The actual problem with chronic tinnitus isn’t only that you have a ringing in your ears. It’s the continuous non-stop ringing, that’s the real problem.

The continuous noise, possibly somewhat modest in volume, may start as little more than a nuisance. But after a day or a week or a month, that buzzing or ringing can become aggravating, frustrating, even incapacitating.

That’s why it’s crucial to have some tips you can rely on, tips that make living with tinnitus easier. When you’re lying in bed, having trouble falling asleep because you keep hearing ringing from your right ear, having a plan is going to do you a world of good.

Your Tinnitus Can be Made Worse

Chronic tinnitus, in fact, is commonly not a static condition. Symptoms present themselves in spikes and valleys. There are times when your tinnitus is mild and practically lost in the background. In other moments, that ringing could be as hard to ignore as a full-blown, individualized symphony.

This can be a very uncertain and scary situation. Perhaps you even experience panic attacks while driving to work because you’re concerned about your tinnitus flaring up while you’re in a meeting. That panic attack, in and of itself, can trigger the very episode you’re concerned about.

Tips For Coping With Tinnitus

The more you know about tinnitus, the better you can prepare for and manage the effects. And management is the real key since tinnitus has no known cure. There’s no reason that your quality of life needs to suffer if you establish the proper treatment.

Consider Tinnitus Retraining Therapy

Several treatment options for tinnitus incorporate some form of tinnitus retraining therapy (or TRT). The sound of rain on a roof is a common analogy: very apparent at the start of a storm, but you stop paying attention to it after a while and that rain-on-rooftops sound goes into the background. TRT uses the same concept to train your brain to move the tinnitus symptoms into the background of your thoughts so you will have an easier time ignoring them.

It can take training to get this technique down.

Distract Your Brain

Your brain is constantly looking for the source of the noise and that’s one of the reasons why tinnitus can be so frustrating. So giving your brain a range of different sounds to focus on can be quite helpful. Try these:

• Bring a book to the park and listen to the birds while reading.
• Play music while you paint a picture.
• Enjoy a book while taking a bubble bath.

You get the point: Your tinnitus may be able to be decreased by engaging your brain.

Alternately, many individuals have found that meditation helps because it concentrates your attention on something else, your breathing, a mantra, and so on. Another advantage of meditation, at least for some, is that it can decrease blood pressure which is a common cause of tinnitus symptoms.

Consider a Hearing Aid For Tinnitus Management

Hearing aids that help decrease tinnitus symptoms are already being manufactured by a number of hearing aid companies. Hearing aids are an ideal option because you put them in and can forget about it the entire day, you won’t need to carry around a white noise generator or constantly listen to an app. The ringing will be handled by the hearing aid and you can relax and enjoy your life.

Have a Plan (And Follow-Through)

Having a plan for unforeseen surges can help you handle your stress-out response, and that can help you reduce certain tinnitus episodes (or at least keep from worsening them). Consider having a “go bag” full of things you may need. Anything that can help you be equipped for a tinnitus surge, even creating a list of helpful exercises will be good because it will keep you from panicking!

The Key is Management

Chronic tinnitus is a condition that has no known cure. But that doesn’t mean that people can’t regulate and treat their tinnitus. Make sure you are managing your tinnitus not suffering from it by utilizing these tips and any others that you find helpful.

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References

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3303565/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5050200/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17956798/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4447068/
https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008664