What to Do? How to Handle the Loud Times?

[Thomas Hustedde]

I am another new member. Trying to find a few tips on how to handle the times when it seems so much louder. I have read some of the other posts where members say they are afraid and in a state of panic. I feel like that myself at times especially at night when it is difficult to sleep. Any tips on how to handle the loud times when you don't know what to do?
Tom

 

[billie48]

Welcome to the forum. For sleep, perhaps try masking your T with some soothing nature sounds or whatever sounds or music you prefer but not too loud to overpower T. Try to set the masking sounds slightly lower than T so you can get used to T while the auditory system can focus on other sounds to distract from the intensity of T ringing. If you have not done masking yet, here are some suggestions. Good luck and take good care. God bless.

1) Mask at bed time so you can sleep better. Find whatever sounds/music that are soothing to you. You can use a sound machine or sound pillow for this, or a computer with speakers.

2) If you need masking on the go, try load an ipod with nature sounds or music using itune. If you have a smart phone, you can download free APPs for soothing or T-masking sounds.

3) If you have computer and speakers, you can try these excellent masking sounds too:

TT's audio player: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/audioplayer/

or this online sound library, particularly the self-mix nature sounds: https://mynoise.net

or download free sound generator 'aire freshener': http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html

or search youtube with words like 'tinnitus masking sounds', 'white noise', 'rain sound' etc

 

[MikeL1972]

Hi Tom,

Welcome to the site.

Aside from the great advice Billie gave you, you need to gradually convince your mind that tinnitus will not harm you. Basically, you need to take back control! It is not easy at first, but once your mind accepts that tinnitus is not lethal, your stress and anxiety levels will not increase. The main thing to note is to stop fighting it, because you cannot win. The best case scenario is to accept it and the sooner you accept it, the faster your nervous system will acclimate to it and ultimately get sick of the ringing and toss it into the junk file of your brain. The clinical term for this is known as 'habituation'. Good luck!

 

[Lorac]

Welcome Tom.
It's pretty common for people to feel panic during the early weeks/ months of living with tinnitus. The limbic system is thrown into overdrive as the body reacts to this new noise. This panic settles down for most people after a few months.
Have you visited an audiologist and had your hearing tested?