CBT for Hearing Distortion

[Aldo]

Dear Dr Hubbard

Thank you for sharing your own frank and inspiring story. It has taken me a lot of courage to post this as I find my own situation so distressing but your words have helped enormously.

A month ago I was using a hammer to break up some old (hard plastic) computer discs - just a few blows but stupidly it didn't occur to me to protect my ears.

I now have one ear with some tinnitus, some HF frequency loss and sound distortion (at loudish volumes) particularly if I'm in a hard, acoustically reflective environment.

My question is whether CBT can help me habituate to the distortion - which worries me far more than the tinnitus.

Thank you for your time.
Aldo

 

[Dr. Hubbard]

Yes Aldo, the same strategies used to help accept and habituate to tinnitus apply to sound distortion. The distortions were the scariest part for me as well. I occasionally notice them but without the fear and despair.
Dr Hubbard