T after vaccinatie

[Sjonnie]

Hello

I 'm from Holland.

After the booster i get T. 12-12-21 .

8 ours later.

Seeing a dat doctor.nothing wrong with hearing.I m looking fore hope.

Its terreble.cannot go go wiel.is there a chance IT van go??????

Thanxs John

[doglover1973]

Hi Sjonnie Don't panic. Tinnitus is distressing - especially in the early days - but there's ways of coping with it long term . It may or may not go but it's best to focus on the here & now. The first thing to do is try and relax - if possible. Do anything relaxing. T thrives on fear & anxiety . The second thing is have low sound in the background. Any sound you like. Just try those two things to start with and see if you feel any better .

[Sjonnie in reply to doglover1973]

Thans

[Sadie2022 in reply to Sjonnie]

Hi. I also have T after my booster - not sure if that is a coincidence. I am using a free app called ReSound you can download from App Store. I listen to it at night and to relax - I’ve found it helpful . Also swimming. Good Luck

[Sjonnie in reply to Sadie2022]

Good Lucky too you.within max 6 months we Lose IT over heard

[surreycccfan]

Hi John, I think most of us feel overwhelmed when we first get tinnitus. I know when I first got it I felt hopeless and my life shrank. However, to give you hope I (and lots of others) who have had severe tinnitus now live well with it.

I think a lot of us go through this type of 'hopelessness' when we first get T as it totally turns our world upside down (I know I felt like this). I think as has been mentioned in previous posts our fight/flight emotional response to this perceived threat of our T put us in a heightened emotional state that can cause significant anxiety. This anxiety keeps us aware of our T and it is hard to recapture our lives prior to our T.

I know when I first had my T I felt like this but after putting in place behavioral and distraction techniques I now live very well with my T (this took time and effort). After struggling for quite some time I discovered the BTA, and I realised if I wanted to move forward towards acceptance and habituation, I needed to put in place these techniques if I was to manage my T rather than managing me (this was my plan).

The behavioral techniques require constant practice but for most folks these types of techniques help shift how we think about our T which helps eventually to push it into the background as your brain starts to stop seeing it as a threat.

There are some excellent resources available on the BTA website about these techniques. To give you some examples of these techniques please see below some of things I used (you need to find what works for you and for some of them you need to stick at it as it takes time to shift how our brain sees your T, brain plasticity):

These are the distraction and behavioral techniques I used:

• Sound therapy - I used a sound generator app (the same one you mentioned) 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 counselling, 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 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

• Body scans - 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.

For complete transparency, I know when I first heard others on the BTA virtual support groups about how they were living well with their T and how they habituated i thought 'You don't know how bad MY T is' but after attending a few sessions I realised these folks had T that was the same (or worse) than mine and they had managed to live well with their T by following a similar plan. So, there is hope and however tough it feels now things can get better

Hope this helps in some small way. Stay Safe

[Sjonnie in reply to surreycccfan]

Thanks you for the tipsJohn