Hi, I’m a New Member — Does Anyone Else "Pattern" Their Tinnitus?

[Wayne Thompson]

Hi, I just joined recently, my name is Wayne, I'm 64.

I was wondering if anyone has had any experience similar to mine. I find myself "patterning" my tinnitus. What I mean by that is I take the tinnitus sound, which is high pitched, and create a pattern from it, like a song.

I have found it very hard to stop doing this. It results in being hard to find the actual tinnitus sound, and can be more distressing than the actual tinnitus sound. I also feel this may be holding up my habituation.

If a person can't listen to their tinnitus, it would seem difficult to desensitize to it. Does any else experience this? If so, what do you do about it?

Any comments or suggestions are welcome! Thanks!

 

[billie48]

Welcome to the forum. Sorry I don't fully understand how you pattern your tinnitus. Do you mean you actually duplicate the ringing vocally? If not is it just a mental thing? Can you mask your high pitched tinnitus so you can't pattern it?

 

[Wayne Thompson]

Hi Billie, it's good to talk to you. Yes, it's a mental thing. I have a low pitched and a high pitched tinnitus sound(for the most part) and I have created a sort of echo for each of these, it's like a song and it's often worse than the tinnitus. I think this happened when I was really scared, a few months ago (I'm still scared, but not quite as much). Even when it's really loud I still put a pattern into it, although it's harder to do than when the tinnitus has less volume.
I can't mask my tinnitus, since white noise or other sounds from a sound machine just makes it seem louder. I think these echos are my brain's way of redirecting my attention back to the sounds.
If I could just find a way to convince my amygdala that the sounds are harmless! The patterning makes even the low pitched tinnitus distressing.
Thanks so much for responding , that means a lot to me!
Any thoughts or suggestions you have for me about getting rid of the patterning (or other aspects of tinnitus) are greatly appreciated!
Thanks again!

 

[Sarahjane]

Hello everyone,

My name is Sarah Jane, I have suffered with Tinnitus since 2014 although i am new to the site.
My life has changed a lot in the last 4 years and it has had it's up's and downs. Ive never tried a support forum before but though I would give it a try.

Say Hello

 

[Wayne Thompson]

Hi Sarah Jane, welcome to tinnitustalk! What kind of tinnitus do you have?

 

[billie48]

Hi Billie, it's good to talk to you. Yes, it's a mental thing. I have a low pitched and a high pitched tinnitus sound(for the most part) and I have created a sort of echo for each of these, it's like a song and it's often worse than the tinnitus. I think this happened when I was really scared, a few months ago (I'm still scared, but not quite as much). Even when it's really loud I still put a pattern into it, although it's harder to do than when the tinnitus has less volume.
I can't mask my tinnitus, since white noise or other sounds from a sound machine just makes it seem louder. I think these echos are my brain's way of redirecting my attention back to the sounds.
If I could just find a way to convince my amygdala that the sounds are harmless! The patterning makes even the low pitched tinnitus distressing.
Thanks so much for responding , that means a lot to me!
Any thoughts or suggestions you have for me about getting rid of the patterning (or other aspects of tinnitus) are greatly appreciated!
Thanks again!

It generally takes time for the limbic nerves to fade as we get more used to the sounds of tinnitus. Getting busy and living life normally will help the process. When the normal parasympathetic nervous system returns, the pre-frontal cortex will take over the amygdala and you will not be as fearful or bothered by the ringing as before. This will begin the recovery process where you will begin to have longer lapses of not hearing your T while you get busy. Then perhaps your brain patterning your T will stop. It is quite common to have 2 tone T. The famous comedian David Letterman has that and he talked about the condition with fellow celebrity William Shatner in a show. You can search this video out in you tube. Good luck. God bless.