How Long Before I Don't Associate the Ringing with Fear?
- Thread starter Marie79
- Start date
Up to 12 - 24 months. Try cognitive behavioral therapy, it helps you adjust sooner and get rid of the fight or flight response.
Owen
Member
- Dec 11, 2015
- 244
- Tinnitus Since
- 05/2014
- Cause of Tinnitus
- Unclear. Inflammatory allergic reaction/AIED
I'm not sure if others have experienced this, but for me, the first sign that I was coping better was a reduced frequency of panic attacks. Initially, it would be almost a constant sensation of stress and elevated awareness - I could feel the constant flow of adrenaline in my system (which for someone with hypothyroidism, is a really bad thing).
However, over time, it became less frequent, but some days, I still feel like I just want to be alone and away from everyone and everything. It has been nearly 2 years since initial onset and about 13 months since it became loud. What has delayed my progress in coping is the huge variability from day-to-day, even hour-to-hour, something that has only in the last couple of months started to settle down a bit. Every time I felt like I was starting to cope, a new sound would appear.
I think if it is a single, constant tone, it will be quicker for you to adapt to it and learn to ignore it. I wish you all the very best, it really is a horrible affliction and something that seems so trivial to those that it does not affect.
MemberAlso consider mindfulness as a way to relieve fear for the T sound. The brain for a new T sufferer may be subjected to the limbic nervous system which induces the fight or flight reaction. In such a mode we tend to amplify the T sound as a threat to survival, especially if it can not be helped by any means. Failing to remove this 'threat', the brain reacts in trauma and the T sound generates all those negative reactions such as fear, anxiety, panic, depression and sleeplessness. Mindfulness & exposure technique help to bring a buffer to the object of fear by willing to meet it head on instead of running away from it. This exposure technique is used by Dr. Hubbard to help himself and you can read it up here:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/how-cbt-helped-me-live-again-dr-hubbards-story.4608/
Whatever we do, it is to 'reprogram' the brain to treat the T sound not as a threat to our survival. Irritation, annoyance, yes, but not a threat to our survival. That is why we should stay positive and calm as much as we humanly can, and try to live our life normally again, and don't forget to try new hobbies to add more fun and stimulation to the brain. After doing this for a while, the brain finally gets it - life goes on, some discomfort & annoyance, but it is not life threatening. Positive affirmations repeated daily will help reprogram the brain slowly but surely over time, and time is on our side. After a while, the brain will take T as part of our being, a mundane anguish of life, but not a threat. Habituation will happen slowly for some and fast for others. Each person has a different time frame. Don't rush it and be patient with the body and yourself. It will happen.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/how-cbt-helped-me-live-again-dr-hubbards-story.4608/
Whatever we do, it is to 'reprogram' the brain to treat the T sound not as a threat to our survival. Irritation, annoyance, yes, but not a threat to our survival. That is why we should stay positive and calm as much as we humanly can, and try to live our life normally again, and don't forget to try new hobbies to add more fun and stimulation to the brain. After doing this for a while, the brain finally gets it - life goes on, some discomfort & annoyance, but it is not life threatening. Positive affirmations repeated daily will help reprogram the brain slowly but surely over time, and time is on our side. After a while, the brain will take T as part of our being, a mundane anguish of life, but not a threat. Habituation will happen slowly for some and fast for others. Each person has a different time frame. Don't rush it and be patient with the body and yourself. It will happen.
noisebox
Member
- Jul 4, 2015
- 319
- Tinnitus Since
- 04/2012
- Cause of Tinnitus
- West End show. Came back 2015 vitamin D overdose prescribed
I've been trying the 'back to silence' but boy am I struggling, I have depression and maybe PTSD, plus hormone fluctuations, plus H, no energy and trying to 'live life' is hard. Without the strength to get out and do things and with H, even fun is torture.
I know you have a positive story. Can you help me. What positive affirmations can I say. I talk all day to the T telling it I hear it and 'I'm busy' or 'I hate you' etc. Mine changes and changes and changes like the wind. I've been trying mindfulness everyday since January. I'm at my wits end. ILWM says I should not use tiny sound distractions to watch tv, now I feel so bad, but just eating crunchy food gives me relief. Oh my god I feel so trapped.
The brain automatically interprets permanent noises after some time as fear when it cannot find a source for it. You're telling your brain instinctively that there's no natural/identifiable source for the T sound and therefore your brain declares it as "unusual". This results in an automatic interaction between the auditory cortex and the amygdala (center of anxiety in your brain). That's why you're having these panic attacks and you're wondering why you can't just say stop.
After some time your brain will get more used to the T sound, it will interrupt this interaction and your panic attacks/anxiety will decrease and stop.
At the beginning tranquilizing drugs are the first choice to deal with the condition especially in the evenings where the anxiety is more intense because of the combination of the T sound with darkness.
After some time your brain will get more used to the T sound, it will interrupt this interaction and your panic attacks/anxiety will decrease and stop.
At the beginning tranquilizing drugs are the first choice to deal with the condition especially in the evenings where the anxiety is more intense because of the combination of the T sound with darkness.
I wish the 'man' factor was working for me. Not quite. Haha. I was so fearful and had to depend on meds to survive the first year. Lots of setbacks within 2 years. Wrote my success story on the 3rd year T anniversary. Surely not speedy by any means. LOL. In comparison, I have a family lady friend who to me her T was really loud, such that she couldn't hear what people were saying to her at times. She even joked that once her T was so loud she couldn't hear the siren of the fire truck coming to her apartment block due to a false alarm. Talking about loud T. Yet amazingly, she never displayed the kind of panic and trauma I went through. I asked how she coped with her loud T. She just said her ringing might be due to hearing loss of aging and that she trusts she would just get used to it over time. And that is just that. No suffering. No fear. No sleeplessness. She just flows with life's challenges. She is still active socially and never seems to be hurting in any way. Her example actually helps me realize that our reaction can really determine the degree of intrusiveness of our T. So whenever the T spiked and my nerves acted up, I would use her and some of the guiding lights (many of them ladies, as explained in my success story) to help me moderate my reaction to T. So much for the 'man speedy recovery theory'. At least it doesn't work for me. LOL.
eric peterson
Member
- May 15, 2015
- 141
- 50
- Tinnitus Since
- Onset: 10/2003 Increase: 04/2015
- Cause of Tinnitus
- who knows? who cares?
Full habituation can take 1-2 years. But you'll likely be feeling a lot better in a few months and it'll slowly improve from there. First few months are the worst, but gradually you begin to feel better. By 6 months or so you'll likely feel A LOT better.
Genevieve
Member
Hi Marie, my tinnitus started last december, it was indeed very scary at the beginning, and had a lot of panic attacks, but I begun to have less fear/anxiety early in March, but it comes and goes, it depends if I had a good sleep or not, it depends my state of mind or if my mind is busy to do something interesting ( reanding a magazine, watching a good film, playing with my cat is a good therapy for me!, or typing this text for you right now on my computer!) fortunaly I have a very nice neighbour who has also T, she helped a lot at the beginning and gave me a lot of good tips, she had T since 20 years due to multiple whiplash and you know when I compared my T with hers I feel very lucky. I'm still afraid to drive my car, (our airbag will be removed for good next friday what a relief it will be for me!
) Can I ask you what kind of antibiotics you took for your ear infection? Do you think that it is the medication who gave you your Tinnitus? Your T is very very recent, so don't worry too much about it, he can still go away like he came! Maybe you can take a new appointement with an ENT in order to have a second opinion, It's anyway what I wish for you from the bottom of my heart, genevieve
I've read your post describing your tinnitus, and fully honestly, If I had tinnitus like that the "man" inside me would turn into soft bone in a box. But generally speaking, and statically, women tend to develop more anxiety and other mental problems than men. That's what i meant by my comment. Hope you're doing ok!
I don't know if one strategy works for all people or all cases of T. So it is probably important to keep on trying different approaches which have work for people. My approach of positivity didn't change my T. I have changed myself so my reaction to T whether mentally or physically is minimum. My T has been bombing with the ultra high pitch shrill the whole day but I don't give a dime to it. No me alone, nor my will power, but my brain after all the training with positivity and positive affirmation has learned to let T go and not struggle with it. It didn't work before when my T was new. No amount of will power could persuade my brain to not react to the loud ultra high pitch T and like you I was so run down emotionally that I was bedridden for a while, no energy, no interest in things. But now the brain just accept T high or low as part of my being. I turn the T experience into a personal growth, motivating me to come here to help people whenever I can despite my busy IT consultant work. I am at peace with my T. Each time it spikes to a level that I can hear it during flights or fishing in the rapids, I use some of the mental imagery techniques to help me accept the presence of such a crazy sound resonating in my head, and after that I ignore T and the brain would be able to fade it out when I got busy with things. When I am sitting down here talking about T, ya, it is screaming off the chart pitch. Still there. But I am at peace with it. Perhaps you read up my success story again to review some of the strategies I used instead of repeating them here. Take care & God bless.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/from-darkness-to-light-how-i-recovered-from-tinnitus-hyperacusis.3148/
Finally, perhaps trying too hard to appease T or to quiet it is generating the opposite effect by putting too much pressure or expectation. We really can't will T to go away. Perhaps do your best to get out to live your life again and don't tip-toe around T. If your H persists, perhaps contact @Danny Boy to see if his approach of using meds work for you. But this guy's story and his approach of doing nothing for T is something you can entertain trying:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/doing-nothing-worked-for-me.4778/
