So I've been all around the circle where Tinnitus is concerned and today landed on this video.
I can concur with many of his points. Many of them relate to anxiety too. Anxiety and tinnitus are about being in your head too much.
He points out that wanting to be safe, we sometimes go on high alert, listening for danger. I used to say I had supersonic hearing because I could hear sounds others couldn't like creaks or dogs barking and so on. But I think I have a tendency to be hyper vigil.
I know at times, in prayer, I will stop to listen for God's voice. I may listen too intensely as that practice also makes me hyper vigil.
I have a dog I let outside in our fenced yard. Though I live in the country, a neighbour once called to say our dog was barking too long while he was trying to sleep. Now I'm hyper vigil, listening for the dog. It's interesting to note that even when she's not out there I sometimes imagine I'm hearing her. I've trained myself to be hyper vigil.
The same goes for listening for the dryer to finish. Listening to creaks in the house, and so on.
So one point is to train ourselves to be less hyper vigil.
The example Julian in the video gives is they put a number of people in a quiet room and when they came out 93% had tinnitus. Because people look for sound as a way, I suppose, of self-protection.
This hyper vigil habit needs to be curbed to conquer tinnitus.
This is also what we mean when we say not to tune into the tinnitus or go looking for it. When I awake, I often go looking to measure it. I DO have some days of quiet, so I measure if it will be a quiet day.
A problem I have is I often awake with a stiff neck too. So in doing my neck and shoulder exercises, I get stuck in my head and the tinnitus starts. That's partly because I felt there was a connection. I think, perhaps, tuning into my neck pain makes me too much in my head.
Well, I want to go on with Julian's points, but for today, let us pursue calm and safety and not tune into sound so much.
That's point one of likely a long list of tips I'm collecting for myself.
