Tinnitus Coping Tip #1

Tinnitus Help NJ Info

Tinnitus, a chronic ringing, buzzing or hissing in the ears, can be a challenging and stressful condition to have. The medical community has little to offer in the way of a treatment and quite frequently patients are told to, "go home and learn to live with it," without receiving any specific guidance on how to do that-which causes many people to panic.

In this and comings posts I am going to share some observations regarding effective coping tips that I have come across in my experience as both a professional hypnotist who teaches stress reduction skills as well as someone who has facilitated support groups for people learning to adjust to tinnitus.

First of all its important to note that the experience of tinnitus is comprised of two basic components: the sensory signal and your response to it.

Since tinnitus is not truly sound (a vibration carried on airwaves) logic tells us that it is generated somewhere within the sensory apparatus that processes sound: the ears, otic nerve and the brain.

At the risk of oversimplification, somewhere along that chain, a nerve is misfiring and that is being misinterpreted by your consciousness as being a sound.

At the present moment, the medical community does not have a way of mitigating those unwanted signals.

So for now it is important to focus on what you can control-your response to the signal. Which brings us to:

Tip # 1 Using sound to your advantage: its a known that the human mind can only attend to a certain amount of stimuli at one time.

For example, if you had a pounding headache and all of a sudden a hungry looking tiger walked into the room, trust me you would completely forget about the headache for the time being!

A more commonplace example is when someone is enjoying herself and forgets all about her aches and pains for the time being.

Many people with tinnitus report that the sounds seem to become louder when they have nothing to do or when they try to fall asleep. This is probably because there has been a reduction in competing stimuli-rather than an increase in the actual volume of the tinnitus. Sort of how a candle can seem very bright in a dark room, yet it would be hard to tell if that candle were even lit if it were outside on a bright day.

Experiment with a variety of background sounds you find soothing and/or interesting, having them play at around 90% of the perceived volume of the tinnitus. This can give your attention somewhere else to go.

I've heard of a DIY version of a "sound pillow" where you put the earbuds from an iPod type device between the pillow and the case to help the transition from sleep to waking.

That's it for this time. Make sure you be on the lookout for future tips in future editions of the Creative Calm Newsletter. Also please feel free to connect with your questions as I'm here to help! A free, confidential phone consultation is available, call (732) 714-7040.