Trying to Understand the Logic

Hi All,

I have posted a separate thread but had a question and wanted your views. I think I may have had tinnitus all of my life, although I am pretty certain that I made it worse in my youth going to the odd nightclub and one particular loud incident that I thought was going to make my head explode at New Year in London (was a rubbish night too).

Obviously tinnitus starts with a physical problem, in so much as you damage something either through noise, infection or something else. This then triggers a reaction in your brain.

In the past six months my T seems to have got louder and more intrusive, but only at certain times, usually when I am in bed or watching TV. When I am occupied, strangely outside I can barely hear it or around other noise, I tend not to notice it. When I am speaking to someone, when I am passively in a conversation I notice it, but when I am engaged and involved I don't. Similarly writing this post, my T is quieter now than it was before I got into my flow and thought process about what to write.

I have in the past suffered with anxiety and depression and many people who post on here seem to have suffered in the past or alternatively as a direct consequence of their T. Others seem to brush T off as nothing but an irritation, perhaps those people are less predisposed to depressions, obsession and everything that comes with it. So to the point:

- Is it plausible that you can make your T louder and quieter by obsessing or not about it? I am definitely going through an obsessive patch, spending times in quiet rooms listening to it when I am in bed etc. I suspect that in reality there is no additional hearing damage but that I am just hearing it more.

- So by definition is there a genuine phsychological solution? I was speaking to an expert the other day who likened T to living by a busy road. After a while you don't hear the traffic any longer because you train your brain not to. So I suppose I am asking is it possible to do the same with T?

I am sorry I am probably asking questions you have heard a million times before. I think this forum is jam packed with some quite inspirational people and I only wish that I was as mentally strong as so many of you appear to be.

Take care,

Chris

 

Why didn't you ask from that so-called expert how experienced he/she is in coping with Tinnitus in that way?
Your brain is already trained to ignore such sounds as nearby road and traffic. BUT,
Tinnitus is NOT a train or traffic noise coming from a distance that your mind can find it quite harmless and not focus on it.
Tinnitus is NOT actually sounds. It's sort of a perception generated in your auditory system as a result of a damage. Besides, it resides in your head not in nearby busy road.
So, no such experts will ever be able to help us out of this s***.
MGSOS

 

Maybe you should look into the tinnitus retraining therapy, I haven't tried it yet but it seems to be recognized but a few tinnitus support groups here in Canada. I know how you feel I go through the identical emotional ups and downs. My husband has it to and he is able to ignore it with no emotional upsets, and his is fairly loud by the way he describes it to me, he also has hearing loss due to being near jet engines for years.
Explore ways to help you cope. When mine is bad I spend a lot of time outside, the sound seems to gets lost in the birds singing and a gentle breeze past the ears makes me feel like I don't even have it for a time.

 

Mahdi, I'm not sure if it isn't in the auditory system, for me, for instance, mine started with a tmj and physical incident I had. I'm not saying there isn't permanent damage in my auditory system but I really don't think it's in my head at all. The sound has changed for the better but it is still there. My oral orthotic I wore for a year did help quite a bit. So I'm not sure I agree that help from experts is a crock of s***.

 

Hell Yeah.

Yeah, it's called TRT (Tinnitus Retraining Therapy)

 

I KNOW IT'S CALLED TINNITUS RETRAINING THERAPY. But, I'm absolutely dead sure, if your Tinnitus is of a very terrible kind, TRT will take you more blood, sweat and tears than the Tinnitus itself. TRT is a treatment which may give you some relief after you have invested a lot of time, energy, money, and hope in it. What would happen to you, if you found TRT a total waste of all those investments I mentioned above? You'd become a bundle of nerves, the best surviving environment for Tinnitus to thrive. If you're well-off, go after it. Give it a try. It might help you. But, don't invest hope in it. Moreover, if there's somebody who has gone through this therapy and is happy with it, we'll be delighted to be given some advice on that.
MGSOS

 

You don't really provide an alternative do you? Many people found TRT to be very beneficial for them, you can find them here on TinitusTalk or other Tinnitus related websites.

 

I have to say that the existence of TRT was a life-buoy for me, regardless of its efficacy. Don't take away any shred of hope for people who are looking for a way to continue. There are aspects of TRT that are known to be very effective (the mental training / approach etc), and pursuing TRT will lead one to these techniques.

 

Obsessing over the intensity of the noise doesn't seem to make it louder in the way I perceive it, but it sure affects my overall mental health. When I notice that it's low I really try to think about something else - "Maybe if I look the other way it won't intensify." While that seems to help on good days, nothing helps when the noise is very pronounced and constant. Not obsessing simply leads to a drop in anxiety, which I believe is the first step toward reversing the upward momentum. I try to just accept it and move on (or I end up here).

Genuine psychological solution? It appears that all the methods published here by experienced individuals may have some benefit; it seems to me that it's all about whatever works for you. I tried my own version of CBT for a while, which seemed to help. It definitely helps in other areas of my life.

 

Good luck!

 

Mahdi,
I'm doing good, and it's thanks to TRT, albeit indirectly, and nothing to do with luck.
DD

 

CPE 1978, I can see how tinnitus and OCD are a bad combo indeed. Antidepressants could break the hypervigilance cycle. Have you tried that?

 

This is the cycle of tinnitus and hypervigilance:

funny angry dog