With chronic tinnitus, it isn’t the ringing in your ears that’s the real issue. The real issue is that the ringing won’t stop.
Initially, this may be a mild noise that’s not much more than a little annoying. But after a day or a week or a month, that ringing or buzzing can become irritating, frustrating, even incapacitating.
That’s why it’s crucial to have some tips to fall back on, tips that make living with tinnitus less difficult. When you’re lying in bed, having difficulty falling asleep because you keep hearing buzzing from your left ear, having a plan is going to help you a lot.
How You Can Worsen Your Tinnitus
It’s beneficial to keep in mind that tinnitus is commonly not static. Symptoms present themselves in spikes and valleys. At times, your tinnitus might be an afterthought, lost in the background of everyday life. At other times the noises will be shrieking in your ears so loudly it’s impossible to dismiss.
That can leave you in a pretty frightening place of anxiety. Maybe you even experience panic attacks while driving to work because you’re concerned about your tinnitus flaring up while you’re in a meeting. And the very panic attack brought on by this worry can itself trigger the tinnitus.
Tips For Coping With Tinnitus
The more you know about tinnitus, the better you can plan for and manage the effects. And, because there’s no known cure for tinnitus, control of symptoms is vital. There’s no reason that your quality of life has to suffer if you put in place the proper treatment.
Tinnitus Retraining Therapy is One Approach
Tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) is a standard strategy for tinnitus management. The analogy that gets floated around most often is the sound of rain on your roof: very noticeable at the beginning of a storm, but you stop paying attention to it after a while and that rain-on-rooftops sound fades into the background. It’s the same basic strategy with TRT, teaching your brain to move that ringing into the background of your thoughts where it’s easier to ignore.
It can take training to master this method.
Distract Your Brain
One of the reasons that tinnitus can be so infuriating is because your brain is constantly searching for the source of that sound, trying to signal you to its presence. So giving your brain a variety of different sounds to focus on can be quite helpful. You could:
- Do some drawing or painting while playing music.
- Take a bubble bath and read a book.
- Enjoy some time outside listening to the sounds of nature.
You get the idea: Your tinnitus may be able to be decreased by engaging your brain.
Meditation, as an alternate path, helps you focus your attention on a mantra, or your breathing which helps take your focus away from your tinnitus. Another advantage of meditation, at least for some, is that it can decrease blood pressure which is a common cause of tinnitus symptoms.
Manage Tinnitus With a Hearing Aid
Many hearing aid companies have manufactured hearing aids that help minimize the ringing in your ear. Hearing aids are a great solution because you put them in and can forget about them the entire day, you don’t need to carry around a white noise generator or constantly listen to an app. You can relax and let a discreet hearing aid take care of the ringing for you.
Make a Plan (And Follow-Through)
Having a plan for unexpected surges can help you handle your stress-out reaction, and that can help you reduce certain tinnitus episodes (or at least keep from exacerbating them). Consider having a “go bag” containing stuff you might need. Anything that will help you be more ready and keep you from panicking, like making a list of helpful exercises, will go a long way toward management.
The Key is Management
There is no cure for tinnitus which is often chronic. But control and treatment of tinnitus is a very real possibility. Make certain you are managing your tinnitus not suffering from it by using these tips and any others that you find helpful.
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3303565/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5050200/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17956798/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4447068/
https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008664
