The actual issue with chronic tinnitus isn’t only that you have a ringing in your ears. It’s the continuous never ending ringing, that’s the real issue.

Initially, this might be a moderate noise that’s not much more than a little annoying. But after a day or a week or a month, that ringing or buzzing can become irritating, frustrating, even debilitating.

That’s why it’s vital to have some tips to fall back on, tips that make living with tinnitus less difficult. It can make a huge difference if you have a plan when you’re lying in bed unable to fall asleep because of the buzzing or ringing in your ear.

Your Tinnitus Can be Made Worse

It’s beneficial to keep in mind that tinnitus is often not static. Symptoms manifest themselves in spikes and valleys. There are times when your tinnitus is mild and practically lost in the background. At other times the sounds will be shrieking in your ears so loudly it’s impossible to ignore.

This can be a very uncertain and scary situation. Perhaps you even get panic attacks while driving to work because you’re concerned about your tinnitus flaring up while you’re in a meeting. And the very panic attack brought on by this worry can itself cause the tinnitus.

Tips For Coping With Tinnitus

You will be in a better position to plan for and manage tinnitus the more you know about it. And, because there’s no known cure for tinnitus, control of symptoms is essential. With the proper management, there’s no reason that chronic tinnitus needs to negatively affect your quality of life.

Consider Tinnitus Retraining Therapy

Tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) is a standard approach to tinnitus management. The analogy that gets floated around most often is the sound of rain on your rooftops: very apparent at the beginning of a storm, but you stop focusing on it after a while and that rain-on-rooftops sound fades into the background. TRT uses the same principle to teach your brain to push the tinnitus symptoms into the background of your thoughts so you will have an easier time tuning it out.

It can take training to get this technique down.

Get Your Brain Distracted

One of the reasons that tinnitus can be so frustrating is because your brain is continuously searching for the source of that noise, attempting to alert you to its presence. So giving your brain a variety of different sounds to concentrate on can be very helpful. You could:

• Do some drawing or painting while playing music.
• Read a book while soaking in a bubble bath.
• Take a book to the park and listen to the birds while you read.

You get the idea: engaging your brain can help you manage your tinnitus.

Alternately, many people have discovered that meditation helps because it concentrates your attention on something else, your breathing, a mantra, and etc. Some people have found that meditation lowers their blood pressure, which can also help with tinnitus.

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. This solution is very convenient because they are small and out of your way compared to other approaches. You can relax and let a discreet hearing aid manage the ringing for you.

Make a Plan (And Follow-Through)

Having a plan for unexpected surges can help you control your stress-out reaction, and that can help you minimize certain tinnitus episodes (or at least keep from exacerbating them). Plan on having a “go bag” containing stuff you might need. Anything that will help you be more ready and keep you from having a panic attack, like making a list of practical exercises, will go a long way toward management.

Management is Key

There is no cure for tinnitus which is usually chronic. But that doesn’t mean that individuals cannot regulate and treat their tinnitus. These daily tips (and more similar to them) can help make certain you are living with tinnitus, and not suffering from tinnitus.

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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