Habituation: No Action Required?

[Dr. Nagler]

As Dr Nagler said "their inflexibility pollutes this site".

I was not referring to folks like you who are trying to find their way, @Telis. I've been exactly where you are and most definitely feel your frustration, fear, and pain.

Dr. Stephen Nagler

 

[ampumpkin]

Anyway dear, be strong... you have it in you.

HUGS

 

[ampumpkin]

Also, I do not know the reality of your T...but in my case, I don't have H, only reactive T (unmaskable). What helped me at the beginning is doing the things I like... being active, staying busy, indulging myself. I ate things I wanted, smoked more cigs than usual, had a few drinks, went out, had fun (well, tried to)...

My T is between 50 and 60 db. I can mask the T in my right ear with music, for example. My left ear has reactive T (unmaskable) that reacts to traffic, driving my car, ventilation systems (at work for example), certain appliances, turning on the water faucet... annoying and at the beginning I was like: OMG, I will never be able to deal with it.

And now I can. T is loud? Screw T. T is annoying? Screw T. T is reactive +++ tonight? Screw T. No matter what I do and the level that my T is at (it varies a lot), I tell myself Screw T.

Trust me, it helps. But then again, I do not know what your reality is.

 

[Telis]

Ok I'm off this thread...for some reason it is just confusing and slightly upsetting me.

Although I may have different and sometimes difficult questions/opinions, I value everyone's input/answers here.

Thanks all.

 

[ampumpkin]

sorry if I offended you. I'm really just trying to help.

Have a good evening y'all...

 

[yonkapin]

Huh!!!??? What are you going on about!!?? I'm not comparing the two, you are. Please read posts before you respond.

If you think wanting to give up is "saying silly shit" don't come on this board, there are lots of us that have thought about ending it all, some have even done it. If you get "irritated"by that, and you think it is "silly", I'm sorry to hear that, but like I said you don't have to be here.

This is a place for support, not to judge other peoples suffering and become irritated.

Suicide and tinnitus is real for a lot of us, it's not "silly shit".

First of all I want to apologize if I upset you, that was not my intention at all. I think you may have misunderstood my initial reply to your comments, but I also think I could've done a better job at how I worded my response. I wasn't in the best mood when writing the reply and I definitely could've gone about it better.

However, in no way was I trying to undermine the suffering you are currently going through, neither did I mean to infer that in any way suicide or wanting to give up was "silly shit" or that I'm irritated by it. I'm also not judging anyone.

To clarify though, when I read this post:

Most of the time I wish my tinnitus would just kill me eventually like cancer can. Then there would at least be an end of suffering in sight. If I did get cancer, not sure it would be a scare, at this point I don't even think I would care.

I understood it as comparing tinnitus to cancer, or that you would want your tinnitus to kill you like cancer does which is a horrible, grueling way to go that can go on for years before ending. Not just for the sufferer, but their loved ones also.

I've seen similar posts by other members who suggest that they'd rather suffer and die with cancer than have to deal with tinnitus for the rest of their lives.

I think it's silly because in reality, most people do adjust to their tinnitus, and get over their hyperacusis, whether they make the effort to or not.

Cancer, on the other hand, is a whole 'nother beast to deal with, your body turns against you and the only way to treat it is to further damage your body through chemotherapy or radiation therapy, which can lead to a whole other set of acute and chronic conditions that the sufferer needs to deal with, this includes tinnitus, hyperacusis and other ear disorders caused by ototoxic chemotherapy/radiation treatment. So you suffer from the cancer, and suffer more from the treatment with no guarantee that things will get better. I have had to witness this happen to my family multiple times now, and it is traumatic to witness to say the least.

I have moderate to severe tinnitus with multiple tones that change frequently and have had horrible hyperacusis for the past year that is finally getting better - even though I've had to suffer there's no way I'd imagine having the strength to have to go through what I've seen happen to people suffering from cancer.

Anyway, going to stop my rant here but again I apologize for my poorly worded initial reply and apologize again if I misunderstood your post. Didn't mean to upset you or trivialize your situation.

Hope things get better for you mate.

 

[Martin69]

Someone mentionned that it is not possible to love the T. I wanted to come back to that.

I never loved my T. But I have to admit that the sound previous to my increase back in May, well it was alright. It was like a waterfall, shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... In my habituation process, I learned to live with it and in the 7 years prior to the increase, I even found it alright, even soothing at times...

Now, my sound is like a hiss, it's ugly. It's not like the dog whistle @Martin69 is hearing...so I guess I should be glad for THAT... Because my sound is not that agressive in pitch, it's just MEH, useless and ugly.

Hi Anne-Marie.

I think that most here have severe, intrusive T. Like Telis, Dan, Billie48, Dr. Nagler, myself, some others and Oz, Stoyan, Moz and some others on the Yuku board. And I know for sure there are huge differences in having T and having T.

On Saturday evening I had a terrible headache and loud T. Could have taken a gun. Slept 11 hours and my T was much lower on Sunday, in fact it was bearable. I didn't have to do any masking. I also only visited TT for only 5 minutes. It was a great day with my friends and family.

In the meantime I think I have two tones in my head. One is around 10 kHz and the other one much higher. On a good day (which are seldom), the higher one is quiet or very low.
On a day like today (Monday morning), both tones are there and very loud. It is like something is cutting through my head, like a loud TV signal from an old CRT. It brings directly anxiety and depression back.

Give me the T from yesterday forever, which is still unmaskable, I would gladly take it. But the very high-pitched tone (maybe 14, maybe 16 kHz) which is blasting today is a complete other story.
And yes, you can live with it. And yes, my headache on Saturday was much worse than having T.
And yes, cancer is much worse (one of my friends will day within the next weeks; he would gladly swap with me).

I work (only from home because of anxiety and depression), I live, I do my stuff, I care for my family.

I don't know if I am still suicidal. I think not. I also don't know what my habituation barrier is. Maybe I am habituated since I do would I would do without T. I don't know.
But for me there can be only one goal: Either a complete cure or a T which I do not hear 24/7 or I am unaware of it for longer times.

 

[Martin69]

That said, is one's attitude the key to habituation? One huge challenge has to do with the fact that it is very difficult to willfully change deeply-held opinions. So rather than framing it in terms of "attitude," I would say that since habituation is a passive process, the key to habituation of tinnitus lies in identifying and effectively addressing one's barriers to habituation, whatever those barriers might be.
Dr. Stephen Nagler

Stephen,

I read most of your posts and took (most of) your advises. I think that they helped me a lot during my journey so far.

Your sentence above is difficult for me to narrow down: Barrier to habituation? As you can imagine, during my 12 months living with T, I questioned each and everything in my life. I even don't know in the meantime if my depression is caused by T or if I would have a depression also without T (but never had a clinical depression before). My T is caused by stress/burnout.

I guess I have two tones in my head, one around 10 kHz and the other one much higher.
If the higher one blasts loud (which is 95% of the time), it is like my head is like an electrostatic plant or a loud CRT TV signal. I can even hear it in the shower. If it is low, I can handle it. I don't know where my barrier to habituation is.

I live, I work (from home since I have anxiety and depression), I do my stuff.
I hope one can habituate even to such a T (like you did). I don't know what else I can do besides living and managing it. And the only think I could think of is time. And we are talking about years here. :-(

Thanks for being here with us.
Martin

 

[MattK]

I have moderate to severe tinnitus with multiple tones that change frequently and have had horrible hyperacusis for the past year that is finally getting better -

I'm really sorry you've had it so rough. I'm thankful I dont have H on top of T. H sounds worse. My prayers are with you.

 

[Dr. Nagler]

Your sentence above is difficult for me to narrow down: Barrier to habituation?

Hi @Martin69 -

Regardless of how he or she might define "habituation" every single clinician and researcher I know views habituation as a passive process, which means that it happens on its own ... unless something is preventing it from proceeding or impeding its progress. And that is true regardless of what it is that one wishes to habituate. In other words - when one talks about "trying" to habituate tinnitus, one should actually be talking about removing whatever it is that is standing in the way so that the process can move along on its own. At least that's how I see it.

So with that perspective in mind, please see these links ...

Barriers to Habituation

and

Keys to Habituation

Hope this helps.

Dr. Stephen Nagler

 

[Sound Wave]

Actually, when it's loud now. I get kind of happy whenever I have no negative feelings to it. I have mastered it. Give's me confidence, in a weird way.

Amazing. This inspired me.