Tinnitus can be distressing and uncomfortable. The hardest time is when it first becomes noticeable. If you're like me, you've read ear ringing can be linked to several medications, a concussion, low blood pressure...the list of online learning goes on and on. It makes sense when you first hear the annoying hissing, that you would talk to your doctor about it.
Chance are, though, the doctor will give you routine responses. Mine told me it was from attending rock concerts when I was young. What a presumption! I may have attended a total of one.
I didn't feel it was in my ears. I went and had hearing tests which proved my hearing was perfect. I since learned tinnitus is of unknown causes. It is more than likely the brain picking up phantom sounds. My question is, from where? From what body part?
A FlareUp
I remember walking through the university campus, drink in hand, with my son after we had cleaned out his student apartment. As we walked, I took a sip of my cold drink and, suddenly, a deafening noise erupted inside my head--tinnitus.
I'd been curious about tinnitus affecting me off and on before that day. Now, I wondered if it was related to my vagus nerve. Drinking the cold beverage seemed to trigger it to become very loud and distressing.
Well, after that event, there were many more horrible events where I even wondered if suicide would be better. I just wanted the noise to stop.And I fell into anxiety. I was diagnosed with General Anxiety Disorder after feeling like I was losing my mind.
The problem with tinnitus is we have no control over it--no way to stop it. And we don't like not being in control.
No matter what I did, I could not find help. But as days and months and years went on, I had days I barely noticed it. I learned that is referred to as habituation.
Habituation in the context of tinnitus refers to the process by which we adapt to it over time leading to a reduction in the perception of its severity or impact.
Can you let yourself wait for habituation to occur?
Through habituation, individuals with tinnitus may gradually become less distressed by the sound and learn to cope with it more effectively. For me, it happens when I'm distracted by other things. Tuning in to see if it is there is never good. But tuning it out is even harder. Habituation, in my opinion, can't be forced. It just has to happen on its own as you go about daily life.
For you who are reading, I hope for habituation to be frequent and I hope for quiet days as I have now and then too.
