I watched the Kenyan runner do the first sub 2 hour marathon. What a fantastic achievement. His strap line was "If the brain believes, then the body will achieve". That got me thinking about the endeavours of us T sufferers. What do you do if the problem is the brain?. Where do you go for inspiration to tackle the problem?
The runner believes that with positivity that you can conquer most things. I was reading some old posts and it still amazes me the resilience of the T community. Some of the stories are heart breaking as lives have been made a misery by this awful condition. It was world mental health day last week and it does irk me that T is treated as a mental health condition. My view is that it is a physical hearing condition that causes severe mental health difficulties. Most of the treatments offered are for depression, anxiety, insomnia etc. I am sure that if I didn't have the T or H then I wouldn't have the mental health issues.
I feel that mental pain is much worse than physical pain. It is hidden and I know that some days it is like running a mental marathon. With T it can mean having to do it day after day. I take my hat of to my T cyber buddies for their courage, strength and tenacity. Until they get a cure we will have to support each other.
Wishing you all peace and quiet.
Ade
Written by
ade-the-pade
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Couldn’t agree more Ade, very well written. Mental Health was never even a passing thought for me until T struck. I now find myself almost reliant on medication for depression to assist with sleeping and also to assist with lifting my spirits a little. I find my T both physically and mentally draining, even after 8 years. I’m lucky to have support from my wife and friends, and also from very understanding employers. I’m glad that a lot of the stigma around mental health is starting to rescind but there’s a long way to go. I’m happy to talk openly about my personal experiences but many still suffer in silence and there’s still far too many who use it as a stick to beat people with.
Hello CW, Thank you for your openness. Others will benefit that you are happy to share. It will help them to come forward. It is now much easier to tell others when we are struggling. Facing the T and H has been one of my biggest battles. I am so lucky to have a good group of people around me. There has been some really low moments and I understand when people say that they have "had enough".
Hi ade,well said,I hate the way people out there always say, when you say you have tinnitus "you'll get used to it over time it's only a noise" don't know how many people have said that to me over the last year,the thing that does annoy me is people saying I have it for years it dos'nt bother me,I sometimes think am I going mad or is mine so loud compared to others,but your right we just have to support each other as best we can until a cure is found.
Hello Michael, If I had a penny for every one that said "I have it too", I'd be a very rich man. We all know that there is a sliding scale. A period of ringing after a concert or 5 mins of buzzing though to high intense whistling louder than a petrol lawn mower. I have had mine for nearly 5 years and showing no signs of getting used to it. The noise fills my whole body and I wonder the neighbours can't hear it.
I don't think you are going mad, some T is incredibly loud and intrusive.
Good luck and well done for not punching others!!!
I totally agree it's not just mentally caused and that all of us most likely have different causes and different intensities of sounds etc. so we can't all be classed as the same.
Personally I don't think we'll really start getting any consistent treatment or reductions in symptoms until doctors accept this. There's only a certain amount that thinking positively and trying to relax or do to take your mind off sounds etc can do. It's good to have forums where other people who suffer with varying forms of T can read/talk about this as other people definitely do not understand despite all the metal illness campaigns ongoing at the moment.
As I mentioned previously I think it would really help to correlate data on our own experiences of what we think caused/helped cause T including mental related issues i.e. stress before and during T, medication, treatments we've tried, some way of classifying the noise experienced, any changes etc. throughout trying things.
With any luck some medical professionals can get involved.
Does anyone know if there's somewhere where we can find out if anyone is doing studies related to this in the UK/elsewhere?
I believe that there is a website where you can put yourself for forward for medical research. The ENT hospitable in London were looking for people to do research on insomnia and T. I have not seen anything on direct treatments for T. It makes me think that there is nothing in the pipeline at the moment.
It seems that all the medications are about treating the secondary effects. Hopefully someday they will crack this nut!!
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