus and Social Skills

before i had Tinnitus, i used to be the life of the office. I was everyone's pal and i always had lunch with colleagues and there was always stuff to talk about. After Tinnitus and all the nightmare of panic attacks, depression, anxiety, etc, i came back to work and i discovered i lost all my social skills. I can no longer do small talk (nothing interests me), i only want to talk about T which i know nobody is interested in. So i ended up a recluse. I hide in my cubicle, i have lunch alone, i don't talk unless it is business. Of course people notice and some even said they miss the old me and when is he coming back. I am trying to get that guy to come back too.

Anyone else experience this?

 

Hi ,
I know how you feel,
Its your confidence and self self worth and getting your social skills back again.
We are not born with these skills and you will get over this by starting to build them up again and I promise you that you will.

You are doing great managing to go to work and now its building on this social skill to get your happy self back.
Start by spending a few minutes around your work friend and just be yourself and talk and respond to people when you can and you can work on getting your laugh back and dont put off mixing with people and make it a fear .
Going back to our school days even the quiet boy in the class eventually starts to mix and all about confidence building .
Make it a target each day to build up time around people and social anxiety can be cured I promise ...lots of love glynis

 

Hey @Sgguy46

I totally relate to you... I used to be a crazy dancer and party-goer and the life of the parties, very outgoing and social and always had a laugh around people and made people laugh.. Just recently I tried going out to party (after more than 1 1/2 year) and mingle with friends and I felt frustrated about having to hide from noises and having to put earplugs on, and my self esteem just went rock-bottom... I could not even enjoy being there at the end...
I know I should not care about what other people think, but I just felt uncomfortable with the all situation and made me quite sad... :-(

Sorry.. not very positive about it today...

Hugs to all...

 

ME too. I'm a loner now.
It is too much effort, effort I don't have because it all goes into getting thru each day. No energy for anything else. I don't even care, I'm too depressed to care.

 

yeah .... I feel like I am faking it the whole time.

 

Hi Suera and RazaH,
Hope you are both getting help and support...please don't give up on your self and fight to get through it and get a lovely life back even with tinnitus.....lots of love glynis

 

My tinnitus has gone down to almost zero. I can relate to the comment that tinnitus changes you. You become irritable, moody you feel like you have a secret. I felt like I was responsible for not letting it get to me but it did and nobody knows why you are standoffish or upset. I felt that I couldn't deal with it and missed out on acting warm to others instead of retreating. I felt ashamed of my secret. Now that things are better I don't know who I am. I let tinnitus interfere with living and now I don't know how to live. ADVICe Please.

 

Hi ,Take things at your own pace and regain your self worth and confidence back again,
Get your happy self back and strengthen your social skills and smile and be proud you have got to a better place with your tinnitus....take care and wishing you lots of love glynis

 

Enjoy ! And be careful. Stop complaining about silence.

 

You better tell us how did you get rid of it?!

 

@valeri I got the tinnitus down to zero level through mindfullness meditation. You sit in a quiet room no disturbances and practice learning what silence feels like. Whenever you don't detect the tinnitus you embrace that sensation. Do it everyday. I sat with the noise and silence everyday for a week for at least an hour each day. When you are not alone practice it all day anyway even if there is ambiant noise. Its tough it took to 2 and half months.