by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
A man explained,
I’ve had low level tinnitus for several years. However, it is something that my mind has just gotten used to and it never bothered me. I had to “think” of it to really know it was even there.
My job had become very stressful in the last few months of 2014. In addition, my job included a 1 to 1½ hour commute each way—more stress. Also, I wasn’t exercising like I should be, I was consuming a little too much alcohol and I was not eating properly.
By mid-January I noticed that my tinnitus was louder than normal. I thought it would go away, but it continued to be loud for several more days so I mentioned it to my wife. Her immediate response was, “What is your blood pressure?” It was 205/110! I went to the doctor the next morning and he prescribed 10 mg of Lisinopril and 12.5 mg of Hydrochlorothiazide. Although the drugs helped to get my blood pressure down to an average of 134/74, my tinnitus got louder for the next few weeks.
I went back to my doctor and he said, “You have tinnitus, nothing can be done about it”. I was beside myself as I didn’t know how I could live with it. Thankfully, the tinnitus level did not stay that high, and it has become more manageable in the last couple of weeks, but it is still higher than it used to be. I am hoping you can answer the following questions:
1) Does blood pressure affect tinnitus?
2) I started taking Lipoflavonoid but read in a couple of sites that it mainly seems to help those with Meniere’s disease. I am switching to Arches formula. Do you have any history with that?
3) The high blood pressure and tinnitus gave me a short period of anxiety. My heartbeat would pick up speed, especially at night. It woke me up a couple of times. Does anxiety affect tinnitus?
4) The tinnitus is really good some days and not so good others. Not sure why is changes? I am staying away from alcohol & salt and am now exercising more.
My tinnitus is better than it was in January (Thank God!) but I am hoping that I can find a way to reduce the volume even more. I am anxious for your response so that I can understand further. I would love to understand what happened and what I can do about it. I am also ordering your book because some of the answers I want may be in there. Thanks very much for your help.
I think your experiences with tinnitus are a classic example of how unresolved stress can lead to a host of other conditions and together result in loud tinnitus.
Before this episode began, you had faint background tinnitus that did not bother you. In fact, you had to listen carefully for it to even hear it. This is because you were not letting your tinnitus bother you. Consequently, it had no impact on your life. This is the best way to handle tinnitus. We call this being habituated to your tinnitus.
Then came a period of prolonged high stress. Look what happened. You were under so much pressure that you began to let your lifestyle slide. Your healthier eating habits fell by the wayside, You began drinking too much. You quit exercising. You began to be anxious and worry.
All this led to your blood pressure rocketing out of control. One of the results of high blood pressure can be loud tinnitus—which is exactly what happened. You went to your doctor and began taking Lisinopril to bring down your blood pressure. But one of the side effects of Lisinopril is tinnitus. This may have then boosted the volume of your tinnitus even higher.
You then went back to your doctor and told him you were having trouble coping with your tinnitus and all your “stupid” doctor did was tell you that you have tinnitus (which you already knew) and told you there was no cure and no help for it (which is wrong, wrong, wrong).
This just made you even more stressed and anxious. In your own words, your state of mind at that point was, “I was beside myself as I didn’t know how I could live with it.”
This is the “perfect storm” of events to almost guarantee you a lifetime of horrible tinnitus, but fortunately you did some right things—started eating better, quit drinking, began exercising more—things like that. At the same time, the Lisinopril brought down your blood pressure which also helped reduce your anxiety and your tinnitus.
Furthermore, the stress you experienced at work greatly reduced, which again had a calming effect on your tinnitus.
Now you want to know how to continue to get your tinnitus under your control so you can habituate to it like you had done before.
The good news is that you are well on your way.
You have your blood pressure under control and high blood pressure can certainly make existing tinnitus worse. So you don’t have to worry about tinnitus from this factor now.
You have tried taking lipoflavonoids to see if that would help your tinnitus. Some doctors like to prescribe lipoflavonoids and they do help some people. Here is a quote from a piece I wrote,
The basic purpose of the lipoflavonoid formulation is to increase blood flow to your inner ears. If the ear problems you have are related to lack of adequate blood flow, then such a formulation will help–as it does in some cases of tinnitus. However, there are many cases of tinnitus that do not respond to such formulations for the simple reason that the majority of cases of tinnitus are not caused by a lack of blood flow in the inner ear. (1)
The easy way to do it is try the lipoflavonoids and if they help you great. If not, try something else. Thus your question about Arches Tinnitus Formula.
Arches Tinnitus Formula is made from the herbal, Ginkgo biloba. Arches is one of the very few herbal preparations that contains an effective dose of the active ingredients in Ginkgo (according to the German “E” commission, which studied effective Ginkgo use for tinnitus). In each dose of 480 mg of Ginko, it is standardized to contain 24% flavone glycosides and 6% terpene lactones, not to mention a minimum of 2.6% bilobalide. (2)
You can try it and see if it helps you. It may or may not. As I understand it, Ginkgo works best if your tinnitus is related to a lack of blood flow (oxygen) to your inner ears (and stress could certainly cause your blood vessels to constrict). Just be careful that you don’t take blood thinners at the same time as you take Ginkgo, as Ginkgo is also a blood thinner to some degree.
Now to answer your question, “Does anxiety affect tinnitus?” The short answer is “yes”. You want to get your anxiety under control because strong negative emotions such as anxiety and depression can (and do) affect tinnitus.
Furthermore, realize that unresolved stress is also a form of anxiety. The heavy stress load you carried at work (and its attendant anxiety) alone could have brought on the tinnitus.
The good news is that you are finding your tinnitus dropping as you get your stress and anxiety under control (you are sleeping better among other things). Continue to do positive things that further reduce your anxiety and allow your tinnitus to continue to fade into the background. See how it all works together?
Don’t expect your tinnitus to just fade away in a linear fashion—slowly get less and less—although that may happen. Rather, expect that you will have good days and bad days (like you are experiencing). Over time you will notice that you are experiencing more and more good days and fewer and fewer bad days. This is an excellent sign that you have a handle on your tinnitus and that you are now in control, not your tinnitus.
In order to retain your position as the “boss” of you tinnitus, do things to keep your anxiety levels low, to keep your stress under control, to keep your blood pressure down and learn to ignore (not focus on) your tinnitus. As time goes on, your tinnitus should fade into the background.
Taking control of your tinnitus also includes the healthy lifestyle changes you have made (getting more exercise, staying away from alcohol, salt, etc.) At the same time, eat healthier too. Cut out refined foods as much as possible and zero in on eating more and more raw vegetables and fruits.
Learn to “hang loose” and to treat your tinnitus as a totally unimportant sound in your life. I suggest you think of it as “fridge noise”—the sounds your fridge makes. I have never yet seen a person sitting on the edge of a chair raptly listening to fridge noise. Rather, people so ignore the sounds their fridges make that if I were to ask a person whether their fridge was on or not, they’d have to stop and listen of a moment. Treat your tinnitus the same way. As you do that, whether your tinnitus is there or not won’t make any difference—because it won’t affect your life any more than fridge noise does. When you reach that blissful state, you’ll once more be habituated to your tinnitus.
If you want to learn more about tinnitus, the many things that can trigger tinnitus, or more about a number of things you can do to help bring your tinnitus under control, check out my book, When Your Ears Ring—Cope with Your Tinnitus—Here’s How.
_____________
(1) Bauman, Neil. 2006. “Will Lipoflavonoids Help Musical Ear Syndrome?“.
(2) Bauman, Neil. 2011. “Arches Tinnitus Formula—What’s the Score?“.
My Tinnitus goes away then comes back when I stress or get anxiety.
Can Tinnitus go away as you learn to habituate?
I first had it when I was 13 it was much lower and then it just lowered even more or it didn’t bother me idk which one it was but I stopped thinking about it. I mean I was only 13 so it was easier to think that it was nothing serious and blocked it off. But now I’m 19… for the last couple of months lots of tragic events have happened in addition to college that have caused me extreme stress and depression. I got very worried a couple of weeks ago due to this discomfort I was feeling under my body so it caused me way more stress to the point I couldn’t sleep at all then a few days later I was sitting in my room all quiet and I just heard the tinnitus again but louder this time? Do you think it was all this stress and depression that triggered it because honestly I never heard it before I would have to focus very hard to hear it until now I can’t even sleep. And I’ve done my research about it now that I’m olderand I got scared I feel like there’s no hope. I’m afraid it will stay like this. I feel like reading others situation has made it worse because some just seem so negative but this post has made me feel a little better. Do you think I will habituate to it back to how it used to be where I couldn’t even hear it?
Also I went to the doctor a few days ago and they told me it could be that my nasal is congested and that i had a little bit of mucus in my ears and that all of this could cause pressure because i do feel my ears clogged. Is this possible?
Hi Gabriella:
You are right that your tinnitus is almost certainly due to stress, or exacerbated by stress. And the more you focus on it, the worse it becomes. (I’m assuming that a) you are not taking any drugs, and b) that you are not exposing your ears to loud sounds. Both of these are common causes of tinnitus.)
The solution is very easy for me to say–get your stress under control and then quit focusing on your tinnitus–but putting it into practice not so easy–but essential if you want to be free from your tinnitus.
You never want to try to hear tinnitus–because your brain cooperates and then you hear it even louder than before. Instead, you want to totally ignore your tinnitus by focusing on the loves of your life. At the same time you have to stop believing that tinnitus is a threat to your well-being and treat it as a totally useless, unimportant background sound. When you do this, it gives your limbic system permission to safely ignore your tinnitus. As it does this, your tinnitus begins to become less and less intrusive and softer in volume as it fades into the background, and you become habituated to your tinnitus again.
Also, as you have found, the internet is a source of good information (like this site), but it is also the source of a lot of bad information like you find on social media and other sites where all the people do is try to outdo each other with their own horror stories. These people are not getting better (but worse) because they are doing all the wrong things. And one of them is taking away all hope. So you need to avoid such sites.
You can successfully deal with your tinnitus–but you have to do the right things, a number of which I’ve outlined above.
I wish you well.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Niel,
My tittanitua started 5 days ago I think because of prolonged stress and anxiety. I have suffered with ocd for awhile and I feel like it had latched unto the “t” and now I’m in a downward spiral. I’ve been having horrible panic attacks because I feel like I can’t focus on my family or anything only the horrible sound. Can stress induced tinninitus go away on its own? When the stress subsided? Looking for hope because I’m feeling hopeless 🙁
Hi Trisha:
Stress and anxiety can certainly bring on tinnitus, or make existing tinnitus worse.
Focusing on your tinnitus just makes things worse as you have discovered. You need to learn to ignore your tinnitus by focusing on the loves of your life.
Since tinnitus is basically a psychosomatic condition, you have to deal with the psychic (emotional) part as well as the somatic (body) part. Of the two, the psychic part is the more important part in my opinion–and it certainly seems to be so in your case.
When you successfully deal with your stress and anxiety, yes, your tinnitus can go away, or at least fade into the background where it will not bother you.
You would do well to seek out a psychologist that can counsel you and help you deal with your stress and anxiety, and thus indirectly help with your tinnitus.
There is hope for you. But you probably need professional help to get you on the right track. Go for it.
Cordially,
Neil
Does OCD cause/make tinnitus
Worse?
What can I do. I have six noises and can’t bear it
Hi Lisa:
OCD as such doesn’t cause tinnitus, but OCD habits can certainly cause existing tinnitus to get worse and worse. Let me explain.
In order to gain control of your tinnitus so it won’t bother you (the fancy word is habituation), you need to do two things. First you need to understand that tinnitus is nothing to be worried about. It is a perfectly normal sound. Thus, you can treat it as any other inconsequential normal sound, such as the sounds your fridge makes. This means that you should not have any worry, fear, anxiety or other emotional feelings towards your tinnitus.
Second, you need to treat your tinnitus just as you do the sounds your fridge makes. You ignore your fridge noise and it fades into the background and hours can go by without you even realizing your fridge is working. Treat your tinnitus exactly the same and it will do the same–that is, fade into the background and not bother you.
Now here’s where OCD comes in. When you have OCD, you obsess about things. This means that you inordinately focus on your tinnitus. This is exactly the opposite of what you need to do. In order to habituate to your tinnitus, you need to focus on other things, and totally and completely ignore your tinnitus sounds.
It is very difficult for people with OCD to learn to do this. Their natural inclination is to focus on their tinnitus, not ignore it. So now you know the trick to dealing with your tinnitus–totally ignore it. Don’t think about it. Don’t hold negative emotional feelings about it. This means you don’t worry about it, you don’t fear it. You realize it is just a normal phenomenon like the sounds your fridge makes that you can safely and totally ignore.
If you need help dealing with your tinnitus, seek out a tinnitus clinic. Typically they are run by audiologists, so ask around and see who’s name comes up.
Cordially,
Neil
Can I take Lipo-flavonoid if I’m taking high blood pressure medication?
Hi Edward:
That’s a question you need to ask your doctor or pharmacist.
Cordially,
Neil
I don’t think many people know that unresolved stress and anxiety go hand in hand. I think it’s kind of amazing how much stress can affect so many aspects of you life and lead to things like tinnitus. I imagine this situation to be like dominos and visits to an audiologist being something that hinders the dominos from completely falling.
With respect Neil Bauman Ph d you are talking tosh you say treat your tinnitus like a fridge noise just ignore it and it will go away well i have suffered tinnitus for 38 years and just ignoring it doesnt work its there all the time day and night (worse at night) Ive been on Valium that relaxed me to the level of a Zombie weaned myself off of that now the only relief i get is by having a few pints then i am able to get a sleep i will not take sleeping pills they make you feel worse the next day so as i say ignoring it like you ignore the wife nagging you on and on thats easy to do you shut your ears to it but when the comes from internally its not so easy.
Graeme
Hi Graeme:
I didn’t say it WOULD go away, nor did I say it would be easy, but you NEED to treat it as fridge noise in order to have a hope it will go away. If you perceive your tinnitus as a threat to your well-being in any way, you won’t be able to ignore it. Your limbic system will see to that. Thus you NEED you treat your tinnitus as fridge noise (in other words–no threat to your well-being in any way), so your limbic system won’t flag it as an important sound that cannot be ignored.
This is just one aspect of tinnitus treatment–albeit an important one. It works for numbers of people, myself included–and I’ve had tinnitus for more than 60 years now. My ears are ringing away as I write this, but I am NOT letting it bother me (although it is certainly trying at the moment).
Cordially,
Neil
OK Dr Neil i accept your explanation i was unaware you have been suffering this so long you say that the fridge noise technique is one aspect of treatment what are the others my GP says there is no cure for this the thing that annoys me most about this condition is just when im about to fall asleep i get what i can only describe as a sudden jolt of electricity to my brain which leaves my whole body trembling and me halfway out of the bed how can i deal with this? any ideas
graeme
hi does
T just go away when taking Gingko tabs?
Hi Mai:
Depending on the cause of your tinnitus, yes, taking ginkgo at the proper dose could cause your tinnitus to go away. In order to get the proper dose, I’d recommend Arches tinnitus formula.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Dr. Neil,
Can stress, anxiety and high blood pressure cause tinnitus with mild hearing loss ? Is it reversible or not ?
Dr I’ve had tinnitus for three years now. It’s been mild until recently it’s spiked. I’ve had really bad anxiety and stress because I feel it as a threat. The audiologist did a hearing test no hearing loss and ear look good inside and mri is clear.
Does spiked tinnitus always stay spiked ?
Hi Faviola:
No, you can deal with your tinnitus so it slowly fades away or doesn’t bother you anymore. But in order to do this, you have to give your limbic system permission to not bring it to your attention. And the way to do this is to understand and accept that your tinnitus is NOT a threat to your well-being in any way. At the moment you are stressed and anxious about your tinnitus. Thus, your limbic system will keep bringing it to your attention.
So you have to learn to treat your tinnitus the same as you do totally useless, unimportant sounds such as the sound your fridge makes. It’s so unimportant to you that if I asked you if your fridge is on now, you’d probably have to stop and deliberately listen to see if it is or not. This is not because your fridge sounds are almost inaudible, but because your limbic system has turned down your internal volume because this sound is so unimportant to you. Thus you are not aware of it most of the time. This is exactly the way you want to treat your tinnitus. When you don’t worry about it at all, and totally ignore it, your limbic system will do the same to your tinnitus as it has done to your fridge noise.
Therefore, focus on the loves of your life and by so doing, totally ignore your tinnitus and let it fade away into the background where it will not bother you. That’s what you need to do. It’s easy to say, but not so easy to put into practice, but keep on working at it and you will succeed. You may find it helps to have some background sounds on to partially mask your tinnitus so it doesn’t seem so loud. That way it is easier to ignore.
Cordially,
Neil
Hello,
I have an intemittent noise in right ear. Like a drumbeat or a heartbeat butI don’t think it IS pulsatile tinnitus, as the speed is much faster than my heart rate (the noise is 4 beats a second) And it is not the same rhythm all the time (sometimes it does a few much faster than 4 a second.)
I can go ages without it, then it will start only if I have stressful work to do that is pushing me beyond my energy limits ….or….if I have any alcohol -even the smallest amount.
And, that doesn’t happen all the time. It might go for days or weeks without happening even with those triggers.
I wish I knew what this was.
The noise isn’t upsetting me, and I have learned to sleep through it. But I don’t know what it is.
Hi Sylvia:
I think you are experiencing Tonic Tensor Tympani Syndrome (TTTS) where your tensor tympani muscle goes into spasm and rhythmically “yanks” on your eardrum, thus producing the thumping sound.
TTTS is often caused by stress so that also fits the profile. I’m not sure why alcohol sets it off. I haven’t heard of that being associated with TTTS.
If you want to know more about TTTS, read my article on the subject at http://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/do-i-have-tonic-tensor-tympani-syndrome-ttts/
Cordially,
Neil
Dear Dr Bauman,
The hardest things I am finding are:
1. accepting that I have tinnitus, ie I am still in a denial stage and want my old life back
2. accepting that tinnitus is not a threat, eg I feel like aliens have taken me over and that I could go deaf any minute or/and crazy
3. finding a way to ignore it so my limbic system doesn’t take over
I’m finding it hard to ignore it as my whole life is now focused around it: I am reading websites like yours, listening to white noise or watching tv whilst trying to sleep, looking for TRT providers in my area, thinking what to ask my GP next time I see him and so.
Would it be better to just do nothing related to tinnitus and just let it be?
As soon as I open my eyes in the morning I got into panic as my tinnitus is waiting for me.
Hi Nicole:
1. Life is a one-way street. There’s no going back. So you have to learn to deal with this new “friend”. The more successfully you deal with it, the better your life will be in the future.
2. Tinnitus will NOT cause hearing loss so don’t worry about that. Tinnitus often accompanies hearing loss, but never causes it. So that is one less thing to worry about. If you need professional help to deal with your tinnitus, find a good tinnitus clinic–typically run by audiologists.
3. You can’t ignore something by willing to do so. You ignore something by focusing ALL your attention on something else. When you do that, by default, you are ignoring your tinnitus and your limbic system will take notice.
When you first get tinnitus, your natural tendency is to learn as much about it as you can–and this is not wrong. You need to learn about it and what you can do to successfully control it. It becomes a problem when you focus on your tinnitus because this just makes things worse. So once you know what tinnitus is and what you need to do about it, then it’s time to stop reading about tinnitus and get on with your life and do those things you know will help you.
To put it into perspective, some people with tinnitus check the volume of their tinnitus hourly or daily to see whether it is fading away. Unfortunately, by doing so, they are constantly focusing on their tinnitus. I tell people forget about your tinnitus and if you want to check on it just check on it once a week or once a month. That’s all you need to do. The rest of the time, focus on living your life to the full, and thus ignoring your tinnitus.
That’s ever so much better than getting into a panic every morning just because you hear a phantom sound.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Neil,
Learning to live with my new friend is going to be very difficult. Certainly not something that is going to happen overnight.
I am yet to have my hearing tested by an audiologist, but I fear that I may have lost some hearing in the higher frequencies. What’s more, I am still taking one of the two ototoxic drugs (although at a lower dose) that I feel brought about my tinnitus. I just hope it’s not continuing to have an adverse effect on my hearing without me knowing, ie in the higher frequencies.
How can I focus all of my attention on something else at night time when trying to sleep?
The panic I experience in the morning often starts before I actually wake up, ie while i’m still sleeping.
On thing in particular that i’m worried about is that my tinnitus will get louder as I age and my hearing deteriorates.
Living with tinnitus feels like a full-time job.
Hi Nicole:
It’s hard to ignore you tinnitus at night when you’re trying to go to sleep because typically it is quiet and that is conducive to really hearing your tinnitus well as it stands out from the quiet. Thus, one good strategy is to play some music that you like or alternately some people like listing to environmental sounds of waterfalls, waves lapping on the beach, nightlife in the forest, etc., etc. These sounds give your brain something real to listen to so focus on them rather than on your tinnitus.
Since my hearing is so bad, I can’t listen to things like I mentioned above because I need the volume so loud it would drive the whole neighborhood away. Therefore, what I do is focus on singing to myself. When I concentrate on the words I’m singing by default I’m ignoring my tinnitus. Mind you, my tinnitus seldom really bothers me because I am so habituated to it.
I wouldn’t worry about your tinnitus getting louder as you age. It may or may not. I’ve found that as I’ve gotten older, I’ve lost more and more hearing. Thus, you would think that my tinnitus would have gotten louder and louder, but that is not the case. I habituate to any louder tinnitus as it occurs so it doesn’t seem any worse than it was decades ago. Once you learn how to get your tinnitus under control and habituate to it, you can do the same.
Living with tinnitus may feel like a full-time job to you now, but in actual fact, if you are truly ignoring your tinnitus, it is a nonissue. It’s just there in the background like traffic noise or whatever other environmental noise is around you that you just automatically ignore. Then it doesn’t feel like a job at all.
Cordially,
Nail
Hi Neil,
You are so positive. I wish I could be like you.
I have tried listening to natural sounds while I try to sleep, but after a while they begin to annoy me. I always used to sleep in complete quietness., so any noise is quite disturbing for me. I have tried having the tv on, and that seems a little better, but I still haven’t tried music yet.
Is it considered bad to have no background sound, ie just listen to the tinnitus?
Hi Nicole:
Choose to think positively. Fill your mind was positive things, not negative things. For example, watching the news is largely a negative experience– they show and emphasize bad things that are happening in the world. Reading newspapers is much the same. One wise man told me, probably three decades ago, to quit listening to the news and reading the newspapers if I wanted to think and be positive. So for the past 30 years or so I’ve very seldom looked at a newspaper or watched the news. Instead, I focus more on the positive things in life rather than the negative. Maybe you need to try something like that.
The current wisdom is to have sound on at night to help reduce the difference between your phantom music and total silence. The thinking is that it will make it easier for you to ignore your phantom music and fall asleep and stay asleep once you do fall asleep.
However, that doesn’t necessarily work for everyone. Some people like you and me like silence. So if you start feeling annoyed by the certain sounds, by all means, turn them off, or try other sounds/music/etc. Use them if and when they help you, and dump them when they don’t. It’s not a right or wrong thing, rather it’s an individual preference.
You shouldn’t actively listen to your tinnitus. Rather, you should be ignoring it by focusing your mind on other things. You will still hear it in the background, but you won’t be thinking about it or obsessing over it.
Cordially,
Neil
I will make this my last post for a , and I don’t want to go over the same ground again and again. I do have OCD after all.
I’m still finding it very hard to accept I have tinnitus, I’m going through the “Why me?” stage over and over. When I look at photos of my young children I can only think that I have ruined their lives because I am now so distant and preoccupied with my new life with tinnitus. And every time I think about tinnitus and hear it I still go into panic. And every night I go to bed I feel like i’m entering hell. I simply don’t know what to do, and unfortunately thoughts about self harm are becoming daily. I can’t do anything though as I have children.
I saw an old post of yours where one commentator said he used mindfulness to concentrate on his noise before going to sleep. You said this was good, because he was obviously doing it right. How can one concentrate on the noise without attaching negative thoughts to it? Maybe it’s not a good idea for someone with OCD?
I’m beginning to think that i’m one of the 25% or so for whom habituating to tinnitus will be nigh impossible.
Hi Nicole:
There is no one right way to deal with tinnitus. For this person, he was using mindfulness–letting thoughts go through his mind without attaching any emotions to them. Thus, he can deal with his tinnitus that way–tinnitus is neither good or bad–it just is. What that tells his limbic system is that tinnitus is NOT a threat to his well-being, and therefore is not important. As a result, it fades into the background and he habituates to his tinnitus.
If you cannot practice mindfulness that way, then it is not for you. Probably cognitive behavioral therapy might work better for you.
And habituating to tinnitus is impossible if you fall into one of these three classes mentioned in my article “Three Reasons Why Your Tinnitus Will Never Go Away”. You can read it at http://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/three-reasons-why-your-tinnitus-will-never-go-away/ . This only applies to about 10% of the people with tinnitus–not 25%. So there is hope for you.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Neil I recently went to a festival and drank to much beer I wore ear plugs and wasn’t there very long I woke up with ringing in my ears next day I was already under alot of stress and anxiety this almost led me to suicide and still is ….. 9 days and counting please tell me there’s a possibility it could go or get better I have had tintatus very slightly when I wore ear plugs I could hear it but never without them bed time and morning are driving me insane I am not coping at all and are under the crisis team.
Hi Tom:
If you were wearing good earplugs and properly inserted, unless you were standing right by the speakers, that shouldn’t have caused tinnitus. Perhaps because you drank too much, you stayed there longer than you thought, or got too close to the speakers, or didn’t have your ear plugs inserted properly or took them out, or any/all of the above and that is why you have tinnitus now.
The stress and anxiety sure don’t help either!
Play some calming music when you go to bed to give your ears some real sounds to listen to and help take your mind off your tinnitus. You could also have a fan running–that works for some people. Or listen to fractal music, or white noise, or forest sounds, or the sounds of waves lapping on the beach or water running–whatever turns your crank.
The big thing is not to obsess over your tinnitus. Focus your mind on the loves of your life and let your tinnitus fade into the background. If you can’t do this on your own, seek help from audiologists that specialize in tinnitus. They run tinnitus clinics.
Cordially,
Neil
How do I learn what type of treatment can help alleviate my tinnitus? It is stress induced and started a couple weeks ago. I started to hear it by paying close attention to it. Have experienced temporary relief whenever I exercise and control my negative response to it. Meditation helps briefly but the tinnitus just pops right back into my head. It causes me anxiety, makes my heart races and the anxiety has affected my digestion. Resulting in a few pounds weight loss. The story above does provide hope and I have had some days I don’t hear it at all and that is usually when I ignore it. I just need to learn how to ignore it on a regular basis. What approach do you suggest I take? Habituation, CBT, take supplements, exercise? Or a combo?
Hi Laura:
You already know what to do and what works. You just have to put them into practice all the time.
You know it is stress-induced. So the solution is to reduce your stress. Exercise, relaxation, breathing exercises, etc. are all good solutions to help yourself remain calm. So is the proper kind of meditation.
You know you make it worse when you have negative responses to it, so do the opposite. Deliberately choose not to have negative responses, but have neutral responses–treat your tinnitus as an unimportant background sound that it is safe to ignore–then ignore it. Focus on other things.
You say you started hearing it by paying attention to it. So you know what not to do–don’t pay attention to it. Focus on the loves of your life and ignore your tinnitus as much as you can.
If you can’t get your anxiety under control on your own, see a psychologist or counselor that works with people with anxiety. CBT would be another good solution to help you deal with your anxiety.
You have good days and bad days. Know that this will continue to happen. The trick is to work on the above so you get more and more good days and fewer and fewer bad days until you seldom have any bad days.
Notice what you do on your good days that makes them good and practice doing this more. And analyze your bad days and see what causes them–then stop doing those things.
In order to habituate to your tinnitus, you have to treat your tinnitus NOT as a threat to your well-being like you are doing now. Rather, treat it as a totally unimportant background sound that you can safely ignore as I said above.
Consistently do the above and I think you will have success!
Cordially,
Neil
Thank you for your response. Am hoping that this is not permanent since there is no health issue tied to it and came on suddenly but working each day to make it a non issue.
Hello Laura, I’m just curious. Did your tinnitus go away already?