In Reality, How Far Can Anxiety/Stress Set Tinnitus Back?

[Pu0106]

Hey guys, hope you're all doing as well as can be.

I'm a 32-year-old guy who has had tinnitus for about 2-3 years. It has only bothered me on occasion because it's not what I'd call tinnitus in the 'traditional' sense. I don't have a ringing, beeping or pulsing. It's more a hiss. I can get on my with days with no issues and function normally.

However, I am naturally a very anxious person and a 100% hypochondriac. This has been as issue since childhood. Without boring you all too much, about three weeks ago I had a health scare that really knocked me for six emotionally. I'm ok in terms of my health but I haven't been the same since and have been very stressed. Just when I thought I was turning a corner, my brain latched on to my tinnitus about five days ago. It was a case of "woah, is that louder than usual? Isn't that bothersome?" and because of my obsessiveness over health and the recent stress, I now can't seem to shake it off

Usually when I noticed it in the past (when I was in a good place) I could fob it off and not worry. But now, I always seem to be looking for it. Does anyone have advice to get me through this rough patch? It seems like I am constantly 'looking' for something to be wrong and it's really wearing me down. I am a dad to a beautiful baby boy and have a very supportive partner, so I am def counting my blessings. I need to be in a good frame of mind for them.

I have been in therapy in the past for my anxiety, and it helped, so I am thinking of doing it again. I figure if I can get the anxiety under control I will be ok. For example, a few days back I met some friends for a beer or two and I had a great time. I didn't think about tinnitus once, came home rather tipsy and wasn't bothered by it. This shows me it must be anxiety related. Any thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Meagan G.]

Hey guys, hope you're all doing as well as can be.

I'm a 32-year-old guy who has had tinnitus for about 2-3 years. It has only bothered me on occasion because it's not what I'd call tinnitus in the 'traditional' sense. I don't have a ringing, beeping or pulsing. It's more a hiss. I can get on my with days with no issues and function normally.

However, I am naturally a very anxious person and a 100% hypochondriac. This has been as issue since childhood. Without boring you all too much, about three weeks ago I had a health scare that really knocked me for six emotionally. I'm ok in terms of my health but I haven't been the same since and have been very stressed. Just when I thought I was turning a corner, my brain latched on to my tinnitus about five days ago. It was a case of "woah, is that louder than usual? Isn't that bothersome?" and because of my obsessiveness over health and the recent stress, I now can't seem to shake it off

Usually when I noticed it in the past (when I was in a good place) I could fob it off and not worry. But now, I always seem to be looking for it. Does anyone have advice to get me through this rough patch? It seems like I am constantly 'looking' for something to be wrong and it's really wearing me down. I am a dad to a beautiful baby boy and have a very supportive partner, so I am def counting my blessings. I need to be in a good frame of mind for them.

I have been in therapy in the past for my anxiety, and it helped, so I am thinking of doing it again. I figure if I can get the anxiety under control I will be ok. For example, a few days back I met some friends for a beer or two and I had a great time. I didn't think about tinnitus once, came home rather tipsy and wasn't bothered by it. This shows me it must be anxiety related. Any thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi, your story sounds so much like mine. I developed mild tinnitus during an intense anxiety (both health anxiety and generalized anxiety) in my mid-30s (I am now 51). I developed a few issues that I believe were a direct result of my stress levels constantly being on the ceiling; tinnitus was one of them. At first I freaked out about the tinnitus and after doing tons of research I realized my case was actually quite mild. About 6 months in I went on a 2-week cruise with my family and realized the sound hadn't bothered me at all (the drone of the ship's engine was a perfect masker). After that I made peace with it and only noticed it in very quiet settings. I am currently in a new place tinnitus-wise where I would describe my level as moderate but perhaps on the mild end of moderate. Like you, I wonder if this new level was exacerbated by ceiling-level anxiety and continues to plague due to over-focusing and tracking the noise all the time.

So, what is an anxiety-prone person to do during an uptick in volume or focusing? We have to let go of the anxious thoughts and feelings attached to the sound. I am seeing a therapist and told her "my goal is not that the sound should go away, but that my response to it should become neutral." Success for me with my new level of tinnitus will look like me not caring one way or the other what my tinnitus is doing. I find that when I don't feel scared by or resentful of it I am much more likely to ignore it and focus on whatever the task at hand is. Like you, a fun or engaging time with others always translates to me forgetting about it altogether.

Strategies include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (which you probably practiced when learning to deal with anxiety), taking time each day to do a pleasant activity (helps your brain to understand that life goes on and life is still good even with tinnitus), spending time connecting with nature, meditation such as guided relaxation, exercise, gratitude journaling, and sound therapy (where you have a background sound such as waves or crickets at a volume just below your tinnitus so your brain learns to see the tinnitus as innocent as a no threatening background sound; helps with habituation).

Know that you are an intelligent and caring person who will rise to the challenge of taking tinnitus in stride. I read on here once, "tinnitus be damned, I am living my life." I like that attitude.