What I've Learned About Tinnitus

When I got my tinnitus, I did a ton of research and also landed at this site. I love the success stories and my heart goes out to those who are suffering and struggling with their tinnitus.

From what I have read on here, and based on my knowledge and experience as a social worker, I think we can categorize those with tinnitus as follows.

Group 1: Those who have tinnitus that, for the most part, is mild or moderate. These people usually have few other health-related issues and are generally mentally healthy as well. Most of these people have their tinnitus resolve or habituate to it and lead normal lives.

Group 2: This group is primarily made up of people who have moderate, severe, and most often catastrophic tinnitus, though some may have mild tinnitus. Those in this group may have pre-existing co-morbid mental or physical health issues. For them, the tinnitus is the last straw that makes life unbearable.

Group 3: This group is like group 2, but pre-existing mental health issues, including anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, make even mild tinnitus catastrophic in their mind. Constant focusing on the issue, listening for the sound, and panicking over the situation makes a resolution and/or habituation nearly impossible, though it would be likely in most cases.

What are your thoughts?

 

You are missing group 4.
This group is the same as 2 and 3, except the sufferers have no pre-existing mental or physical condition.
Just bad Tinnitus.

 

Tinnitus is not a mental health issue. It's so easy to say only mentally ill people struggle with tinnitus rather than to accept that tinnitus in itself can be horrible.

Where's the group for people who had no mental health issues but killed themselves once they developed tinnitus? Could there be a group that is mentally healthy but still struggles with tinnitus? Could there be a group that is habituated to their tinnitus but has mental health issues?

Also, habituation can mean a lot of things. There are people on here who call themselves habituated but also say their life's quality is heavily reduced.

Edit: However, you said that people in Group 2 may have mental health issues. So there could be people who struggle with their tinnitus simply due to their tinnitus and not due to mental health issues.
Overall I could agree with your three categories. Most people with mild-moderate tinnitus are eventually fine and CBT, TRT, and mindfulness seem to be valid treatments if the main reason for tinnitus distress is anxiety and not the tinnitus itself.

 

Good point Autumnly. There are those who get tinnitus so severely that they can get despondent and kill themselves. But this group is by far the exception. I have read so many stories on here of people going through hell with horrific tinnitus and they make it through life, though barely.

I want to clarify a point. Tinnitus IS NOT a mental health issue. Scientists believe it is an issue/dysfunction of our brain though these are two very different things. When we look at suicides in general, even those with few or no warning signs, people in those cases often had mental health issues (http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/suicide). My point was simply that the majority of those who have lesser levels of tinnitus may not cope as well do to the comorbidity of mental health issues. Case in point. Someone with moderate tinnitus who is mentally healthy can manage it and live a full life, but someone predisposed to OCD or high anxiety may fall apart and poorly manage. I have seen this in my social work practice many, many times with a variety of health issues such as pain related issues. In fact, my wife suffers from chronic pain that would likely make me, as someone more predisposed to worry and fatalism, suffer a lot more than she does. Even on the days she can barely get out of bed from pain and lack of sleep, she continues on through life as normal (a lot of this is due to her very strong faith as well).

 

I've read that the GABAergic system isn't as effective in people with tinnitus and that could also lead to anxiety or depression or other mental health issues. I could definitely see how psychology based treatments could help those whose main issue is anxiety. Mental health can play a role in coping with health conditions or stressful situations in general, it's just so often used to diminish the suffering of severe tinnitus patients that I get quite defensive when the topic is being brought up.

I also deal with chronic pain, however, on a very severe day (which is luckily rare nowadays) no amount of mental strength allows me to get out of bad. But overall I'd say I can cope much better with my chronic than with my tinnitus as my tinnitus is much more life-limiting.

There are so many amazing people on here who cope tremendously well for what their tinnitus is but many of them had to give up their careers or change their job, they might not be able to socialize as easily anymore, they can't concentrate as well anymore, they might miss out on many things (depending how stable their tinnitus) - so even if someone says they're coping and they're habituated, that doesn't necessarily mean that they don't suffer any more or that they don't have days where they still struggle.

 

I have Severe T and H, no physical or mental health issues. Please think before you post stuff like this its offensive. I can hear my t over people's voices.

 

@dpdx - I am very sorry that you are experiencing severe T and H. I can imagine that makes life very difficult and at times, if not mostly, unbearable. I am not sure what you perceived as offensive in my post as I did not make light of anyone's suffering nor did I say that all people with T have mental health issues.

I used the model verb may in my statement above. May means that some have the condition and some do not have mental health issues. Nothing I wrote was categorical nor definitive.

 

I hold the opinion, that when it comes to severe Tinnitus, "habituation" simply means, that the sufferer is not as suicidal anymore and perhaps gets better at supressing anxiety.
Just pure survival mostly.

 

Here's a great research-based article on tinnitus.
https://synapse.koreamed.org/DOIx.php?id=10.3988/jcn.2009.5.1.11

 

Yes I have noticed that too now.
In my opinion it should have been more clearly defined.
Those who were previously healthy and happy before Tinnitus deserve their own stand alone group (without "may or may not"), as they are well represented here on TT.

 

I fully agree. Tinnitus can be life altering and so horrible. My T was very high the other day and exacerbated by anxiety. I was going nuts! I was up late and had to take a walk in the rain to try to settle down. Thankfully, things have settled down a bit again and I have had a lot more success habituating to it most of the day and when I hear it, to not let it bother me so much. Hopefully, if I succeed at this, I can be one of the 3/4 who have it spontaneously resolve.