Tinnitus the Symptom and Habituation

Dr Nagler,

I really appreciate your time here helping us sufferers. It really shows that you're a very caring doctor. I've really enjoyed reading a lot of your material on your website about tinnitus. One interesting concept, and it makes a lot of sense to me, was that you said that since tinnitus is just a symptom, it's possible to not know you have the symptom... I'm not saying this right I don't think... like you're analogy that if you have a rash, an itch might be a symptom of the rash. But often we don't know we have the symptom until something calls our attention to it, so in essence, we don't really have the symptom. So that made me curious, if someone is as habituated as they can humanely be, does that mean in essence they do not have tinnitus until something draws their attention to it? Like I know you've said that your tinnitus requires no effort at all; none to ignore or anything. So if someone came up to you and asked you if you have tinnitus, what would you say?

Also, one more thing I wanted to get your thoughts on. I think I am progressing well with my tinnitus, but I must admit that I am a little paranoid about it getting worse for no apparent reason. I've read on the forums a few times now of people who have been habituated, but then for some reason it got worse, and now they are back to square one. Does that mean they weren't fully habituated? If yours suddenly got even worse, how d you think you would handle it?