Well, I am quoting from studies, it's not my personal opinion and I would be happy to be proven wrong in order to update my own views. I just try to make sense of the phenomenon "tinnitus" in general and it may well be that I have got it wrong, at least in parts.
I believe as well that tinnitus is a big problem for a huge share of the population across all countries. The reason I recite this widely accepted assessment is that I think that it is well established in research and that this should help us to take the tinnitus out of a realm of problems that we have no understanding at all and to thereby make it accessible. Every bit of knowledge is helpful for us and if one of those bits states that the loudness of the tinnitus should not be related to the ability to adapt to it in principle and this is true, then it helps us to understand that the problems that constrain a subgroup of patients to adapt to the tinnitus may be rather psychological. I partially would include myself in this group and I think there is nothing wrong about it per se as long as we are talking about facts. Nothing in what I stated should indicate that its the persons own fault. But given that I recite accurate research at least for most tinnitus cases, this could indeed imply that it is in the hand of patients to take their destiny in their own hand by starting to accept the tinnitus in order to be able to deal with it instead of repulsing it. That's all it could imply. I think that there are many psychological conditions unrelated to tinnitus that show that some people have the tendency to push problems ahead and to seek for any possible alternative instead of simply accepting that a certain life style or a certain self-image is wrong and cannot be sustained further.
I think there is more to the fact that tinnitus is almost always related to stress. Stress is not something that overcomes us from always from outside without own undoing. Not only are stress levels determined by our own attitude towards the outside world but stress can be even caused by ourselves. I would hypothesize that a huge variety of diseases, physical and mental ones, are caused by the patients having a distorted view of themselves and their own responsiblity. By this I don't want to say that they don't need the help and that people are always responsible for everything - of course not. But we need to recognize that some of those cases exist. Think about seemingly trivial things of organizing activity throughout the day. Some people organize everything so that it fits their rhythm. Other people stuff their day full of activities without being able to follow them. Some people are not bothered that they cannot follow them at all, but others are stressed because they can't - but the cause if stress is their own time management. I mean those kind of things.
Let me translate something from a website:
"There is no personality that is particularly "susceptible" to tinnitus. In this respect it is also wrong to speak of a "tinnitus personality". However, for some diseases it has been found that people with certain personality traits are affected somewhat more frequently. This also includes tinnitus. For example, during an examination with tinnitus patients, the following frequent personality traits were noticed:
- Relatively high need for control
- Alignment to the intellect ("head-relatedness")
- Difficulties in the emotional processing of offenses
- perfectionism
- hypochondria
- high accountability
- basic tenor of endurance
- Life in restlessness, hectic and time pressure
Furthermore, the characteristics of the individual personality influence how an individual patient experiences his or her tinnitus. In order to investigate this in more detail, a study was conducted to look at the relationship between the tinnitus impairment experienced and the personality. It turned out that some personality traits have rather negative effects on the tinnitus experience, namely:
- high excitability
- aggressiveness
- high strain
- physical discomforts
- health worries
- pronounced emotionality
Dealing with one's own personality with tinnitus
Every human being has a certain personality, and some personality traits are associated with the development of tinnitus (see above). But on the one hand the appearance of a tinnitus is not inevitably and fatefully connected with these characteristics, and on the other hand every person can influence his personality to a limited extent. If there are personality traits in a tinnitus patient which have an unfavourable effect on the tinnitus life, the person concerned can change his basic attitudes and values positively, thus reducing his self-generated inner stress and thus also reducing the tinnitus burden. For this work on one's own personality, it is usually helpful to seek psychotherapeutic help. The aim is to find more serenity - towards the different areas of life and also towards tinnitus."
https://www.thieme.de/de/gesundheit/persoenlichkeitsmerkmale-tinnitusbetroffene-45193.htm (you can translate it with
www.deepl.com, which is a very good translator)
I would never say that a tinnitus sufferer is responsible for his own suffering or something like this. But I think that it is important to emphasize that they psyche plays a huge role that should never be underestimated when seeking a therapy for the individual patient. I hope I could make clear what I mean.
Best regards
Member
