Tinnitus Is 90% Emotions, 10% Real Sound

[The Red Viper]

I don't understand why some of you can't accept that different people have different experiences of "tinnitus" and for some it is as much a psychological problem as "physiological", yes even in cases of subjectively loud tinnitus.

I concede that the response to the physiological problem can become a psychological problem. However there is something physically going on to warrant the psychological response.

 

[Marie79]

I don't understand why some of you can't accept that different people have different experiences of "tinnitus" and for some it is as much a psychological problem as "physiological", yes even in cases of subjectively loud tinnitus.

Yes but psychology plays a huge part because it DOES get louder when you focus on it.

 

[Foncky]

Yes but psychology plays a huge part because it DOES get louder when you focus on it.

Your universal truth does not apply to me.

 

[John G]

Is this a case of " mind over matter" bs?

 

[PaulBe]

I have tried everything but it lives it's own life.

Great line.

 

[just1morething]

Salt and MSG sure spike my noise fast. I found that out yesterday and today....still unbelievably loud. Emotionally it's harder to judge. I still think there is component of it involved with my neck, but can't prove it. http://www.tinnitusjournal.com/detalhe_artigo.asp?id=236

 

[John G]

So when someone asks me how I am feeling. I am going to say "I must be very "emotional" ....because my T sound is through the roof "

 

[just1morething]

So when someone asks me how I am feeling. I am going to say "I must be very "emotional" ....because my T sound is through the roof "

Maybe it's 90% real sound and 10% emotional? I think it's highly variable as we are all a bit different and our stress levels vary. If we had previous anxiety/depression disorders in our life I'm sure the ratio could be higher. Kevin Hogan brought that up in his book. With our fight or flight built into our limbic system it is very difficult to know.

 

[The Red Viper]

Is this a case of " mind over matter" bs?

Seems so. While external circumstances can be accepted by the mind, internal ones aren't simply a matter of mentally overcoming. What people seem to forget is that the mind is matter, the brain that is.

 

[linearb]

Is this a case of " mind over matter" bs?

for you? maybe! In my case, after many years I will say that certain kinds of negative mood cycles and obsessive thinking literally makes my tinnitus louder, and that diligent practice of specific cognitive training tends to improve both my mood, and the volume of of ringing as measured by minimum masking.

It's taken a very long time to understand anything about how this works for me, and I would never suggest that my tinnitus is the same as anyone elses...

 

[dfw]

Great thread and a number of different insights.

There is the sub-conscious, which we actually have no control over in our daily lives.

I really appreciate the varying degrees of comments on positive posts like this. It really helps to see different things to work on as my journey of 4 weeks with T continues. Hopefully with positivity, diet, exercise and mind-body work I will be able to at least tone it down or eliminate it and continue on this journey we call life with a new outlook.

Right now it is challenging, but I have moments of great hope with your positive posts.

 

[stophiss]

There is a theory of the brains plasticity or neuroplasticity and how tinnitus makes itself known under certain events and state of mind. The lower the neuroplasticity the hight the chance you get T, and yes depression and anxiety can lower neuroplasticity but so can a concussion, low oxygen, dyslexia or any number of brain condition. Yes human have less natural resilience when under stress and the plasticity can drop and when there is a low neuroplasticity and higher activity in the cochlear nucleus there is a higher change of neurons firing off at unsynchronized rates inducing T. but there are many conditions that can lower plasticity and plenty of condition that can increase activity in cochlear nucleus. I do however believe improving your depression and anxiety can only improve plasticity and assist in recovery.

One of the best posts I have read about tinnitus. Agree. I would say based upon the resiliency of evolution over 200,000 years of modern man, since a very low percent of the population have T, that for most, it takes a 'perfect storm' of contributing factors to induce T.
Lack of dynamic neuroplasticity likely not only causes T on some level but also makes it harder to go away.

 

[stophiss]

Stress and even bad sleep seem to have no impact on my T.

Sounds like stress doesn't affect tinnitus for many. But for some it may. But then there is the whole notion of controlling stress. A nice construct but generally hard to do as stress by definition is many times related to life events we have little control over. Sure we can control a few things to moderate our stress levels a bit. I like what was written about our lives before T. Remember that? When we could be in a quiet room and it was actually quiet? Of course back then we had years of up and down stress levels with no T. The other part of it...can we really control the stress of life other than doing the normal things like sleep, exercise, eat right, be nice to people etc...not much. We don't have a lot of control over things that cause stress. We are in fact stressed by things we can't predict...like our T. Which came first?

I believe many of us have asked the same question that the OP poses...or rather believes and many here dismiss that stress matters with their T and of course they would know for them. I have asked the same question myself and admit to being surprised my T can run counter to the stress theory as well.

But maybe best to think of stress or anxiety more specific to T and not to life events. My thinking is...the predicate of habituation to T is not fighting T (stress aka anxiety about T) but rather accepting it and not worrying about it. This may or may not be related to stress in our daily lives but rather coming to terms with the noisy next door neighbor...whether to hate the SOB or simply accept him.

Another way of defining habituation which is sometimes discussed...T volume level isn't quantifiable....is pushing T to the background. So lowering volume level as mentioned in the opening post may actually be conflated with habituation. Habituation is best achieved when there is more an acceptable of tinnitus versus a higher anxiety about it. Our perception of T in terms of accepting may in fact be independent to the ups and downs of stress in our lives.

A last comment. My T today is not raging but not mild either. I would say moderate. While I composed the above, I sometimes would be engrossed to figure out how to put down my thoughts and honestly my T would disappear. It would go away. Its was still there of course, but I tuned it out. Of course I wish I could do that all the time. But then my conscious thought would turn back to noticing my T again when my focus was less intense. For me, being engrossed in a project or out in society be it grocery shopping or being out with friends, my T somewhat evaporates. Ambient noise level matter too of course. But when a bit more alone with it and less distracted by other things, it seems to demand more attention. It is clearly a mind thing I have little control over.

 

[volsung37]

I would agree that perception of tinnitus is very dependent on emotions. My tinnitus is as loud as when it first started but because I am most of the time not emotionally engaged with it I don't notice it much except when I think about tinnitus. If I am stressed for whatever reason my perception of tinnitus increases. However it is physically there in that I don't believe I am making these crazy sounds up (although you could get into metaphysics here lol)

 

[GregCA]

I would say based upon the resiliency of evolution over 200,000 years of modern man, since a very low percent of the population have T, that for most, it takes a 'perfect storm' of contributing factors to induce T.

From the ATA website:

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates that nearly 15% of the general public — over 50 million Americans — experience some form of tinnitus. Roughly 20 million people struggle with burdensome chronic tinnitus, while 2 million have extreme and debilitating cases.​

I know it's a bit subjective, but I wouldn't consider 15% to be "a very low percent".

It's an order of magnitude larger than HIV (1.2 million in US), and about the same order of magnitude as diabetes (29M in US).

This isn't meant to compare the conditions on a pain/severity scale - just to give a perspective on percentages.

 

[stophiss]

From the ATA website:

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates that nearly 15% of the general public — over 50 million Americans — experience some form of tinnitus. Roughly 20 million people struggle with burdensome chronic tinnitus, while 2 million have extreme and debilitating cases.​

I know it's a bit subjective, but I wouldn't consider 15% to be "a very low percent".

It's an order of magnitude larger than HIV (1.2 million in US), and about the same order of magnitude as diabetes (29M in US).

This isn't meant to compare the conditions on a pain/severity scale - just to give a perspective on percentages.

Thanks for presenting the numbers Greg. I thought the scale was a bit less. Pretty clear by what you stated, number of people with T is quite high. The fact it hasn't been solved with these kind of numbers reinforces that its a difficult problem to solve.

 

[GregCA]

The fact it hasn't been solved with these kind of numbers reinforces that its a difficult problem to solve.

I'm convinced it's a difficult problem, but I also think it's not the only reason. There just isn't much funding/research/awareness (all linked: awareness triggers funding triggers research). I can think of a couple of reasons for that:

1. little empathy because (a) T isn't visible, and (b) people think they know what T is ("it's what I get when I come back from a party. No big deal")
2. it's not considered serious, even from professionals in the field (the doctors I have seen just casually told me "you'll get used to it"). Since you don't die from it (directly), its importance is reduced. In their defense, it's actually not easy to understand what a T sufferer goes through until you become one.

 

[stophiss]

I'm convinced it's a difficult problem, but I also think it's not the only reason. There just isn't much funding/research/awareness (all linked: awareness triggers funding triggers research). I can think of a couple of reasons for that:

1. little empathy because (a) T isn't visible, and (b) people think they know what T is ("it's what I get when I come back from a party. No big deal")
2. it's not considered serious, even from professionals in the field (the doctors I have seen just casually told me "you'll get used to it"). Since you don't die from it (directly), its importance is reduced. In their defense, it's actually not easy to understand what a T sufferer goes through until you become one.

Agree. And..it maybe even harder to solve than elimination of cancer with its heterogeneity like tinnitus and of course the big C gets a lot of funding for obvious reason. A brain disorder where previously dormant adjacent neurons start to fire whereby previous neural pathways defined normal hearing isn't something that seems readily answerable...and scientists may even understand how this change occurs or why and reasons are likely varied. Solving it aka a reboot is daunting.