How Common Is It for People to Focus on "Negative" Things?

[JasonP]

Before T, I seemed to focus on T and it gave me negative emotions often.

Yesterday and today I had my mind on other things as I got better.

Those things didn't work out the way I wanted and now I am upset about them but the T doesn't bother me now and I am tuning it out.

How normal is it for people to just focus on negative things or is it just due to my depressive issues?

It's like my brain scans thoughts and when it picks up a negative emotion, it tends to focus on it repeatedly. It's a long story, but last year I was able to overcome all negative thoughts and emotions for 1 month in a row. That was the furthest days in a row I have ever been without rumination. Its kind of complex how I did it but maybe I will get there again.

But it got me thinking. How normal is ruminating on negative thoughts?

 

[Dana]

How normal is ruminating on negative thoughts?

For T sufferers I think it's "normal", because T is so scary and makes one think about the worst case scenarios, not necessarily because of pessimism, but because being hit with T, whose evolution in time we cannot predict, transforms a carefree person into a very cautious one. (I think)
Being optimistic is healthy and advisable, but I doubt that T didn't change the disposition of everybody. We must counteract and return to our former selves.

 

[Scarlet]

I had anxiety and depression before T, and I always tended to focus on the negative. I'm actually trying to focus more on the positive and not worry about the future so much. For me, a lot of it has to do with a renewing of my faith. I'm just trying to be thankful for good days; realize bad days will come, but will pass; and that the future is out of my control.

 

[fishbone]

Any difficulty can bring on negative feelings and emotions..so it is completely normal to feel this way. There are people that have multiple issues and no limbs. Tinnitus is what you make of it, yes it is horrible, but not the end of the world.

 

[Amber]

It's too easy to focus on the bad parts. Not see the forest for the trees.

 

[volsung37]

Its normal to focus on negative things because they worry us. We are natural born problem solvers.

 

[Ed209]

Before T, I seemed to focus on T and it gave me negative emotions often.

Yesterday and today I had my mind on other things as I got better.

Those things didn't work out the way I wanted and now I am upset about them but the T doesn't bother me now and I am tuning it out.

How normal is it for people to just focus on negative things or is it just due to my depressive issues?

It's like my brain scans thoughts and when it picks up a negative emotion, it tends to focus on it repeatedly. It's a long story, but last year I was able to overcome all negative thoughts and emotions for 1 month in a row. That was the furthest days in a row I have ever been without rumination. Its kind of complex how I did it but maybe I will get there again.

But it got me thinking. How normal is ruminating on negative thoughts?

I'm quite a private person but you struck a chord with me on this post. The last few weeks have been unbelievably difficult for me for reasons that plagued my younger years. All I will say is that it nearly broke me completely a week ago, and I've been trying to gain my sanity back, but I'm still seriously struggling.

My tinnitus is loud and has been raging, but I have no interest in it whatsoever. I can honestly say for a few months now my obsession with my T has simply faded because I no longer give a shit. It rings, hisses and zaps but has no emotional effect on me anymore. Because of this, tinnitus is no longer a major concern in my life right now.

All I'll say is that I had to have reconstructive surgery on my chest, twice, and the first time nearly killed me. I'm now having issues with it again, and it's funny how the mind drags you back in time to let all those unwanted emotions back. I thought I'd seen the last of this over 10 years ago; they were some of the darkest days of my life.

I kind of get obsessed about things, so now that I'm fixated on this other health issue, my tinnitus is meaningless. As bizarre as it sounds, I lay last night listening to the noises in my head and it was almost like a comforting distraction. In a weird kind of way I wanted to worry about the noise again, to distract my attention away from my other issues.

I'm hoping I'm fixating (almost like OCD, anxiety) and that I'm fine, because I do tend to move from one thing to another. Kind of like what shall I worry about now? Surely I can't just be happy, kind of thing.

 

[fishbone]

I'm quite a private person but you struck a chord with me on this post. The last few weeks have been unbelievably difficult for me for reasons that plagued my younger years. All I will say is that it nearly broke me completely a week ago, and I've been trying to gain my sanity back, but I'm still seriously struggling.

My tinnitus is loud and has been raging, but I have no interest in it whatsoever. I can honestly say for a few months now my obsession with my T has simply faded because I no longer give a shit. It rings, hisses and zaps but has no emotional effect on me anymore. Because of this, tinnitus is no longer a major concern in my life right now.

All I'll say is that I had to have reconstructive surgery on my chest, twice, and the first time nearly killed me. I'm now having issues with it again, and it's funny how the mind drags you back in time to let all those unwanted emotions back. I thought I'd seen the last of this over 10 years ago; they were some of the darkest days of my life.

I kind of get obsessed about things, so now that I'm fixated on this other health issue, my tinnitus is meaningless. As bizarre as it sounds, I lay last night listening to the noises in my head and it was almost like a comforting distraction. In a weird kind of way I wanted to worry about the noise again, to distract my attention away from my other issues.

I'm hoping I'm fixating (almost like OCD, anxiety) and that I'm fine, because I do tend to move from one thing to another. Kind of like what shall I worry about now? Surely I can't just be happy, kind of thing.

If you need support, you can always count on me brother

 

[fishbone]

Tinnitus sucks, yes it does but its not the end of the world. Its all about being positive and looking at the good things in life. Yes, your ears might be messed up like mine...Yes, your tinnitus may be loud (i have many beat here with the loudness, its super loud and it will not go away). Focus on the good aspect of your life, love yourself and live your life.

I come from a very rough and messed up background. I could have been with the lord at least a few times...been in car accidents that wrecked my car on a rainy night. Almost fell of a mountain skiing, been through lots of stuff that would rattle many.

Try to find the courage, to see what is good in your life. Maybe you have a dog that makes you happy, maybe you have a beautiful house. Maybe your family is awesome. Life is beautiful and tinnitus does not take that away.

I am super positive and i want others here to become m0re positive. We can pout and give up, but that's not why god created us.

I bought my self a new super loud dodge challenger and its so so loud. I measure the db on it and its at 90 when idle. DO i care about my raging and crazy tinnitus. NO

I care about the joy of life and how i feel when i accept that joy!

Be positive folks, it helps with how you deal with tinnitus and how you deal with life....

 

[Ed209]

If you need support, you can always count on me brother

Cheers fishbone, it means a lot. I've felt suicidal or rock bottom so many times in my life now that I've developed certain coping mechanisms. I feel like all the emotion has been sucked out of me and I just feel numb. I find it hard to cry because I've gone beyond it. When I'm like this I just feel void.

I've been here before so part of me is trying to stay positive. I'm better than I was last week so I'll take it from there. I don't like putting my problems out there for all to see, but Jason's post compelled me to say something.

 

[JasonP]

I'm quite a private person but you struck a chord with me on this post. The last few weeks have been unbelievably difficult for me for reasons that plagued my younger years. All I will say is that it nearly broke me completely a week ago, and I've been trying to gain my sanity back, but I'm still seriously struggling.

My tinnitus is loud and has been raging, but I have no interest in it whatsoever. I can honestly say for a few months now my obsession with my T has simply faded because I no longer give a shit. It rings, hisses and zaps but has no emotional effect on me anymore. Because of this, tinnitus is no longer a major concern in my life right now.

All I'll say is that I had to have reconstructive surgery on my chest, twice, and the first time nearly killed me. I'm now having issues with it again, and it's funny how the mind drags you back in time to let all those unwanted emotions back. I thought I'd seen the last of this over 10 years ago; they were some of the darkest days of my life.

I kind of get obsessed about things, so now that I'm fixated on this other health issue, my tinnitus is meaningless. As bizarre as it sounds, I lay last night listening to the noises in my head and it was almost like a comforting distraction. In a weird kind of way I wanted to worry about the noise again, to distract my attention away from my other issues.

I'm hoping I'm fixating (almost like OCD, anxiety) and that I'm fine, because I do tend to move from one thing to another. Kind of like what shall I worry about now? Surely I can't just be happy, kind of thing.

I totally get that. When I was a teenager in high school I had some thoughts that really depressed me. When I went to college those thoughts went away and I became depressed about something else. After graduating and getting a job and working second shift, those negative thoughts and emotions went away for the most part for a couple of years. I thought wow, those thoughts don't even phase me anymore but I still had a completely different thought in the back of my mind about something that I thought of everyday but it did not depress me. Shift to a couple years later, I started working on first shift and later on in the winter time I started riving to work in the dark and going to a workplace with no windows in my area. Then leave, get a short amount of light and then darkness would come. Somehow, I was finally able to battle of that thought that I had and not long after that the thoughts in high school started coming back with the emotions one day at work. I almost had a panic attack. I thought they were long gone.

I started taking an anti-depressant and klonopin. Before the anti-depressant kicked in the klonopin did. It was amazing at first. The thoughts would come into my head and cause a brief second of anxiety and then disipate. I have never had that happen before. I was able to free myself of all the focusing on negative thoughts and emotions for the first time since I was a teenager.. Unfortunately, the klonopin my me sleepy at work and later when the anti-depressant kicked in I started having intestinal problems and apathy. Years was spend going upend down that roller coaster because now apathy had become the thing I wanted to get rid of. I messed around trying to get off anti-depressants which is very hard. I was able to get off them for 1 month and felt great. Then I got "trigged" again and started panicing about those high school thoughts again. Unbelievable. It was at the time that I took a lot of supplements and doubled my anti-depressant dosage so it would "kick in faster". That is when I got tinnitus.

I'll skip to right now as that was years ago. What I believe now is that one of the reasons I had emotional problems was due to bad sleep hygine and not enough daylight in the morning and afternoon. I would take afternoon naps. My circadian rhythm was off as my hours in college and first shift became days where I would wake up very early with lower light levels or none and then on the weekends sleep in late. I was warned later not to do that by a doctor. He said it would be very bad for my emotions. I did not want to listen to him as I enjoyed staying up on the weekends and sleeping in. In the past couple of years I have had two "sections" of stability. The first lasted 3 weeks.

My emotions were so stable that I did an experiment. I listened to the same song every day several times a day. Normally, I would tire of the same song after a while. This time I did not. I had the same emotions each time it played. How I did that was taking melatonin and a small amount of klonopin at the same time and sleeping the same times on the weekdays and the weekends. (There were some other things I did to to finally get there though like drinking a lot of water each day and exercising). Then I started taking a supplement that threw me completely off and I couldn't achieve the stability again due to the T bothering me.

Fast forward to the next year. I had great stability again for 1 month. I took melatonin, a small amount of klonopin and magnesium at night and had the same sleep schedule. I also took Lamictal in the morning. It went great for a month and my T was lowered after morning. Again, I did something stupid by stopping the melatonin and magnesium and woke up one day with loud T that wouldn't lower. Since then my emotions and T have been very erratic. Lowering the klonopin that I was on which I really want to stop, but the withdrawal also added some dark depressing thoughts that I never had before. Lately, I have tried to start sleeping at 12 a.m. to 8 p.m. on a regular basis. It felt kind of weird at first but last night I started drinking a lot of water and I guess the peacefulness of the night calmed me and I felt better.

My T hasn't bothered me much the past couple of days because of the sleep stability but also that I have some hope about my T being lowered more consistently. I put together this info after researching and trying to anylzye and make since of a journal I took for a few months last year. Unfortunately, it wasn't as detailed as I needed it to be even though it had a lot of details! I had to piece together what I think may be what's going on with me. You can read it at the following page.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...s-on-sleep-which-could-affect-tinnitus.20082/

It's crazy how we can solve a problem and then later focus on another one. I do think however, it is much easier to get over problems when one is mentally, physically, and spiritually healthy. That is what I am working on now. I hope you feel better asap.

 

[Ed209]

I totally get that. When I was a teenager in high school I had some thoughts that really depressed me. When I went to college those thoughts went away and I became depressed about something else. After graduating and getting a job and working second shift, those negative thoughts and emotions went away for the most part for a couple of years. I thought wow, those thoughts don't even phase me anymore but I still had a completely different thought in the back of my mind about something that I thought of everyday but it did not depress me. Shift to a couple years later, I started working on first shift and later on in the winter time I started riving to work in the dark and going to a workplace with no windows in my area. Then leave, get a short amount of light and then darkness would come. Somehow, I was finally able to battle of that thought that I had and not long after that the thoughts in high school started coming back with the emotions one day at work. I almost had a panic attack. I thought they were long gone.

I started taking an anti-depressant and klonopin. Before the anti-depressant kicked in the klonopin did. It was amazing at first. The thoughts would come into my head and cause a brief second of anxiety and then disipate. I have never had that happen before. I was able to free myself of all the focusing on negative thoughts and emotions for the first time since I was a teenager.. Unfortunately, the klonopin my me sleepy at work and later when the anti-depressant kicked in I started having intestinal problems and apathy. Years was spend going upend down that roller coaster because now apathy had become the thing I wanted to get rid of. I messed around trying to get off anti-depressants which is very hard. I was able to get off them for 1 month and felt great. Then I got "trigged" again and started panicing about those high school thoughts again. Unbelievable. It was at the time that I took a lot of supplements and doubled my anti-depressant dosage so it would "kick in faster". That is when I got tinnitus.

I'll skip to right now as that was years ago. What I believe now is that one of the reasons I had emotional problems was due to bad sleep hygine and not enough daylight in the morning and afternoon. I would take afternoon naps. My circadian rhythm was off as my hours in college and first shift became days where I would wake up very early with lower light levels or none and then on the weekends sleep in late. I was warned later not to do that by a doctor. He said it would be very bad for my emotions. I did not want to listen to him as I enjoyed staying up on the weekends and sleeping in. In the past couple of years I have had two "sections" of stability. The first lasted 3 weeks.

My emotions were so stable that I did an experiment. I listened to the same song every day several times a day. Normally, I would tire of the same song after a while. This time I did not. I had the same emotions each time it played. How I did that was taking melatonin and a small amount of klonopin at the same time and sleeping the same times on the weekdays and the weekends. (There were some other things I did to to finally get there though like drinking a lot of water each day and exercising). Then I started taking a supplement that threw me completely off and I couldn't achieve the stability again due to the T bothering me.

Fast forward to the next year. I had great stability again for 1 month. I took melatonin, a small amount of klonopin and magnesium at night and had the same sleep schedule. I also took Lamictal in the morning. It went great for a month and my T was lowered after morning. Again, I did something stupid by stopping the melatonin and magnesium and woke up one day with loud T that wouldn't lower. Since then my emotions and T have been very erratic. Lowering the klonopin that I was on which I really want to stop, but the withdrawal also added some dark depressing thoughts that I never had before. Lately, I have tried to start sleeping at 12 a.m. to 8 p.m. on a regular basis. It felt kind of weird at first but last night I started drinking a lot of water and I guess the peacefulness of the night calmed me and I felt better.

My T hasn't bothered me much the past couple of days because of the sleep stability but also that I have some hope about my T being lowered more consistently. I put together this info after researching and trying to anylzye and make since of a journal I took for a few months last year. Unfortunately, it wasn't as detailed as I needed it to be even though it had a lot of details! I had to piece together what I think may be what's going on with me. You can read it at the following page.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...s-on-sleep-which-could-affect-tinnitus.20082/

It's crazy how we can solve a problem and then later focus on another one. I do think however, it is much easier to get over problems when one is mentally, physically, and spiritually healthy. That is what I am working on now. I hope you feel better asap.

Thanks for sharing your story Jason. It just shows that most people have issues in their lives. What we often see on the outside doesn't reflect what's going on on the inside. Our own personal battles happen out of sight.