Habituating to Tinnitus that Comes and Goes

[Kerry H]

My T is quiet in the morning, and reappears full force in the evenings. I feel like this makes the habituation process difficult since it is not a steady noise, but something that seems to reappear on a daily basis. Does anyone have any tips on habituating to T that seems to come and go?

 

[Magpie]

IMO it shouldn't matter whether it comes and goes or it's 24/7/365. Those in the latter group would probably say they would love a break from the continuous noise. Habituation occurs naturally over a period of time and in the end it basically revolves around our emotional response to our tinnitus. Getting there is obviously a different experience for everybody and involves a different time period. The way to get there however should be the same for everybody regardless of what type of tinnitus they have. My tip anyway would be to enjoy the quiet times in the mornings and don't stress about the evenings. Use sound as a distraction or try to keep busy on stuff that interests you and hopefully you won't be focusing on your tinnitus. Eventually it just comes naturally.

 

[peter1974]

Mine comes and goes and is driven by tiredness and how much noise exposure I have had. How ever I have a small hole in my eardrum that doctors missed. I am now just doing the waiting game that the eardrum heals and the tinnitus passes.

 

[Smoogle]

I think what worked for me was cultivating an attitude of thankfulness that I got low periods.

You see, when I first started getting lower periods after my first onset, I was like, "Holy crap, I think it's going away!" just to be massively disappointed an hour or two later when it came back in full force. It felt like constantly being teased, cheated. At first these low periods were completely unpredictable and would come at pretty much any time of the day. "Just stay put!" was the only thing I could muster up.

But eventually when my T unkinked itself from being totally random and wonky several weeks/months later, mine adopted a pretty consistent pattern like yours. Super low in the mornings, somewhere more annoying by evening. Slowly my attitude changed and I began to see it as more of a glass half full kind of thing. While having no T at all would certainly be most ideal (for all of us!), the ability to at least get something close to silence on most days was something I came to embrace and treasure. It is a rare and precious thing.

Once it got to that point, I didn't care how bad my T was in the evenings most days, because I almost always had a quiet morning guaranteed ahead of me. I slept like a rock.

My T exploded in intensity a month and a half ago and now these periods are much rarer for me. Maybe once or twice a week. I was very, very upset by it at first, and I'd be lying to say that I'm still not to some degree. But the fact that I still get them at all is still something I'm incredibly thankful for. I hope to never lose it.

 

[Kerry H]

Thanks for the replies! I know it's more of a natural process over time, I just feel like it's difficult to habituate when it comes back daily. Much like you said @Smoogle, it feels like I'm being teased. But I agree @Magpie, I think I need to work on my emotional response to it once it comes back in the evenings. That's probably the only way I'll be able to habituate to it. And sometimes I feel like my T is driven by tiredness too @peter1974. Hopefully yours gets better for you once your eardrum heals!

 

[SunShine2019]

I'm in the process of my ringing coming and going as well. After a vacation or night of good deep sleep, my ringing would disappear. But if I'm stressed (mentally or physically) it would return. Mine is a bit unique since I only hear it in my right ear when I move. If I sit still or sleep without moving it's quiet. However, I recently used the hair dryer one morning and it spiked into a constant ringing. It's a very low tone that I can hear if I'm in a very quiet room. Still annoying. I have to say, the night before I was super tired physically and didn't sleep deep enough. The hair dryer was the trigger I think. I've also noticed in the past, if I had a very stressful event (such as crying while talking to a friend) it will spike. So I do believe the ups and downs is related to emotional/physical wellness.

 

[John Mahan]

To me, and many of us are in this boat...the habituation thing is a little far fetched. I am sure for some it is a reality.
But a lot of us...me for example...have highly variable T. It runs from very loud to almost acceptable. For example today, my T is more reasonable for no good reason. Has nothing to do with any root cause I can assign. Previous few days it was loud and intrusive. When its loud, it is the proverbial elephant in the room. When it is more quiet I am habituated. I think you see what I mean.

My opinion is...the only way tinnitus...those of us that suffer acutely don't go off the deep end which is often written about...cries for help...we all understand and have been there....the only way we survive tinnitus is acceptance. We must accept it when its loud and believe we will have a more quiet day ahead because many of us do...though I can go quite a spell and not have a quiet day. We have to accept the glowering bear...or the unacceptably loud neighbor called tinnitus to not drive us crazy. To me, that is habituation. Not love but acceptance on some level. In fact, I something ponder the idea of not having ringing in my ears. It has been so long. I am older now and have had perfect hearing my whole life...when this changed pretty dramatically a couple of years ago.

Honestly when my tinnitus is loud, for me at least, I have a hard time 'habituating'. I notice it way more when its loud then when it is softer like today. I have had way more...5 to 10:1 more loud days than more quiet days.

What propels me...is hopefulness. Hopefulness that therapies like bi-modal stimulation and other pharma approaches will improve our lives. Solving it maybe longer term but also in my opinion not outside the realm of possibility.

My thoughts and how I cope.

 

[Rb86]

It seems to me from the success stories I've read and people who I've talked to, they had ups and downs as they healed. All said it wasn't linear. But I hope for you guys your bodies are going through a long term healing process... some of the ones I've read were over a year.

 

[Tex]

I still can't say habituate. I've learned to tolerate or almost ignore it. Even after all these years, I still can't pinpoint all the reasons for ups and downs in volume. However, the one thing I've learned is that reducing stress helps more than anything, and distraction type background noise.

I hope this doesn't come off wrong, but I've learned that taking as much of a "don't give a shit" position as I can helps. I'm not really not that type of person because I do "give a shit" about important things. But I just don't stress about things now, where in years past I would. That helps my T a lot.

Dwelling on T really makes it worse. If your T is all you can think about then it will be loud. It upsets others on here for some of us to say that we could have something worse. But those are the people that dwell too much on this condition. When I see a seriously disabled person it points out to me just how lucky I am.

I just remembered something else. First off, yes I do have loud and sometimes debilitating T. However in the last few weeks I learned of someone I know that has almost died more than once from cancer. This person was in complete remission and had a good prognosis. Now the cancer is back. When I heard that I thought to myself this T shit isn't the "end of the world/life."

 

[John Mahan]

I would say for the most part I agree Tex. Probably most of us are the give a sh!t type and why tinnitus may even bother us more as you say. It has been often reported that there is likely a kind of type of person more affected by tinnitus than another. Anal, maybe a little or a lot OCD...analytical, perhaps even critical...maybe more self absorbed.

I saw a brain surgeon recently for a consultation. I discussed the pain of my tinnitus. He said people are wired differently. You know who does the best with something as adverse as chronic tinnitus he asked? Ans: The C student who doesn't give a sh!t. Humdee dumb dumb does the best with tinnitus.

Looking inward if things aren't going great can be painful. I will say distraction and getting out with people helps unhinge me from my tinnitus...emersion into a project also. So I can be habituated for a while. But at times my tinnitus bugs me without question and likely why most of us are here. We are the sufferers.

A last note. I always believe its unfair to judge others. I learned this from myself. I am not the same guy when my tinnitus is raging versus when it is relatively calm. Some suffer from super high dB tinnitus. They aren't the same as others with lower volume tinnitus. Some of them even do a good job of habituating with loud T.

I can have a pretty good T day, go to bed and wake up to raging T. Am I habituated? Hard to be with a siren going off in your head as you wake up and start the day. After a while, I am generally ok. When I wake up to much softer crickets I am so thankful. A better start to the day.