The actual issue with chronic tinnitus is not only that you have a ringing in your ears. The real problem is that the ringing doesn’t stop.

The constant noise, perhaps rather modest in volume, may start as little more than a nuisance. But the ringing can become frustrating and even incapacitating if it continues for days or months or more.

That’s why it’s crucial that if you are living with tinnitus you follow some tips to make life easier. When you’re lying in bed, having trouble falling asleep because you keep hearing ringing from your left ear, having a plan is going to do you a world of good.

How You Can Worsen Your Tinnitus

It’s important to remember that tinnitus is often not static. There are spikes and valleys in the manifestation of symptoms. There are times when your tinnitus is minor and practically lost in the background. In other moments, that ringing could be as difficult to ignore as a full-blown, personalized symphony.

That can leave you in a pretty frightening place of anxiety. You might be so worried about your tinnitus flaring up during 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 trigger the tinnitus.

Tips For Living With Tinnitus

You will be in a better position to prepare for and manage tinnitus the more you understand about it. And management is crucial since tinnitus doesn’t have a known cure. With the appropriate treatment, there’s no reason that chronic tinnitus needs to negatively impact your quality of life.

Think About Tinnitus Retraining Therapy

Tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) is a common approach to tinnitus management. The analogy that gets floated around frequently is the sound of rain on your roof: very apparent at the beginning of a storm, but you stop focusing on it after a while and that rain-on-rooftops sound goes into the background. TRT uses the same principle to teach your brain to push the tinnitus symptoms into the background of your thoughts so you will have an easier time tuning it out.

Perfecting this technique can take a bit of practice.

Get Your Brain Distracted

Your brain is continuously searching for the source of the noise and that’s one of the reasons why tinnitus can be so frustrating. So giving your brain more (and varied) stimuli to concentrate on can help. You could:

• Have music playing while you paint a picture.
• Enjoy a book while soaking in a bubble bath.
• Bring a book to the park and listen to the birds while you read.

You get the gist: engaging your brain can help you control your tinnitus.

Alternately, many individuals have found that meditation helps because it focuses your attention on something else, your breathing, a mantra, and etc. Some individuals have found that meditation lowers their blood pressure, which can also help with tinnitus.

Manage Tinnitus With a Hearing Aid

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

Make a Plan (And Stick to it)

Making a plan for unforeseen spikes can help you control your stress-out response, and that can help you minimize certain tinnitus episodes (or at least keep from worsening them). Pack a bag of practical items to bring with you. Anything that can help you be equipped for a tinnitus spike, even making a list of useful exercises will be good because it will keep you from having a panic attack!

The Key is Management

Chronic tinnitus is an affliction that has no known cure. But that doesn’t mean that people cannot regulate and treat their tinnitus. Make sure you are dealing with your tinnitus not suffering from it by utilizing these tips and any others that you find helpful.

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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