Why Can't I Ever Cope with Spikes?

I've had Tinnitus "for real" for almost 19 years now, and I've experienced quite a few spikes a long the way. Now I am once again suffering from one after attending a loud party last weekend, followed by four days of influenza.

I did wear earplugs (ACS Pro) the entire party, but still I find myself worrying and thinking. Even though I now that worrying about it itself is a trigger I can't seem to shake it and now it's - of course - worse than usual.

Does anyone have a tip on how to get rid of it?

 

I would try steam inhalation and sudafed to clear your tubes if had a cold.
Love glynis

 

Maybe try and put some relaxing tunes on and take something to calm you or go for a nice walk to clear your head which seems to take my mind off it for a bit.
Maybe you constantly thinking about it (which btw I do when mine spikes and is hard to not to think of anything else) makes it worse as your brain is constantly listening out for it.
Wish I could be of more help man.

 

How does your tinnitus sound after 19 years? Is it mild? besides the spikes of course.

 

Thanks, but the cold is almost gone and temporary relief does work, but the spike comes back asap.

@dpdx I don't know if it has changed much. I thinks it's worsened a time or two (volume wise), but when I think about it I'm not so sure about that either. The sound itself is pretty much the same, but my left ear's dominance is not quite as big anymore. It's a high pitched beep, with slight variations that I can hear if I block all other sounds.

 

I think it’s about building confidence in our brain’s ability to let the spike go, knowing that a little later everything will be Ok (as it has done before). The big fear is that it will stay with us or get worse. It won’t so long as we don’t obsess about it or let our emotions latch onto it.

The logical part of our brain is more advanced than the primitive emotional (fight or flight) part. It can ‘teach’ the emotional part that it’s not a threat. Eventually it’s about trusting our amazing brains really. If we let it become a threat, the senses become heightened, including hearing! We do have a choice, but I know it takes a leap of faith and lots of will power.

 

Try to think -the spike will soon settle over a few days and make a note of things that help you through a spike.
A new CD
Out for walks
Relaxing music
Long soak in the bath
A glass of something nice,

And so on and you can add to it what you find helps you cope...

 

Actually I made a lot of notes when I went through all this 6 years ago. It helped me and helped me again to write my book.

It’s a shame we lost all the wealth of information on the old BTA forum really. :-(

 

@Bassplayer,
Are you our very own Steve off the old BTA forum and off sound cloud and did the book Michael sent me ?
Love glynis x

 

Yep. I’n afraid so. x

 

@Bassplayer ,
Lovely to have you on here to support members.
I thought it was you from your really nice posts....lol.
Im still in intouch with Nic and everyone at the BTA.
We have just done a massive 2018 #TinnitusWeek and in contact by twitter and phone and nics Mobile..we spoke a couple of weeks ago.
You might like to join the Tinnitus Hub facebook group too...
Missing Dave and John Jop so say hi if hear from them and Nathan.
Love glynis x

 

Sorry Glynis, I came off facebook ages ago. I won’t hang around too long here either I’m afraid. It must be the hippy bit in me I guess!

 

@Bassplayer ,
Do you still have your boat and dog? X

 

I still live on my boat, but no dog Glynis. Lol.

 

No better today, but I just went back to reading one of my first posts here at this forum, from almost 5 years ago, and when I wrote that I was feeling pretty much the same as I do now, apparently. Back then, it eventually went away and that makes me feel slightly better, at least.