Help please

[glitterbabe]

Hi I am new here, after waiting 7 months for an ENT appointment Covid 19 came along and it was cancelled. I know I am safe and well but my head has felt like it is in a factory or machine all this time and I am going mad. I can't remember the last time I slept through the night. Is there anything I could try I will do anything!

[TinnitusUKPat Partner]

Hi Glitterbabe - welcome to the forums.

There are a lot of supportive and friendly people here who will be able to share their experience and support you with managing your tinnitus during what is a really challenging time.

As an association, our advice would be to avoid unproven and expensive complementary therapies which promise the earth and then don't deliver - there isn't a vitamin supplement which you can take which is going to make a difference to your tinnitus, for example.

Learning to relax, making a conscious effort to reduce your stress levels and trying to keep in touch with friends or family are going to be positive ways to manage your personal tinnitus levels - the more that you can do to consciously focus on anything which is not your tinnitus noise will honestly help. I know that may seem difficult to imagine now, but it will get easier the more that you do it.

Some links which I hope will help you:

Sleep tips - tinnitus.org.uk/tinnitus-we...

Relaxation - tinnitus.org.uk/Pages/Categ...

Self-help ideas - tinnitus.org.uk/self-help

Take care

Pat

Tinnitus Support Team

BTA

[Pamlemur]

Hi,

I have severe tinnitus in both ears (2 different sounds and moderate/severe hearing loss) which is worse in the evening and at night. I recently was referred to the hearing therapist at my local hospital. It maybe worth trying a sound therapy unit at night. I use a sound oasis Bluetooth speaker which has a good tone which I can hear without my hearing aids. (although my husband says it is very loud!!). I was sceptical that it would work but like you desperate for a good night's sleep. The sound should be set below the level of the tinnitus otherwise the brain will compete with the sound and increase the volume of the tinnitus. It is all about brain training and if you wake up your brain associates the noise with sleeping so making it easier to drift off again. It took me a few weeks to find the right noise to suit me and you need to give it time, I use natural white noise (water running over rocks). There are free apps on phones or white noise on You Tube that you could try before buying anything. I also have taken up mindfulness activities , crochet, colouring books, also Tai Chi which relaxes the mind and body. There is no easy quick fix answer and still have bad days but feel more in control rather than the tinnitus controlling me.

Hope this is of help to you.

Keep well and safe.

[arthursseat]

I have had T for about 30 years. Eventually I was able to make it into a "friend" and what helped this was the fact that at all times I knew it was NOT trying to do me harm and that positive thought almost became a mantra.

Have you someone who is willing to listen to you often? There or telephone. If so it can be very helpful actually talking to them about it as this can lessen the stress levels as you can encourage whoever it is to veer away slightly from T into other things. Concentrating on those other things can lessen the stress.

At the end of the day it is the stress that makes it worse. The current situation woke up my tinnitus stress level again and I went back to basics actually "talking" to it in my head but gradually sliding away to think of other things. It eventually did the trick for me both at the start and recently.

I think above everything else it is realising that it is not trying to do harm and, trust me, eventually it will fade into the background. Still the same sound but accepted.

John.

[glitterbabe]

Thank you everyone for your responses. I have always had a bit of tinnitus so I do a lot of the things suggested already which helps but I feel this is someway linked to my sinuses. I lose my voice frequently and get sore throats none of which happened before this started last year. I think if I was diagnosed I would know how best to deal with it.

Thank you for your thoughts and for being there for me to read your stories.