With chronic tinnitus, it’s not the ringing in your ears that’s the real issue. The real issue is that the ringing doesn’t stop.
At first, this may be a mild noise that’s not much more than a little irritating. But after a day or a week or a month, that buzzing or ringing can become irritating, frustrating, even debilitating.
That’s why it’s critical that if you are coping with tinnitus you adhere to some tips to make life easier. When you’re lying in bed, having difficulty falling asleep because you keep hearing ringing from your right ear, having a plan is going to do you a world of good.
Your Tinnitus Can be Made Worse
Chronic tinnitus, after all, is often not a static condition. There are spikes and valleys in the manifestation of symptoms. There are times when your tinnitus is mild and virtually lost in the background. at other times, that ringing could be as hard to dismiss as a full-blown, individualized symphony.
This can be a very uncertain and frightening situation. 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. That panic attack, in and of itself, can trigger the very situation you’re concerned about.
Tips For Coping With Tinnitus
You will be in a better position to prepare for and manage tinnitus the more you understand about it. And, because there’s no known cure for tinnitus, control of symptoms is vital. There’s no reason that your quality of life needs to suffer if you put in place the right treatment.
Tinnitus Retraining Therapy is One Option
Tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) is a standard approach to tinnitus management. The sound of rain on a rooftop is a common analogy: it’s very loud and obvious when it first starts but by the end of the storm you stop focusing on it and fades into the background. It’s the same basic concept with TRT, teaching your brain to move that ringing into the background of your attention where it’s easier to dismiss.
Mastering this technique can take a bit of practice.
Get Your Brain Distracted
Your brain is continuously looking for the source of the sound and that’s one of the reasons why tinnitus can be so frustrating. So supplying your brain with more (and varied) stimuli to focus on can be helpful. Try these:
- Read a book while taking a bubble bath.
- Do some drawing or painting while playing music.
- Bring a book to the park and listen to the birds while reading.
You get the point: engaging your brain can help you manage your tinnitus.
Alternately, many people have found that meditation helps because it concentrates your attention on something else, your breath, a mantra, and so on. Another advantage of meditation, at least for some, is that it can decrease blood pressure which is a known cause of tinnitus symptoms.
Consider a Hearing Aid For Tinnitus Management
Hearing aids that help minimize tinnitus symptoms are already being developed by a number of hearing aid companies. Hearing aids are an ideal solution because you put them in and can forget about it the entire day, you don’t need to carry around a white noise generator or constantly use an app. You can relax and let a discreet hearing aid take care of the ringing for you.
Have a Plan (And Stick to it)
Making 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 worsening them). Pack a bag of useful items to bring with you. Anything that can help you be prepared for a tinnitus surge, even making a list of useful exercises will be beneficial because it will keep you from panicking!
The Key is Management
Chronic tinnitus is an affliction that has no known cure. But management and treatment of tinnitus is a very real possibility. These daily tips (and more like them) can help make certain you are living with tinnitus, and not suffering from tinnitus.
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
