As my post last week mentioned, I'm just over four weeks into my tinnitus journey. During the day I find it manageable/easy to ignore with noise and distraction, though a sleepless night seems to make it much worse.
I'm still hopeful that it will resolve itself over time, as it's been just over four weeks, but I'm also working on acceptance as this condition is causing me to become anxious and depressed. Hope is rapidly fading that this is going away for me, I doubt I'll be one of the lucky ones.
While I'm seeing a GP and have an ENT referral, I really need to try and focus on getting used to it, what they call habituation.
So my question, what does habituation look like? What steps, methods, tricks do people do to make this horrific noise fade into the background? Is it simply about patience, distraction and time? Or anything specific?
thank you in advance from a desperate and despairing sufferer.
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if you make it your life’s mission to get rid of tinnitus: what you are doing is in fact reinforcing it.
The primitive part of your brain - the part that controls your blood pressure, breathing, immediate reaction to danger - has been activated somehow. Maybe you won’t know why, and there’s little point in trying to find out. Because it has happened. That was then, this is now.
So somehow that part of your brain needs to be reassured that, just because it has a noise that it considers to be “danger”, it is not in fact dangerous. And this can be achieved by a combination of things.
There are many suggestions in the website of Tinnitus UK. What I’ve discovered from being on this site for some years is that many people get help through relaxation and possibly talking therapies.
I am convinced - I have no evidence to support this - that people who post on here with stories similar to yours find their way to habituation. And because they are habituated they see no need to return here because they have forgotten all about it.
It’s a very common issue and might be regarded as part of life’s rich pattern. In the meantime it’s very early days for you and you are starting on the right path.
That’s a good point. If you have a physical illness and see your GP, when that condition has resolved itself you don’t go back and tell your GP all is well. Personally, my T is constantly with me throughout each day and although there are times I notice it less, typically when I’m very interested in something new that is taking my focus, I have not habituated as others have.
Good to hear from you again - well done. Habituation is a bit like John Lennon when he said all those years ago: "Life is something that happens while we're making other plans."
Kind of how it is with habituation. It will just happen while you are doing the workaday stuff to keep yourself busy, happy (ish) and having stuff to look forward to going forward whilst managing your present and safe-keeping your welfare.
As Rosie says - take a look at Tinnitus UK website for all manner of tips and tricks that we can deploy to manage our here and now, our sleep, our motivation and our sometimes very fragile mental attitude to our condtion.
Take a look on Youtube - find some people you like - Julian Cowan springs immediately to mind, look out some relaxation and destraction videos and courses. There are plenty.
Look after your sleep - sleep is numero Uno (in my book) when it comes to fortifiying your resilliense to the T. A good night's healthy, restful sleep will see you up and about the next morning ready to demolish the T and get on with your life.
Talk to your GP - about drugs - for sleep, for better mental health, to help you cope with those Spikes and for long-term strategy to strengthen resolve and get life back on track.
Take a look at your diet - do your research, make your self the project - nobody else will. Remember what the Tinnitus Elders say: "Only YOU can cure YOUR Tinnitus". Again, research your particular T - ask questions everywhere you go - especially here where there's a bunch of us who have probably been there before you - and made it back to tell the tale.
If you think you need an ENT appointment then hassle them until they get sick of you and relent and get you one.
Back yourself and do not let the T win.
Work it - because it works if you work and you're worth it.
You do all of the above - keep doing it and I promise one day you'll realise that you have habituated to your Tinnitus - while you've been busy doing all the above, while "You've been busy making other plans" . . .
Those two posts above from Jimbob7 and Happyrosie are absolutely brilliant, how I wish I had those two posts nine years ago when I went through a similarly dreadful time to you.
If I could say one thing it would be exactly what Jimbob7 says "Look after your sleep - sleep is numero Uno..." that is it for me. If you can get your sleep back on track your brain is better placed to push the tinnitus sound away during the day. On nights of little sleep it means your focus and concentration goes and your brain kind of ends up listening to the sound, bad cycle.
GP offered me Zopiclone sleeping tablets, at first I refused but ended up taking a half dose of 3.75, even just for an occasional night it kind of got me back on track - note I'm not suggesting you do the same as I wouldn't advise on this side of things. It is just so important in the early stages to get the sleep right.
I played sound over night at just below the tinnitus sound as it gave the brain a contrasting sound to focus on, I read this helps with habituation. Keep sound with you all the time, silence is the enemy. It is hard for the brain to focus on two sounds at once, get good sound in there things you like that you prefer and the brain will migrate to that sound.
As the others above say, keep yourself busy. Get on with life, your passion or find a new passion that captures your brain. Maybe look at diet, I cut back a little on alcohol, caffeine, sweeteners, there are the odd food/drink which is said to worsen tinnitus - worth looking into or asking others.
Make sound your shield from tinnitus, it will defend you. Make concentration your sword, it will cut through tinnitus.
I relate to you. I am the same. The way I habituate is by sitting with it sometimes and letting it just be. I’ve suffered with it for 10 months now following misuse of headphones and then covid.
Your brain will get used to it. You will be ok. I let-go of fear and accept it now and I find that I am mentally dealing with it better
It's like someone once said to me, 'dont tell someone who's panicking "don't panic" - you can't tell the brain to forget tinnitus - but you need to work out how to forget it with reassurance. I guess I'm about 3 years into T now, a lot calmer but my issue is hearing loss. It took me a lot at first to find out why I I was struggling and I didn't know I had hearing loss which really didn't help me. Until I knew that and could have HA then I could hear again and started to become less anxious. I'm still having bad days+, I'm having stress with work and that doesn't help at all as an example. Good luck, you will master it.
I still wonder if I can achieve this status of generally just not being troubled by my T. Definitely as said very well on these replies try to safeguard you sleep and levels of stress. Talking to people is helpful to me because the depression and anxiety are never far away since T came to visit. Certainly being active and involved with family and friends, hobbies/interests and pets is a lifeline.
Take care of yourself by sometimes putting you first when you are dishing out care and compassion to others.
I hope you are the patient sort. It took me many months to habituate. The secret of habituation is apparently forgetting what it was like NOT to have tinnitus. That will come, but human memory is a strong thing in the short term. Less so as time goes by.
But we cope. If you click on my username you'll find a post on wireless headphones. Marvellous things for what they are, masking the noise. Also some alleviation. Ginkgo, but only the way I take it. For it to work, you don't take it daily.
it's 2 years down the line for me and I have not yet habituated. The Brain loves novelty and in my case the sounds change through the day and night( and in different parts of my head) just to help me notice them . I paid for hypnotherapy and CBT as an experiment and to see if they would help. The main outcome was in helping me to distance myself from the sounds, acknowledge but not let them take over my life.
As other have said, keep busy physically but also keep your Brain busy and distracted. I have low frequency hearing loss and paid ( because the ENT wait was 12 months) for Bluetooth enabled hearing aids- I love them as I can play music, the radio and pleasant sounds ( I have several apps) through them. I can adjust them to different environments, e.g. restaurant, face to face and adjust them to TV and film settings. The NHS ones which I eventually got are also Bluetooth but a bit chunkier and have only basic functions but you can still play white noise through them. Once you do get to NHS Audiology they are fab and provide a great service.
The causes of Tinnitus are multi factorial. In my case , the Menopause and the drop in oestrogen is probably partly to blame. Because there are many causes there is no cure at present, it's a question of management.
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T returned after habituation
Habituation is it for everyone 
Re-habituation
