There is a meeting of the Jersey Shore Tinnitus Support Group scheduled for this Saturday, September 9 at 11 AM in Point Pleasant Beach in the conference room at my office.

This is an opportunity to give and receive support and coping tips. There is no fee to attend but preregistration is requested which you can do by sending me an email at james@njhypnotist.com- I will send you a set of directions when you do.

I hope all is well and hope to hear from you soon.


Best wishes,

James Malone

P.S. There are some free resource on stress relief for tinnitus you can access at
https://www.njhypno.com/tinnitus-nj-help

Free Tinnitus Stress Relief Class on 4/1

On Saturday, April 1 at noon, I will be hosting a free stress management class specifically for people who are learning to cope with tinnitus. It will be held in the 2nd floor conference room at my office building in Point Pleasant Beach. 

For some individuals the chronic ringing or buzzing of the ears can be a very stressful situation to deal with. Over time, it can have severe impact on your quality of life causing irritability and difficulty with concentration. 

Like with any new or upsetting symptom, it is important to first received a thorough medical examination to rule out any serious and or treatable underlying causes of the tinnitus. Often patients are referred to audiologists for evaluation and treatment as well. 

While its important to avail yourself to the best medical and audiological treatment you can access, self-care measures that include using stress management techniques can be helpful too. Stress and anxiety tend to increase the perceived volume of tinnitus and keep you focused on it. Many authorities such as the American Tinnitus Association recommend learning relaxation methods as a complementary coping tool. 

Yet it can be challenging to learn mind/body healing techniques on your own without some initial guidance. 

At the upcoming class you will have an opportunity to have firsthand experience with several intentional relaxation techniques including:

• Mindfulness meditation.
• The emotional detox technique.
• Guided self-hypnosis.

Although the class is free advanced registration is required due to limited seating. Sign up through the link below:

Tinnitus Class Registration.

Tinnitus Coping Tip #5-Habituation

Tinnitus Help NJ

Let me start with a story...

A number of years ago I used to have a social services job where one of my duties was to visit adult psychiatric patients who had been recently discharged from the state hospital to see if they keeping up with their aftercare arrangements.

Many of these individuals lived in the impoverished neighborhoods that border Newark airport. If you've even been there you would know that 24/7, 365 days a year there are jetliners continually landing and taking off. Not only is it loud, sometimes the planes fly so low overhead the windows and walls in their homes would actually shake!

Yet one thing I noticed soon was that for most part, the local residents barely responded to the endless cacophony.  It was just "there."

You can see the same thing going on in the outer boroughs of NYC where some parts of the subway line are elevated over the street. The screeching and rattling overhead quite often startles visitors, but the locals pay it scant attention, it's just "there."

This is all due to a natural process known as habituation-where repetitive stimuli eventually does not register as much in the conscious mind. The sounds from the airport or the subway haven't decreased, but the level of attention paid to them has.

People who successfully cope with tinnitus appear to go through the same process habituation even though the stimulus originates within the nervous system and not the external environment like an actual sound does. For these people, the sound is just "there" but not given much attention even though the neural signal that is perceived as a sound is still present.

There are a couple of factors that can interfere with habituation. These include:

• When the stimuli has a negative emotional attachment to it such as fear or anger as this can keep your attention focused on it.
• When a person is under considerable stress as this can lead to a phenomena known as Central Sensitivity Syndrome or C.S.S. where the mind's ability to filter out unpleasant sensations becomes impaired. (You can read more about C.S.S. here)

This is why stress relief practices in the form of hypnosis, mindfulness meditation, yoga and acupuncture can be helpful to people learning to cope with tinnitus.

Once you get out of constantly being in the fight or flight stress mode, your natural coping mechanism of habituation will improve.

A free, confidential phone consultation is available if you have any questions, call (732) 714-7040.

Tinnitus Coping Tip #2

Tinnitus Help NJ

In our previous coping tip, we mentioned how there is the neurological signal that is producing the sensory experience of tinnitus and then there is the emotional response to it and that most therapies address the latter since there is no known "cure" for most cases.

Its interesting to note that tinnitus and chronic pain do share some similarities. In particular, it is believed that a gatekeeper function of the nervous system that normally blocks sensory experiences is malfunctioning, something that is called Central Sensitivity Syndrome or C.S.S..

Stress, anxiety and sleep deprivation are all thought to contribute to the development of C.S.S, which is why mind/body healing methods such as hypnosis, mindfulness meditation, acupuncture and yoga are often helpful with tinnitus and chronic pain even though they really aren't doing anything about the initial neurological signal. Rather they help tame the negative response.

However, there is one pitfall that you should be aware of, which leads to to:

Tip #2-Avoid black and white thinking- over the years in my capacity as a professional hypnotist, I have noticed a difference between people learn to cope successfully with tinnitus versus those who don't-actually this idea applies to virtually everyone I see.

The person who insists that anything other than a complete and absolute removal of their symptoms is a waste of time will usually remain stuck and miserable.

The successful clients have been those who appreciate that an initial reduction in their distress of say 20 or 30% is worthwhile progress and they build on that, having progressively more good days as time goes by.

While its understandable why someone would wish for an instant and complete cure, expecting or demanding one is only going to set you up for failure.

As the Buddha was quoted as saying, "our suffering arises from resisting what is."

Now this does not meant to suggest anyone would want tinnitus or chronic pain. But an odd thing is that acceptance often leads to greater comfort.

You don't have to have a complete remission (although that would be wonderful) to benefit from taking proactive steps to increase your comfort level.

Do please feel free to connect if you have any questions, I am here to help! A free, confidential phone consultation is available, call (732) 714-7040.

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.

Tinnitus Tragedy Considered

I came across a rather sad news story online today regarding a boat skipper from Northern Wales who committed suicide 6 days after being told his tinnitus was incurable and was offered no hope or apparent guidance on how to cope.

Described as a proud man with a strong personality, he had been struggling with tinnitus and hyper-sensitivity to sound for about 6 months.

A coroner's inquest was held and during the hearing one family member stated, "He was just told to get on with it. There was no bit of encouragement, no hope of improvement."

Although the coroner did not believe there was any malpractice involved, she did state, "...I feel very strongly that there should be a more robust and proactive approach when someone is given a prognosis in which there is no hope for cure or improvement."

Notice how the word hope is rather prominent here?

This incident may reflect a problem inherent with modern medicine where specialists deal with one specific area and tend to ignore anything that doesn't fall within their bailiwick.

Yet the whole person does need to be considered in all healing situations.  Personally I cannot think of anything more tragic than when the thoughtless and careless communication of a person in authority such as a doctor drives someone into a state of utter despair and panic.

Talk about negative hypnosis and the misuse of suggestion! Is it really any surprise this person acted as he did if he fully accepted the idea that he was a hopeless case? Makes sense in a sad sort of way.

The truth is that while it is not always possible to do something about the neurological signal that creates the unwanted sounds of tinnitus, there are plenty of strategies than can help a person learn to cope with that experience and to become less bothered by it-to regain your quality of life.

Another truth is that there is usually no magic bullet and that a number of strategies may need to be tried until you find an adequate level of relief or what is called "habituation" to the tinnitus, so this may take some time. Taking a holistic approach that includes mind/body healing methods such as self-hypnosis and mindfulness meditation can make this process more comfortable for you.

Probably the most important idea you can take away from this tragedy is this: never, ever, under any circumstances, let anyone take your hope from you!

And if you have thoughts about harming yourself, you have to call the appropriate emergency services in your community without hesitation-no debate on this point.

Please feel free to connect if you have any questions, I'm here to help!

Source article: http://www.northwalespioneer.co.uk/news/155661/deganwy-boat-skipper-leapt-to-his-death-after-being-told-there-was-no-cure-for-his-tinnitus.aspx

Hypnosis for Tinnitus Stress Relief

I just posted a new video on how hypnosis can help alleviate the distress of tinnitus.