Stop Telling Me to Live with It or Habituate

[TheDanishGirl]

I think a lot of you might be misunderstanding the purpose of/goal of habituation. It's not "giving up" or "throwing in the towel", or even "putting up with it". It is a process of removing the emotional response to the tinnitus and the hyper focus of it so that you think about it less and so that the sound falls to the back of your consciousness eventually, putting it in the background, and not at the front of your mind. Why wouldn't anyone want that until a proper cure comes along?

I understand why some of you are viewing habituation as "giving up" because you are angry and frustrated with the sound, and understandably so, however, and this is kind of counter intuitive, the more you feel like this and the more angry and frustrated you get, the more you fuel the sound and the more it stays present at the front of your mind. I read a quote that makes sense regarding this "whatever you resist, persists".

I do understand that volume makes a difference. It is generally easier to habituate to a quieter sound than a louder one, but there are people on this forum that have habituated to very loud tinnitus and as a result the perception of the sound has lowered, so they have habituated more, further lowering perception and attention of it (a positive feedback loop).

Just my thoughts.

But, how many can say they have absolutely no emotional response to their tinnitus i.e. could give 2 cents about it? Not, that many I think.

I have read several people state that they are habituated, but that they still wish they didn't have T/wish it gone. For me that is a major contradiction! If you wish it gone it means you have negative feelings about T, negative feeling about T = NOT habituated. Wishing your T gone is not habituation in my opinion.

 

[sanj100]

But, how many can say they have absolutely no emotional response to their tinnitus i.e. could give 2 cents about it? Not, that many I think.

I have read several people state that they are habituated, but that they still wish they didn't have T/wish it gone. For me that is a major contradiction! If you wish it gone it means you have negative feelings about T, negative feeling about T = NOT habituated. Wishing your T gone is not habituation in my opinion.

It's not so much as having no emotional response at all, but it's about lowering the emotional response so much that it becomes a non issue at best and a very mild annoyance at worst. It can be achieved when you decouple the tinnitus sound from the emotional limbic part of your brain.

I am not surprised that some that have habituated would still prefer the tinnitus gone completely if there was a way of doing so, but its all in the "extent to which they will want it gone". If a person who has habituated was offered a fool proof pill that will get rid of their tinnitus completely for a year (so it's gone even if they listen out for it intently), then they'd take it, however, if they were offered an invasive surgery to get rid of their tinnitus they would very likely decline as the tinnitus isnt "that big of a deal to them" to warrant such an invasive procedure.

Someone might have a nose or lips they don't like, however they don't think about their nose or lips non stop and get anxious and annoyed about it constantly, however, if someone offered them a fool proof, painless way of having a perfect nose or lips then they would jump at the chance.

 

[sanj100]

Hi @sanj100 - So eloquently phrased and true. I wish ALL members felt the way you do; the road they travel would be a far smoother one.

Thank you There is so much evidence all over the place of people that have successfully habituated to their tinnitus. There are millions of people walking around with tinnitus, the vast majority of them have never even visited a forum like this, let alone become a member and posted. The majority of these people have habituated with little or no effort. I doubt these people see it as "giving up".

Of course there are those with severe tinnitus, and some of them have ended up on this forum, and I feel these people can habituate too, but they need to work harder as their tinnitus louder so already have a very negative reaction/response to it.

 

[Greg Sacramento]

@sanj100

Thank you There is so much evidence all over the place of people that have successfully habituated to their tinnitus. There are millions of people walking around with tinnitus, the vast majority of them have never even visited a forum like this, let alone become a member and posted. The majority of these people have habituated with little or no effort. I doubt these people see it as "giving up".

Of course there are those with severe tinnitus, and some of them have ended up on this forum, and I feel these people can habituate too, but they need to work harder as their tinnitus louder so already have a very negative reaction/response to it.

I had subjective T from noise and it was a 10/10. Finally it lowered to 6/10 after a few years. I did habituate.

Now I have somatic T and it's often a 10/10. I would not be typing this if I wasn't getting a break where it's presently at 8/10. At any time it could be back to 10/10 with no warning.

It's hard to habituate with a loud sharp constant noise that lights up the entire head. Then not being able to move your neck for fear that will increase your T more. Always having to be careful of any movement. Then the TMD caused by neck.

For those who don't have somatic T or very loud T, I not sure how it's possible for them to say - you can habituate. It's called survival and to cope with that is all we can do.

You appear to be a very caring person and I believe that you have wishes for all. It's just that it's one day at a time for those with severe T & H. Finding solutions/therapy to lower the ringing is all on my minds.

 

[Gl0w0ut]

I think a lot of you might be misunderstanding the purpose of/goal of habituation. It's not "giving up" or "throwing in the towel", or even "putting up with it". It is a process of removing the emotional response to the tinnitus and the hyper focus of it so that you think about it less and so that the sound falls to the back of your consciousness eventually, putting it in the background, and not at the front of your mind. Why wouldn't anyone want that until a proper cure comes along?

I understand why some of you are viewing habituation as "giving up" because you are angry and frustrated with the sound, and understandably so, however, and this is kind of counter intuitive, the more you feel like this and the more angry and frustrated you get, the more you fuel the sound and the more it stays present at the front of your mind. I read a quote that makes sense regarding this "whatever you resist, persists".

I do understand that volume makes a difference. It is generally easier to habituate to a quieter sound than a louder one, but there are people on this forum that have habituated to very loud tinnitus and as a result the perception of the sound has lowered, so they have habituated more, further lowering perception and attention of it (a positive feedback loop).

Just my thoughts.

Well your thoughts are not helpful at all. There is no "hold out for a cure" because there will NEVER be a cure. We can't cure cancer because we cannot stop cells from fucking up DNA replication. Tinnitus will never see a cure because no one cares about our suffering and because no one can reverse brain plasticity. Until science treat the brain as an enemy and is will to damage and destroy sensitive neural networks as a means of depriving it of its ability to adapt to change, a cure will not happen. There is no hope.

 

[TheDanishGirl]

It's not so much as having no emotional response at all, but it's about lowering the emotional response so much that it becomes a non issue at best and a very mild annoyance at worst. It can be achieved when you decouple the tinnitus sound from the emotional limbic part of your brain.

I am not surprised that some that have habituated would still prefer the tinnitus gone completely if there was a way of doing so, but its all in the "extent to which they will want it gone". If a person who has habituated was offered a fool proof pill that will get rid of their tinnitus completely for a year (so it's gone even if they listen out for it intently), then they'd take it, however, if they were offered an invasive surgery to get rid of their tinnitus they would very likely decline as the tinnitus isnt "that big of a deal to them" to warrant such an invasive procedure.

Someone might have a nose or lips they don't like, however they don't think about their nose or lips non stop and get anxious and annoyed about it constantly, however, if someone offered them a fool proof, painless way of having a perfect nose or lips then they would jump at the chance.

But I have just read so many times that habituation means having no emotions to T, So I still don't think one is truly fully habituated until they have no emotions towards T, many can be maybe 95-99% habituated.

I do like your comparison to having lips or a nose you don't like though. I have somewhat big feet, it bothers me a bit sometimes, but only very very little, and not to a degree where I would have some sort of, even slightly, risky surgery to correct them (if one could ). If I can get to that point with T, I think I will be content.

 

[Bobbie7]

Habituation is a psychological learning process wherein there is a decrease in response to a stimulus after being repeatedly exposed to it. This concept states that an animal or a human may learn to ignore a stimulus because of repeated exposure to it.

What we can not change at present though associations are presently seeking cures... we have no other choice but to accept. Each person has to choose their own path and decide whether they wish to make life more difficult for herself/himself.

 

[sanj100]

Well your thoughts are not helpful at all. There is no "hold out for a cure" because there will NEVER be a cure. We can't cure cancer because we cannot stop cells from fucking up DNA replication. Tinnitus will never see a cure because no one cares about our suffering and because no one can reverse brain plasticity. Until science treat the brain as an enemy and is will to damage and destroy sensitive neural networks as a means of depriving it of its ability to adapt to change, a cure will not happen. There is no hope.

With all due respect. How do you know there won't be a cure? I can understand that you are annoyed and frustrated with tinnitus but don't let that cloud things.

Things don't improve linearly, they improve exponentially, especially in the realms of technology and healthcare is now overlapping with technology in a bigger way than ever before.

They are now successfully conducting magnetic therapy for things like depression and are seeing an average of 60% of patients achieving great relief and in many cases a complete remission in their symptoms. This did not exist 20 years ago. This is a key example of a condition of the brain being, essentially, cured, due to advances in technology in recent times. People with tremors (caused by the brain) are being cured with deep brain surgery. The list goes on.

What do you mean, no one can restore brain plasticity. That makes no sense. The brain is plastic. It changes constantly to the environment and to thoughts constantly. Meditation, therapy, CBT make real plastic changes to the brain, permanently - this has been proven with brain scans and is well documented.

And it's not true that no one cares about the plight of the tinnitus sufferer. There are advances being made, albiet slowly, as tinnitus is lower on the priority list. But advances are being made and it's only a matter of time before there will be a cure. But I don't think there will be one universal cure as tinnitus has different pathologies/causes ect.

I find it even harder to believe there won't be a cure in the next 10-20 years because there are already things like rTMS today that has shown to reduce tinnitus volume markedly in 50 percent of patients. You really think things aren't going to move in 20 years even with this one technique to a point where they will have managed to reduce the tinnitus volume markedly in 80 percent of people and for longer and longer periods of time?

And this is not even considering the fact that there will likely also be accidental discoveries that lead to tinnitus reduction/remission. With more scientists than ever trying to cure more things than ever there is a bigger chance in the future of one of them accidentally hitting on something that cures tinnitus.

The mistake people make often is that they judge the future based on the progress of the past. Again, things move exponentially, not linearly.

Hope this helps.

 

[Gl0w0ut]

With all due respect. How do you know there won't be a cure? I can understand that you are annoyed and frustrated with tinnitus but don't let that cloud things.

Things don't improve linearly, they improve exponentially, especially in the realms of technology and healthcare is now overlapping with technology in a bigger way than ever before.

They are now successfully conducting magnetic therapy for things like depression and are seeing an average of 60% of patients achieving great relief and in many cases a complete remission in their symptoms. This did not exist 20 years ago. This is a key example of a condition of the brain being, essentially, cured, due to advances in technology in recent times. People with tremors (caused by the brain) are being cured with deep brain surgery. The list goes on.

What do you mean, no one can restore brain plasticity. That makes no sense. The brain is plastic. It changes constantly to the environment and to thoughts constantly. Meditation, therapy, CBT make real plastic changes to the brain, permanently - this has been proven with brain scans and is well documented.

And it's not true that no one cares about the plight of the tinnitus sufferer. There are advances being made, albiet slowly, as tinnitus is lower on the priority list. But advances are being made and it's only a matter of time before there will be a cure. But I don't think there will be one universal cure as tinnitus has different pathologies/causes ect.

I find it even harder to believe there won't be a cure in the next 10-20 years because there are already things like rTMS today that has shown to reduce tinnitus volume markedly in 50 percent of patients. You really think things aren't going to move in 20 years even with this one technique to a point where they will have managed to reduce the tinnitus volume markedly in 80 percent of people and for longer and longer periods of time?

And this is not even considering the fact that there will likely also be accidental discoveries that lead to tinnitus reduction/remission. With more scientists than ever trying to cure more things than ever there is a bigger chance in the future of one of them accidentally hitting on something that cures tinnitus.

The mistake people make often is that they judge the future based on the progress of the past. Again, things move exponentially, not linearly.

Hope this helps.

Show me the scientific papers where plasticity in the case of tinnitus is reversible. I watched a TED talk on tinnitus and fMRI studies have shown the ventralmedial pre frontal cortex shrinks. That part of the brain is responsible for tuning out annoying noises. Not only does your brain create the sound, it prevents you from filtering it out. Those same studies also showed profound hyperactivity in the auditory cortexes. Good luck reversing that.

 

[sanj100]

Show me the scientific papers where plasticity in the case of tinnitus is reversible. I watched a TED talk on tinnitus and fMRI studies have shown the ventralmedial pre frontal cortex shrinks. That part of the brain is responsible for tuning out annoying noises. Not only does your brain create the sound, it prevents you from filtering it out. Those same studies also showed profound hyperactivity in the auditory cortexes. Good luck reversing that.

There are many people who have tinnitus due to middle ear conditions and when these are resolves the tinnitus goes away, there are people who have tinnitus for months and years and it goes away completely. There are people that pop a hearing aid in and their tinnitus goes away and when they take it out the tinnitus comes back. The brain is plastic.

I don't think you realise that your negativity is making your condition worse. It's a self fulfilling prophecy.

How loud is your tinnitus by the way?

The more you fight this, the more you are telling your brain that the tinnitus noise is important and the less you are going to tune it out.

There are many many people with tinnitus out there that tune it out for long periods of the day when they are busy (focusing on other things).

I will say again, that volume does matters. I agree that is much harder to habituate to and tune out loud tinnitus than it is low tinnitus. But it is possible for people with even loud tinnitus to habituate and tune out loud tinnitus.

Also, I really really hope your condition improves. Be kind to yourself, it will help.

 

[threefirefour]

There are many people who have tinnitus due to middle ear conditions and when these are resolves the tinnitus goes away, there are people who have tinnitus for months and years and it goes away completely. There are people that pop a hearing aid in and their tinnitus goes away and when they take it out the tinnitus comes back. The brain is plastic.

I don't think you realise that your negativity is making your condition worse. It's a self fulfilling prophecy.

How loud is your tinnitus by the way?

The more you fight this, the more you are telling your brain that the tinnitus noise is important and the less you are going to tune it out.

There are many many people with tinnitus out there that tune it out for long periods of the day when they are busy (focusing on other things).

I will say again, that volume does matters. I agree that is much harder to habituate to and tune out loud tinnitus than it is low tinnitus. But it is possible for people with even loud tinnitus to habituate and tune out loud tinnitus.

Also, I really really hope your condition improves. Be kind to yourself, it will help.

I have to disagree with you here. Focusing on it will not make it worse, just like pretending you don't notice it won't make it better.

 

[MidnightOilAudio]

Well your thoughts are not helpful at all. There is no "hold out for a cure" because there will NEVER be a cure. We can't cure cancer because we cannot stop cells from fucking up DNA replication. Tinnitus will never see a cure because no one cares about our suffering and because no one can reverse brain plasticity. Until science treat the brain as an enemy and is will to damage and destroy sensitive neural networks as a means of depriving it of its ability to adapt to change, a cure will not happen. There is no hope.

This is only partially true. You say that we can't cure cancer because we can't stop cells from fucking up cell replication. But if we COULD, that wouldn't be a cancer CURE, it would prevent cancer. A cure entails being afflicted the condition, and then being treated for it. So you're right in the sense that we will never be able to monitor every single cell in a human beings body and monitor them for apoptosis-state (Cell death), BUT the reason we don't have a cure for cancer right now (and even speaking of Cancer as "one-thing" is misleading because there are so many different types) is because you cannot differentiate between a cancerous cell and a non-cancerous cell at the level of treatment. That's why we just go "blitzkrieg" on the cancer and nuke the whole area. None of that means that one day we won't be able to differentiate and instantiate a much more targeted approach though.

I also disagree that the answer to T is reducing neural plasticity. You're citing a maladaptive plasticity as the cause of T, and that's true. But not allowing the brain to reorganize itself would lead to potentially far worse conditions, we don't know. So I think what we want here is the ability to guide neural plasticity away from maladaptivity and towards positive adaptivity.

 

[Aaron44126]

Focusing on it will not make it worse, just like pretending you don't notice it won't make it better.

Indeed, focusing on it will not make it worse. Worrying or obsessing about it will make it worse. It might not actually make the sound louder (though it could as stress has been known to exacerbate tinnitus), but it will make it more difficult to ignore or set aside. You can focus on the sound without anxiety.

Habituation doesn't mean that the sound goes away. It just means that the negative reaction goes away (or diminished severely). It's totally possible to achieve. When habituated, you will be able to "effectively" not hear the sound while not focused on it... Like how you may not hear the AC unit running in your home, or planes flying overhead, or the engine of your car running after you've been driving for a while, unless you listen for these sounds, because they are things that you have become so accustomed to that your mind tunes them out.

To achieve habituation, you must break the anxiety cycle. This is why CBT for tinnitus includes reinforcement that the sound is not dangerous. Your brain naturally pays more attention to things that make you anxious because it is naturally disposed to keep on the lookout for danger.

Recently, I've been doing a lot of reading and understanding into OCD and many of the same principles apply there... In fact, they are probably even more well understood in that circle. There are proven techniques for achieving habituation in the context of OCD, and they involve allowing yourself to perceive the negative thought without reacting on it, and purposely exposing yourself to it until your anxiety level drops. Eventually, your brain will stop caring so much. While sometimes it happens to people naturally, for many it takes actual effort and practice. You have to work at it. And your end goal must not be not hearing the sound anymore, it should be not caring about the sound anymore. If you can achieve that, it will be more easy to set aside when you are engaged in doing something.

I made a lot of progress by just trying to isolate my perception of the sound and my reaction to it. This meant sitting around listening to it while trying not to get worked up about it. It also helped me to think about worse conditions that I don't have, or to read stories about people who have been through worse things (all over the news these days), and think to myself: at least I don't have to worry about that, all I have is this stupid sound.

Find a way to make yourself stop caring. I know it's not easy (especially if you have a really loud or bad sound). If you can't do it yourself, see a therapist who specializes in dealing with anxiety (or a hearing therapist that specializes in tinnitus if you can find one). Hopefully, a cure will eventually show up. In the meantime, wouldn't you love to just stop caring?

 

[Greg Sacramento]

@sanj100



https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01480193
This trial is completed

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus_retraining_therapy

To quote the second article:
"Individuals with persistent tinnitus are unable to habituate..."

 

[MBH]

To habituate is the only option of some relief otherwise we are walking zombies. When I mention it to an ENT he look at me with 5 heads I stared back at him with 5 heads. All the docs bascially said goodbye to me. They don't want to hear nothing. The don't even take notes or ask questions I said to one of them were is the literature on tinnitius and should you put it out. He gave me the blank stare. I do think they should do a deep MRI with color to the back of my head I know they will see something and do radiation and surgery. I do believe they will see where it really comes from..until then habituation is the only survival we have.

 

[threefirefour]

Hi @sanj100 - So eloquently phrased and true. I wish ALL members felt the way you do; the road they travel would be a far smoother one.

Thank goodness we don't. Don't worry; you'll most likely agree one day

 

[Jomo]

Unfortunately "resistance is futile" lol

Just have to wait for that magical day when we have the cure...habituation is just another way of saying i get by without letting it bother me so much and that consists of being around constant noise

 

[LadyDi]

FYI: There is no textbook definition for "habituation." When you're there, you'll know.
And there is a lot of practical wisdom on this thread. Try being open to it.
Just saying.

 

[GregCA]

@sanj100



https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01480193
This trial is completed

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus_retraining_therapy

To quote the second article:
"Individuals with persistent tinnitus are unable to habituate..."

I don't see that quote in the wikipedia entry. Where is it?

 

[Gl0w0ut]

There are many people who have tinnitus due to middle ear conditions and when these are resolves the tinnitus goes away, there are people who have tinnitus for months and years and it goes away completely. There are people that pop a hearing aid in and their tinnitus goes away and when they take it out the tinnitus comes back. The brain is plastic.

I don't think you realise that your negativity is making your condition worse. It's a self fulfilling prophecy.

How loud is your tinnitus by the way?

The more you fight this, the more you are telling your brain that the tinnitus noise is important and the less you are going to tune it out.

There are many many people with tinnitus out there that tune it out for long periods of the day when they are busy (focusing on other things).

I will say again, that volume does matters. I agree that is much harder to habituate to and tune out loud tinnitus than it is low tinnitus. But it is possible for people with even loud tinnitus to habituate and tune out loud tinnitus.

Also, I really really hope your condition improves. Be kind to yourself, it will help.

Use of hearing aids is not a cure. People who have temporary and not permanent, chronic, inner ear tinnitus the problem does not go away Having tinnitus because of a cold and then having it go away when the cold does means NOTHING for those with an inner ear problem.

The brain is plastic alright, its why tinnitus even exists. The brain certainly thinks its important, because hearing is crucial to survival, so to avoid what it fears may be death, it creates a noise to prevent a gap from forming. I want to recreate that gap (as in no noise) AND destroy the brain's ability to fill it in. This way its survival instinct is threatened and it cannot correct it. It is forced to live with a gap in crucial function that it cannot fix. When this happens, I will be happy. I want science to take away plasticity and make the brain unable to adjust to such changes. Only then could we achieve this so called "cure" you keep harping about.

 

[Gl0w0ut]

Indeed, focusing on it will not make it worse. Worrying or obsessing about it will make it worse. It might not actually make the sound louder (though it could as stress has been known to exacerbate tinnitus), but it will make it more difficult to ignore or set aside. You can focus on the sound without anxiety.

Habituation doesn't mean that the sound goes away. It just means that the negative reaction goes away (or diminished severely). It's totally possible to achieve. When habituated, you will be able to "effectively" not hear the sound while not focused on it... Like how you may not hear the AC unit running in your home, or planes flying overhead, or the engine of your car running after you've been driving for a while, unless you listen for these sounds, because they are things that you have become so accustomed to that your mind tunes them out.

To achieve habituation, you must break the anxiety cycle. This is why CBT for tinnitus includes reinforcement that the sound is not dangerous. Your brain naturally pays more attention to things that make you anxious because it is naturally disposed to keep on the lookout for danger.

Recently, I've been doing a lot of reading and understanding into OCD and many of the same principles apply there... In fact, they are probably even more well understood in that circle. There are proven techniques for achieving habituation in the context of OCD, and they involve allowing yourself to perceive the negative thought without reacting on it, and purposely exposing yourself to it until your anxiety level drops. Eventually, your brain will stop caring so much. While sometimes it happens to people naturally, for many it takes actual effort and practice. You have to work at it. And your end goal must not be not hearing the sound anymore, it should be not caring about the sound anymore. If you can achieve that, it will be more easy to set aside when you are engaged in doing something.

I made a lot of progress by just trying to isolate my perception of the sound and my reaction to it. This meant sitting around listening to it while trying not to get worked up about it. It also helped me to think about worse conditions that I don't have, or to read stories about people who have been through worse things (all over the news these days), and think to myself: at least I don't have to worry about that, all I have is this stupid sound.

Find a way to make yourself stop caring. I know it's not easy (especially if you have a really loud or bad sound). If you can't do it yourself, see a therapist who specializes in dealing with anxiety (or a hearing therapist that specializes in tinnitus if you can find one). Hopefully, a cure will eventually show up. In the meantime, wouldn't you love to just stop caring?

Perhaps if we spent less time on cognitive therapies and coping mechanisms, and more time on imaging and drug studies, we could have real relief that isn't lying to yourself. I'm sick about hearing about habituation and CBT. I will hang myself before I live life that way. I will settle for nothing short of a cure or great reduction in neural activity, as in literally choking the life out of the auditory cortex so it cannot maintain the noise.

 

[Gl0w0ut]

There's a reason the majority have no issues advocating habituation.

The reason is simple.

Habituation is right now most of the time the only thing that can allow oneself to restore some quality of life.

It is very difficult to think why someone would rather, on purpose and willingly, fight habituation than to allow for it to possibly occur.

I would actually go as far as saying that many who think they want to fight against habituation... will actually end up habituating sooner or later.

It's not an active process you have full control over. It can happen even if you vehemently hate the idea now. Trust me. I've seen it happen to the biggest habituation haters.

Feeling neutral - or positive - toward habituation isn't going to make a negative difference to your needs of a cure being found.

You can still raise awareness of tinnitus and highlight tinnitus where it needs highlighting. You can still want a cure too.

Wouldn't all of that be nicer to do when you aren't driven mad by the noise all the time?

It's not giving up when you habituate. It becomes a sound that no longer triggers your emotional responses.

I'm not habituated. I'm far from it. I'm unsure if I ever will.

Yet I would never discourage anyone from seeking habituation.

Nor am I on purpose fighting against it.

And at the same time we're involved in many tinnitus projects, also collaborating with researchers... and will continue to do so.

I wish you guys would re-focus your habituation hate to actually doing something truly meaningful, like grassroots efforts for helping organizations like British Tinnitus Association, American Tinnitus Association, Tinnitus Research Initiative...

But please, at the very least don't put down the people who try to help you and give you advice even if it is something you don't fancy. People mean well.

Just saying.

Screw the ATA, BTA, and others. What exactly have they done? Nothing. Despite being "dedicated to a cure" they couldn't be any further from it. Contrary to what they claim, "real progress" in research isn't being made. They are no closer to a cure than they were 10 years ago. Hardly anyone in science cares. So no, I will continue to hate habituation without doing what you suggested. If other want to live in denial, fine, but not me.

 

[sanj100]

There are many people who have tinnitus due to middle ear conditions and when these are resolves the tinnitus goes away, there are people who have tinnitus for months and years and it goes away completely. There are people that pop a hearing aid in and their tinnitus goes away and when they take it out the tinnitus comes back. The brain is plastic.

I don't think you realise that your negativity is making your condition worse. It's a self fulfilling prophecy.

How loud is your tinnitus by the way?

The more you fight this, the more you are telling your brain that the tinnitus noise is important and the less you are going to tune it out.

There are many many people with tinnitus out there that tune it out for long periods of the day when they are busy (focusing on other things).

I will say again, that volume does matters. I agree that is much harder to habituate to and tune out loud tinnitus than it is low tinnitus. But it is possible for people with even loud tinnitus to habituate and tune out loud tinnitus.

Use of hearing aids is not a cure. People who have temporary and not permanent, chronic, inner ear tinnitus the problem does not go away Having tinnitus because of a cold and then having it go away when the cold does means NOTHING for those with an inner ear problem.

The brain is plastic alright, its why tinnitus even exists. The brain certainly thinks its important, because hearing is crucial to survival, so to avoid what it fears may be death, it creates a noise to prevent a gap from forming. I want to recreate that gap (as in no noise) AND destroy the brain's ability to fill it in. This way its survival instinct is threatened and it cannot correct it. It is forced to live with a gap in crucial function that it cannot fix. When this happens, I will be happy. I want science to take away plasticity and make the brain unable to adjust to such changes. Only then could we achieve this so called "cure" you keep harping about.

Your theory would hold if tinnitus occurred with everyone with hearing loss. There are many profoundly deaf people with no tinnitus. Conversely there are some people with very slight hearing loss but with a disproportionately loud tinnitus. Thus the situation is a lot more complicated than the above.

Anyway, I don't want to continue get into huge arguments about this. I want you to try and remain positive to give yourself the best chance of getting better. I really, deeply hope your situation improves.

Thanks.

 

[threefirefour]

Your theory would hold if tinnitus occurred with everyone with hearing loss. There are many profoundly deaf people with no tinnitus. Conversely there are some people with very slight hearing loss but with a disproportionately loud tinnitus. Thus the situation is a lot more complicated than the above.

Anyway, I don't want to continue get into huge arguments about this. I want you to try and remain positive to give yourself the best chance of getting better. I really, deeply hope your situation improves.

Thanks.

If you're so well off you don't have to be here you know.

 

[sanj100]

I don't see that quote in the wikipedia entry. Where is it?

It's in the first link he posted.

The study does mention it is referring to those with "severe" tinnitus. One hole in the study is that it was done over a two year period, and I would suspect that those with more severe tinnitus may need longer than that to fully habituate.

I think the original poster of the comment was determined to show some evidence as to why he can't habituate.

I did say clearly above in many of my comments that it would understandably be harder for people with loud tinnitus to habituate but that many with loud tinnitus have habituated before so it's not impossible.

 

[Amiel]

I won't allow that. My brain's hyperactivity will cease one way or another

Then suicide yourself, why are you struggling for another day? Ay! You want to live... waiting for habituation

 

[threefirefour]

Then suicide yourself, why are you struggling for another day? Ay! You want to live... waiting for habituation

Or a cure. Nice try though.

 

[Bobbie7]

@threefirefour and @Gl0w0ut

You and some others are obviously hateful and embittered young people. Pity! I do feel sorry for you though.

 

[sanj100]

If you're so well off you don't have to be here you know.

I'm not so well off at all. I am also suffering with tinnitus.

And I fully understand and accept that tinnitus that is a lot louder is much much harder to deal with and to habituate to. I don't pretend to act like I know what some of you are going through. I was just trying to help and to highlight the fact that there are some people out there with very severe tinnitus that have habituated, so it is possible.

I really really hope your condition improves and from quickly glancing at your avatar it seems to me that you have a lot of hope that things will improve for you as you've not had tinnitus that long and you think its from ETD which I have in quite a few cases can be resolved.

I wish you all the best.

 

[threefirefour]

@threefirefour and @Gl0w0ut

You and some others are obviously hateful and embittered young people. Pity! I do feel sorry for you though.

You say as you comment that. And don't feel sorry for us, we're better off.