ernie274

[Ernie274]

my titinuss is very bad and it appears the best solution is try to ignore it. Does anyone have any ideas to do this. At night I play masking music

[Happyrosie]

go to the British Tinnitus Association website where you will find lots of ideas.

Or read posts here.

[doglover1973]

Hi Ernie274 I can't ignore the T in my deaf ear so I try to embrace it. I accept it's there and relax into it.. If that makes sense. This usually works for me. More often than not I don't dwell on it even though I'm very aware of it. I think what I'm saying is .. I've stopped trying to influence my tinnitus. I just let it be. I hope this helps a little.

[Fridays_Child_62]

As you may have found out, masking or distracting sounds can work well - I prefer Nature sounds. Distracting the brain with a trivial mental task (like counting backwards) can help when going to sleep. Depending on your tinnitus, if it sounds like something real (like a ringing bell or whistling kettle) then you can associate a mental image of that object with the tinnitus to help yourself accept the noise.

[Chocolate135]

Listen to YouTube Tinnitus masking videos like "Tinnitus Sound Therapy", "Tinnitus Scrubber", "Tinnitus Sweeping", etc..

[camino9]

Yes Ernie, this is what I do.

My whirring/ringing noise is the loudest it has ever been. The volume has not changed for weeks. I also have a chest cold. As dog lover said, accept it and relax into it. Easy to do? Heck no. This noise has become part of my reality. It is what it is. Curiously it also makes me very tired. I usually don't have trouble speaking. Going for long walks each day is also a good remedy for sleep and to keep the body itself strong. Hope this helps a wee...

[camino9]

oops, I meant no trouble sleeping...I don't like speaking a lot as it happens!

[Persevere99]

Hi Ernie

Please read my own post to see how I finally managed to ‘come to terms’ with my T and come off the benzos I took for many years.

All the best

Persevere99

[surreycccfan]

Hi Ernie, sorry to hear you are struggling. As others have said above, trying to ignore it can be difficult. I found understanding I was in a heightened emotional state (fight/flight) helped me understand I couldn't fight it and I could run away from it. I learnt from others with the condition how they coped with their T and I tried these (some worked some didn't). I realised that I needed a 'toolkit' of evidence based techniques to help me cope. Examples of these evidence based distraction and behavioral techniques I followed are below but there are lots of ideas on the BTA website .

• Sound therapy - I used a sound generator app to help me sleep (sound of waves and rain) plus I used positive reframing while listening to these sounds (I thought of really nice beach holidays I had spent with the family; this was not only distraction but also helped enforce positive thinking while I was anxious)

• CBT - Although I was skeptical of counseling, I found it very helpful and helped me see what types of negative thoughts I was having and how this was affecting my feelings. I found tools such as the APPLE model very helpful as allowed me to – pause, reflect, and reframe negative thoughts. CBT also helped me understand our natural negative bias and gave me tools to manage my thoughts and feelings which ultimately took a lot of power away from my T

• Exercise – Not only does this release endorphins (destressed me) but even if I was just going for a walk I would not only exercise but use behavioural techniques such as active listening where I would listen 'through' my T (this is where you listen for 20 seconds to something in the distance e.g. car or planes and then listen to something close up for 20 seconds e.g. your footsteps, this helped my brain to focus on something other than the sound of my T and help 'practice' listening to the world around me. I also found Swimming really useful as I could not hear my T while I was splashing up and down the swimming lane

• Progressive Muscle Relaxtion - This type of mindfulness exercise was great to being me into the moment and away from negative thoughts and/or away from focusing on my T

• Video Gaming – Finding a hobby or activity that really makes you focus on something was really useful. I found online gaming really helped me as I was so engrossed in playing the game, I would have periods where I didn't 'hear' my T as my brain was focused on something I was enjoying. Most folks find hobby’s they really enjoy has this effect

• Affirmations – I had a list of sayings I would use to help me stay centred and grounded when I was struggling e.g. 'this will be pass', 'my plan is to manage my T not manage me'

• Avoid avoidance – Often we want to hide from our T and this is impossible so I made sure I lived my life by trying to avoid my T, I would use the distraction and behavioural techniques to ensure I was working a plan which would ultimately allow me to manage my T. One thing I found as I became more comfortable with my T was to say hello to my T before I went to sleep so I had acknowledged it and this allowed my brain to 'move on' to think about something other than my T

• Don’t mourn my old life - It’s very easy for our lives to shrink when we get T and we wish for things we had in our lives before T. I found this quite negative so I always tried to reframe my thoughts in a way where I was trying to effect the future with T rather than wishing for my life before/without T

• Empathy - I attended BTA virtual support groups, at these groups not only did I learn more about the condition, I learnt behavioural/distraction techniques but also by sharing and listening to others with the condition I felt a great sense of empathy and support which again helped with anxiety and worry knowing I was not alone plus there was hope that I could habituate and live well with my T

• Support Network - I realised that having a good support network was important as not only did this help my stay positive but by also having folks to talk to allowed me to decompress. The BTA virtual support groups were excellent but I also made sure my family and closest friends understood what I was going through and this helped me feel safe and positive which encouraged me in sticking to my T management plan

• Understand that the more I give my T focus the more I am feeding the T and the anxiety - This was important as when we first get T it takes over our lives but this constant focusing on the perceived noise of our T just made me focus more on it and made me feel down. To try and arrest this focus I would use a combination of distraction and behavioural techniques to take the power away from my T

• Kindness - Having T is tough and it’s not your fault you have so it BE KIND to yourself, beating yourself up will only feed worry and anxiety. I grounded myself when I said be kind to myself by telling myself I was following this plan of distraction and behavioural techniques which I know had worked for others with the condition so if I just stuck to the plan things would get better.

The BTA has some great resources on evidence based techniques.

My T is the same high pitched it has always been but by using my 'toolkit' I have calmed my emotional reaction to my T and now my brain just sees it as another bodily function and is no threat to me, so I am no longer in fight/flight mode

Hope this helps in some small way. Stay safe