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Woman with her eyes closed trying to get relief from tinnitus with retraining therapy.

The actual problem with chronic tinnitus is not just that you have a ringing in your ears. It’s the constant never ending ringing, that’s the real problem.

At first, this might be a moderate noise that’s not much more than a bit irritating. 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 essential that if you are living with tinnitus you adhere to some tips to make life easier. It can make a big difference if you have a plan when you’re lying in bed struggling to fall asleep because of the buzzing or ringing in your ear.

Your Tinnitus Can be Exacerbated

It’s important to keep in mind that tinnitus is frequently not static. There are spikes and valleys in the presentation of symptoms. Sometimes, your tinnitus might be an afterthought, lost in the background of everyday life. At other times, that ringing could be as difficult to ignore as a full-blown, individualized symphony.

That can leave you in a rather frightening place of uncertainty. You might be so worried about your tinnitus flaring up while you’re in a meeting that you have a panic attack while you’re driving to work. And the very panic attack caused by this worry can itself cause the tinnitus.

Tips For Coping With Tinnitus

The more you understand about tinnitus, the better you can plan for and control 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 establish the proper treatment.

Think About Tinnitus Retraining Therapy

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 rooftops: very obvious at the beginning of a storm, but you stop focusing on it after a while and that rain-on-rooftops sound fades into the background. TRT uses the same principle to train your brain to push the tinnitus symptoms into the background of your thoughts so you will have an easier time tuning it out.

It can take training to get this technique down.

Get Your Brain Distracted

One of the reasons that tinnitus can be so frustrating is because your brain is constantly searching for the source of that noise, attempting to signal you to its presence. So supplying your brain with more (and varied) stimulation to concentrate on can help. Try these:

  • Take a book to the park and listen to the birds while reading.
  • Do some drawing or painting while listening to music.
  • Take a bubble bath and read a book.

You get the idea: Your tinnitus might be able to be decreased by engaging your brain.

Alternately, many people have found that meditation helps because it focuses your attention on something else, your breathing, 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.

Manage Tinnitus With a Hearing Aid

Hearing aids that help minimize tinnitus symptoms are already being manufactured by a number of hearing aid companies. This solution is really convenient because they are small and out of your way compared to other approaches. You can relax and let a discreet hearing aid deal with the ringing for you.

Make a Plan (And Follow-Through)

Having a plan for unforeseen surges can help you control your stress-out reaction, and that can help you reduce certain tinnitus episodes (or at least keep from worsening them). Pack a bag of practical items to take with you. Anything that can help you be ready for a tinnitus surge, even creating a list of useful exercises will be good because it will keep you from having a panic attack!

Management is Key

There is no cure for tinnitus which is often chronic. But that doesn’t mean that individuals cannot regulate and treat their tinnitus. These daily tips (and more similar to them) can help make certain you are living with tinnitus, and not suffering from tinnitus.

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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

The site information is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. To receive personalized advice or treatment, schedule an appointment.
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