Many people have a white noise machine, or and electronic version, that they use for sleeping. I presume you are using one of them. If not, I would suggest you begin. I would also suggest you focus your attention on the sound of the white noise machine when you go to bed to sleep. If your mind wonders from the white noise sound, just note the feeling (don't bother to write it down) and go back to focusing on the white noise sound. Better still is to have the white noise on of course and then when you get into bed, begin to focus your attention on your breathing. As you breathe in, think to yourself "calm" and as you breath out think "relax". You keep doing that until you probably do just slip into sleep.I have been finding Back to Silence useful during the day but am having trouble at night when going to bed.
I couldn't agree more. I also think that sleeping with a fan on every single night for 2 years helped a lot.One of the best pieces of advice I've ever received here was NOT to mask the tinnitus, but to dedicate countless hours intentionally and actively listening to the tinnitus, especially when one is sleeping. This helped expedite the habituation process for me personally.
I covered my head and ears with pillows, so tinnitus would be the only thing I hear. Over time, my brain grew disinterested and eventually became accustomed to the sound. I think there's something about this method that helped me adapt more quickly. It is worth trying if you're a newcomer.
I can't say that I'm fond of the idea of masking one's tinnitus, especially while sleeping. I have trouble masking my tinnitus to begin with. But ultimately, I feel like trying to mask it is signaling to your brain that it is a threat and that you're trying to run away from it. IMO. It is better to get acclimated to it as best as possible. It's a form of acceptance in a way.
But to each their own. Everyone's different on how they manage this condition.
I would agree with the each their own and different strokes for different folks aspect.One of the best pieces of advice I've ever received here was NOT to mask the tinnitus, but to dedicate countless hours intentionally and actively listening to the tinnitus, especially when one is sleeping. This helped expedite the habituation process for me personally.
I covered my head and ears with pillows, so tinnitus would be the only thing I hear. Over time, my brain grew disinterested and eventually became accustomed to the sound. I think there's something about this method that helped me adapt more quickly. It is worth trying if you're a newcomer.
I can't say that I'm fond of the idea of masking one's tinnitus, especially while sleeping. I have trouble masking my tinnitus to begin with. But ultimately, I feel like trying to mask it is signaling to your brain that it is a threat and that you're trying to run away from it. IMO. It is better to get acclimated to it as best as possible. It's a form of acceptance in a way.
But to each their own. Everyone's different on how they manage this condition.
I'm on my cell scrolling 16 hours a day. Really the only thing that takes my mind off the tinnitus. I'm retired BTW.I wanted to give this a real try, starting today, and I immediately failed applying rule one.
Given my 24/7 tinnitus, how can I not think about it? I put a check mark, express out loud how I feel and keep watching TV. Then my tinnitus is still (well obviously) there. How do I drive my attention away? I soon find myself thinking about all sort of tinnitus related things, like therapies, doctors, exams, problems and so forth.
TV is not enough I guess, I need something that catches all my attention, mind and body, like the gym.
Any takes/suggestions on this?
You need to indulge yourself with something that gives you joy and brings mindfulness to your head.I wanted to give this a real try, starting today, and I immediately failed applying rule one.
Given my 24/7 tinnitus, how can I not think about it? I put a check mark, express out loud how I feel and keep watching TV. Then my tinnitus is still (well obviously) there. How do I drive my attention away? I soon find myself thinking about all sort of tinnitus related things, like therapies, doctors, exams, problems and so forth.
TV is not enough I guess, I need something that catches all my attention, mind and body, like the gym.
Any takes/suggestions on this?
Considering I have an anxiety disorder, I doubt something like that exists for me right now.You need to indulge yourself with something that gives you joy and brings mindfulness to your head.
Turning things around takes a lot of time. We are talking months and possibly years. It all depends upon many factors...
The "don't monitor it" part means for one to keep listening to it constantly to keep track of what it sounds like and using every descriptive word one can come up with to describe it that many people do. They also hop online and have posts about it and comment on others who are doing the same. It becomes an obsession. I figure most people have 24/7 tinnitus, thus that is not an obstacle to getting to habituation, as many have with this method. One is not driving their attention away from the tinnitus with the Back to Silence method. One is not trying to not think about it. One merely notes when the attention moves to it and how one feels when it does. If you want to start with only noting it with your feeling every five minutes or so, then do that. Keep track of that number and notice the statistics daily or weekly. Indeed this method is unlikely to get someone to habituation quickly. It is a long-term project.I wanted to give this a real try, starting today, and I immediately failed applying rule one.
Given my 24/7 tinnitus, how can I not think about it? I put a check mark, express out loud how I feel and keep watching TV. Then my tinnitus is still (well obviously) there. How do I drive my attention away? I soon find myself thinking about all sort of tinnitus related things, like therapies, doctors, exams, problems and so forth.
TV is not enough I guess, I need something that catches all my attention, mind and body, like the gym.
Any takes/suggestions on this?
OK, so you do have a larger challenge than most with an anxiety disorder, I will grant you that. Consider this aspect as it still applies to some degree, even in your situation.Considering I have an anxiety disorder, I doubt something like that exists for me right now.
I figure a lot of people started just like you write... hearing it all the time. There is no rigid "rule" if you will. It would be fine to mark it only when the brain causes you to attempt to measure it and see how that works for you. Does it reduce the number of times the brain attempts to measure it? Well, that would tell you if that is a good approach, I figure. You might just record, say, every 15 minutes if you really never not hear your tinnitus. See what that does, I would say. Hope this hits the spot for you.I'm going to give this a shot.
I am concerned on how often I should mark it. I have generally loud tinnitus, and without masking it is ever-present. Do I only mark it when I hear it, or when I attempt to measure it? Because I hear it constantly over virtually everything.
Sorry to read of your troubles. I trust you have seen an ENT or Neurologist maybe for this level of troubles. I don't think the Back to Silence method would impact what you are experiencing.How does this work when your tinnitus is no longer just a sound but has turned into pain? Continuously burning ears, tingling all over skull and face, headaches...
Hi @Furetto, I hope you're doing well!So I have two questions for now:
- Has anyone else applied this method successfully?
- The website backtosilence.com does not exist, it brings back to this page.
I haven't tried this technique because I haven't seen any positive feedback from people who have successfully applied it, apart from the person who sponsored it. As a result, I'm skeptical.Hi @Furetto, I hope you're doing well!
I've been trying this technique, and in the beginning, it felt like I was repeating the phrase to myself every 10 seconds. I kept doing that for about 3–4 days, even writing it down in my phone's notes app. After that, I started forgetting to do it, but the tinnitus remained.
I've been trying again, and every time I consciously "hear" the tinnitus, I say to myself: "I hear it, I hate it!" or sometimes, "I hear it, it's annoying!" But I haven't noticed any significant improvements yet.
I do think I'm getting a little better—at least I'm functional now, two months after my acoustic trauma—but I still feel like a shell of my former self. I'm not as exciting or personable as I used to be. I'm also unsure if what I'm saying to myself is helping or if it's even the right approach. I'm trying not to measure or describe it too much in my head, though.
What phrase do you use?
Hi Terry,Hi everyone,
I hope you're hanging in there and finding relief somewhere somehow.
Terry
Spot on. You allow it to be there; the goal is to create a way not to respond emotionally to it.It's like if you try not to think of pink elephants, all you think about are pink elephants.
Yes, that makes sense to me—allow it to be there, but without any emotional response.Spot on. You allow it to be there; the goal is to create a way not to respond emotionally to it.
For me, it was, and can still be, "I hear my tinnitus, but I'm doing [insert what you want to do]." I acknowledge it and move on without judgment, and over time, the periods of doing this grow longer.
This is Terry's method, which in my experience and years of posting on this thread, works for many to facilitate habituation:Yes, that makes sense to me—allow it to be there, but without any emotional response.
I actually had complete resolution of tinnitus many years ago using this method (thank you so much, Terry ). I experienced silence for years, to the point where I had totally forgotten about it. Recently, I went to a loud concert, experienced ringing in my ears afterward, and freaked out. That's when I got caught back in the struggle. I now believe it was the freakout, not the noise exposure, that recreated the struggle. In my view, tinnitus is maintained by our fear and attention to it. Clearly, I still had some lingering fear toward tinnitus.
For anyone who might benefit from this, I am a psychologist, and my understanding of this method is that it's essentially simple exposure and response prevention (the same technique we use to treat many fears and phobias).
You expose yourself to the feared stimulus (in this case, the sound), and over time, your response changes until you become completely unbothered by it. Eventually, you won't even bother to check whether it's there, and if it is, you won't care. When I reached the point of being "totally and utterly unbothered," I stopped hearing it entirely—yes, I mean absolute silence, pretty much all the time. I'm not talking about habituation here; I mean no noise at all. I started off with very loud and distressing tinnitus—the usual story, unable to function, etc.—and then experienced silence for years.
Essentially, if the brain perceives the sound as irrelevant, it switches it off. The brain won't sound an alarm if it sees no reason to be alarmed.
I rarely check this forum because searching for answers about tinnitus gives it a sense of importance (i.e., it implies that I'm still bothered by it). So, if anyone replies to this post, I most likely won't see it. I've also shared my success in forums before, and people have gotten angry or argued with me, so I'm a bit nervous even writing this.
But for anyone doubting Terry's method, I can say that it absolutely works (over time). Once the brain is convinced that you're completely unbothered by tinnitus, it will switch it off. I'm currently using Terry's method again and am already seeing progress.
Thank you for this post. The only thing I'd add is that Terry's method didn't just help me reach habituation—it brought me to complete silence 99.9% of the time for many years. I went from 10/10 noise levels to hearing nothing at all. Even when I sat in a quiet room, straining to hear something, I only heard silence.This is Terry's method, which in my experience and years of posting on this thread, works for many to facilitate habituation:
The "Back to Silence" method involves not measuring the sound(s), not monitoring the tinnitus sound(s) or focusing on it, and not describing or comparing the sound(s).
Another way to frame it is by following the four "don'ts" of the Back to Silence method:
Here's what to do:
- Don't measure it.
- Don't monitor it.
- Don't describe it.
- Don't compare it.
Once you get to fewer than 5 to 10 incidences per day, you can stop writing them down and just do it mentally, since speaking aloud is not necessary to achieve results.
- Stop talking about tinnitus, measuring it, comparing it, describing it, or thinking about it.
- When you hear the sound(s), say to yourself: "I hear it, and I feel [insert your true emotion]."
- Make a note of each occurrence (for example, by adding a hash mark) and tally them up daily—the total will decrease over time. It's best to write down your emotional responses in a word or two and review them weekly to see the changes.
If you prefer not to write it down, try doing it verbally. If you don't notice a decrease in incidences over time, start writing them down to keep a count, even if it's just a hash mark.
The method you're describing is similar to one advocated in the tinnitus world by Glenn Schweitzer in his book, Rewiring Tinnitus: How I Finally Found Relief from the Ringing in My Ears.
Schweitzer's approach is based on the idea that until you are no longer afraid of the sound(s) of tinnitus, you won't be free of it. Fear will remain, lurking in the background, ready to resurface. This is closely related to the Systematic Desensitization approach developed by psychiatrist Joseph Wolpe, MD, in the 1950s, and also to the Mindfulness Meditation approach of Jon Kabat-Zinn.
When combined with the work of Bruce Hubbard, PhD, a psychologist specializing in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), this forms a powerful approach that has helped many people, if not most, to reduce their suffering or even fully habituate to tinnitus.
Yup. That's how it's done.This is Terry's method, which in my experience and years of posting on this thread, works for many to facilitate habituation:
The "Back to Silence" method involves not measuring the sound(s), not monitoring the tinnitus sound(s) or focusing on it, and not describing or comparing the sound(s).
Another way to frame it is by following the four "don'ts" of the Back to Silence method:
Here's what to do:
- Don't measure it.
- Don't monitor it.
- Don't describe it.
- Don't compare it.
Once you get to fewer than 5 to 10 incidences per day, you can stop writing them down and just do it mentally, since speaking aloud is not necessary to achieve results.
- Stop talking about tinnitus, measuring it, comparing it, describing it, or thinking about it.
- When you hear the sound(s), say to yourself: "I hear it, and I feel [insert your true emotion]."
- Make a note of each occurrence (for example, by adding a hash mark) and tally them up daily—the total will decrease over time. It's best to write down your emotional responses in a word or two and review them weekly to see the changes.
If you prefer not to write it down, try doing it verbally. If you don't notice a decrease in incidences over time, start writing them down to keep a count, even if it's just a hash mark.
The method you're describing is similar to one advocated in the tinnitus world by Glenn Schweitzer in his book, Rewiring Tinnitus: How I Finally Found Relief from the Ringing in My Ears.
Schweitzer's approach is based on the idea that until you are no longer afraid of the sound(s) of tinnitus, you won't be free of it. Fear will remain, lurking in the background, ready to resurface. This is closely related to the Systematic Desensitization approach developed by psychiatrist Joseph Wolpe, MD, in the 1950s, and also to the Mindfulness Meditation approach of Jon Kabat-Zinn.
When combined with the work of Bruce Hubbard, PhD, a psychologist specializing in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), this forms a powerful approach that has helped many people, if not most, to reduce their suffering or even fully habituate to tinnitus.
Are you still having success with this method, Terry? I've had success with it in the past, but I recently experienced a spike and am struggling with step one again. Do you have any tips on how to stop monitoring tinnitus? Thank you!Yup. That's how it's done.
I've had tinnitus for 13 years. I first developed it after a loud sound exposure, which I would now classify as mild tinnitus. It took me about a year to habituate, and like most people, I was really anxious at the beginning.Are you still having success with this method, Terry? I've had success with it in the past, but I recently experienced a spike and am struggling with step one again. Do you have any tips on how to stop monitoring tinnitus? Thank you!
Here is my thinking.I have a similar question as @Francesco. My tinnitus is constant, and the only thing that masks it is the sound of the shower. So, I'm pretty much always hearing it. My attention shifts from what I'm doing (watching TV, talking to someone, typing this response) back to my tinnitus about every 10 seconds or so. Occasionally, if something is especially engaging, I might be distracted from it for a minute or two. For instance, a semi-truck nearly ran me off the road the other day, and yet I found myself hearing my tinnitus again a minute or two afterward.
That said, I don't react every time I hear it. Sometimes, it's just a neutral acknowledgment: "Yep, I have tinnitus." Maybe once or twice an hour, I'll have a strong negative emotional reaction, thinking things like, "I'll never get used to this," or "I regret going to that concert," etc.
Should I be making a note every time I hear it, even if I feel neutral? Or should I only note it when I hear it and experience a distinct emotional reaction?
If it's the former, I'm concerned I'll end up just sitting there, putting check marks on paper every waking moment. The latter makes more sense to me, but it doesn't seem to align with what others here are suggesting.
Any advice is appreciated. I believe deeply in the power of mindfulness to make a difference for us. Meditation has changed my life, but I also know that technique is crucial.