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A very good article. These words caught my attention: "I began to search out the times my brain was clumping together many disparate motions into an idea which would prevent me from overcoming an obstacle, and then I concentrated on breaking down these aggregates of ideas into discrete units of...

I, too, find my tinnitus increases after eating, especially after lunch. It doesn't last too long, but there is a definite change.

Sometimes, on waking from sleep, I hear what sounds like a couple of horn blasts.

Do you think your tinnitus might be somatic?

I find that my tinnitus follows a fairly regular pattern of two noisy days followed by a quiet day. Sometimes the quiet day starts from the previous evening. Having a quiet day does bring some consolation.

It seems as if you have your whole organism in a state of complete over-arousal and hyper-vigilance. Try and take the heat off yourself. Look outside yourself, it gives a better sense of perspective. Treat yourself the way you would like to treat someone you loved, by being gentle and...

How is your sciatica these days?

Julian's premise about too much adrenaline in the body is certainly correct. It is a factor in many conditions.

It's great to hear that you are coping so well. You have the right attitude. The most important factor is your realistic commitment to making the best of your situation, accepting things as they are, yet determined not to allow tinnitus and sounds to dominate your life. We are what we think and...

@Stuart-T, I think that therapies such as hypnosis and bio-resonance or osteopathy, for example, do have a role to play in treating tinnitus. Apart from the possible direct healing benefits, there is also the healing element brought about through the relationship with client and therapist in...

@Pitseleh, did you derive any benefit from treatment with the osteopath?

@Uklawyer, I'm OK, thanks. My tinnitus tends to follow a fairly regular pattern. Two days of tinnitus followed by a quiet day.

@Vicki3116, @Uklawyer, you might find this article useful. I think that hyperarousal is at the core of a lot of tinnitus experience. Look After Yourself Properly and Your Tinnitus Will Take Care of Itself

@VickiD, I find the work of Laurence McKenna very useful. Anxiety, fear and reactivity create a vicious circle. Learning to pay less attention to the tinnitus, treating it as just another experience all help in creating a more benign mental/emotional environment. One needs to decouple the...

I agree, Laurence McKenna is excellent. I heard him speak in Dublin today. He has a great understanding of tinnitus.

Dear Vicki, my condolences on the death of your Dad. Thank you for your wise and powerful post. As you say, at the end of the day we have no real control over the important things in life. I suppose it is all about learning to 'let go'. Death itself is the final and ultimate letting go for...

Dave, my belated condolences on the loss of your lovely partner, Sylvie. I hope you are doing well since your unfortunate Parkinson's fall. Take care.

@Ava Lugo, do you still hear tinnitus sounds in your dreams? I often experience one or two 'bleep' sounds around the time I wake up from sleep.

@Vicki3116, I'm sorry to hear about your latest setback. There is no quick fix I can suggest, but in my experience developing a sense of prayer/meditation/slowing down and becoming more calm and letting go, can, and often does produce positive results. Tinnitus is such an enigmatic condition...

@Vicki3116, it's interesting how discomfort or suffering can make us change. Viktor Frankl wrote that when we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.

My point is that susceptibility to perception of tinnitus is influenced by the factors I list. As is the strength of reaction to tinnitus.

There probably is a connection between ADHD and tinnitus. Both share traits of fixed ideas, excessive self focus and lack of attention to the outside/external environment.

I read Paul Kalanithi's When Breath Becomes Air a few years. It's a good book but very sad.

Hi @Vicki3116, it's great to hear that you're coping and doing well. I think what stands to you is your pragmatic, common sense and rational approach. You seem to be at that stage of acceptance and normalisation whereby the tinnitus doesn't provoke that emotional fear factor. Gaining a sense of...

Any fans of the Brontë sisters.? Two of my favourite books are Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" and Anne Brontë's "The Tenant of Widlfell Hall".

If you have some TMJ and head and neck issues, it might be a good idea to try the Alexander Technique. Head/neck/back balance and coordination is a key element in this. A lot of tensing in the neck area can be deeply ingrained.

I'm sorry to hear about your bad reaction to the vaccine. I have had 2 AstraZeneca vaccines and 1 booster shot of Pfizer. Thankfully I had no worsening of my tinnitus from any of the shots.

@volsung37, you said that one of the best things you ever did was take a holiday by the sea. May I ask where this was? Are you entirely sure that is was the Pfizer vaccination in November that caused the exacerbation in your tinnitus? As you say yourself, hyperattentiveness can be a huge factor...

My favourite film adaptation is the silent film made in 1922 by Mario Bonnard.

@Maria Francesca, have you read Manzoni's "I promessi sposi"? It's a great novel.

To be honest, I actually enjoyed the film more than the book. This happens with other books. For example, I preferred the film adaptation of "Brooklyn" to the book.

"The Map and the Territory" is one of my favourites too. Have you read his most recent, "anéantir"? It's very good.

Any fans of Michel Houellebecq? I have read most of his work.

Anam Cara by John O’Donohue is a great book.

@Maria Francesca, have you seen Valerio Zurlini's film adaptation of Il deserto dei Tartari?

@Phendran, I understand what you are saying. Everything around tinnitus is complex and nuanced. What I would say is that to some extent we can try to control our mental-emotional disposition. What I mean is that the more we are able to cultivate a positive and 'happy' outlook the better chance...

Since 2016, when your tinnitus became louder, have those factors you mentioned; stress + lack of sleep + loud music in headphones, stayed the same or have they increased or diminished? What remedies have you tried? For example, meditation, exercise, medication etc. Would you say that you have a...

@Phendran, when and how did your tinnitus start?

I'm sorry to hear about your discomfort. Do you feel that stress plays a part in your tinnitus distress? I find that worry, anxiety etc can create a vicious circle of heightened emotional reaction and upset. Cognitive therapy is in essence developing a detached and disciplined attitude to one's...

I would say it does work in my favour. It's nice to return to a normal state every third day. Something to look forward to. It makes the other two days easier to cope with.

@Phendran, my tinnitus follows a pattern. It is noisy for two days and quiet on the third day. This is a regular pattern.

Do many people here have experience with the Alexander Technique? It can help alleviate tinnitus distress. The main way it can help is that the technique seeks to improve body awareness and a wider environmental presentness, and this practice in itself requires great discipline. This...

Are you able to sleep at night?

@Phendran, how is your tinnitus during the day? Does it vary much during the day and between different days?

@Phendran, it sounds as if your tinnitus might be somatic-sensory. How is it these days? By the way, I lived in Stockholm for a year. It's a beautiful city.

@GeorgeLG, I completely agree with you about mind-body inseparability. Emotional trauma can indeed trigger or exacerbate a condition such as tinnitus. Grief for example, in its myriad forms can be a factor. You mention "being hyper vigilant, a little OCD, wound up, etc." My own hunch is that...

@SillyMama, @DoggoneT, I came across this article by a doctor with cervical related tinnitus. It makes sense also in relation to the Alexander Technique, where neck awareness is central. That is, allowing the neck to be free and unconstricted. Chronic Cervicogenic Tinnitus Rapidly Resolved by...

@andrewsomatict, it's interesting that you mention neck spasms. I have had tinnitus for 12 years or so, but about a year ago I experienced neck spasms on the right side of my neck. Since then my tinnitus has become more intrusive. I got the MRI of my neck area. It turns out that I have cervical...

I wonder if some people with tinnitus may be on the autistic spectrum. According to one study, 35% of people with Asperger's syndrome are affected by tinnitus, which is much more than in the general population. Tinnitus and hyperacusis in autism spectrum disorders with emphasis on high...

@Juan, this short clip is also worth watching:

@Juan, as you mention Oliver Sacks, I would highly recommend the excellent documentary about his life. It's called "Oliver Sacks: His Own Life" and is directed by Ric Burns.

@Watasha, basically the solution would be to reclaim for yourself a sense of your own inner security and fullness. He sees tinnitus as being a metaphor for a sort of inner void and the noise of tinnitus being the sound of self criticism and harshness. Tinnitus becomes like the reverberations one...

@Watasha, when you say you've always had a "sticky" brain that gets fixated on things, do you mean that you are obsessive-compulsive? It's interesting that you write: "The fact that I didn't have much to worry about I think played a role, now all of a sudden I have something to worry about"...

This research paper from 1999 is a very interesting study showing how people with hypochondria experience higher levels of tinnitus distress that those without hypochondria. "Among subjects affected by tinnitus, two groups are distinguished: patients who can cope positively with the symptom...

@Michael Leigh, I agree. Habituation involves learning to think calmly and clearly. I recall years ago listening to the psychologist Dorothy Rowe speak. One of the key things she said was that the most difficult thing of all to do when in a state of fear, panic, anxiety, charged emotion etc was...

@Howard UK, have you any idea as to what caused your tinnitus in 2002?

@aura, how is your tinnitus these days? The psychologist Tony Humphreys has a theory that tinnitus is often a sort of warning sign to the self to pay more attention to self care and self nurturing. We can so easily become caught up in the world of the external that we forget to meet our own...

@Steph1710, I agree with about your subconscious locking into to such an extent during the day that you experience it while asleep.

Immanuel Kant writing about hypochondria in his book "Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View" makes a point about hypochondria that might equally be applied to tinnitus, in that it is similar to the cognitive therapeutic approach often adopted in the treatment of tinnitus. Kant writes...