Originally Posted by
derekcohen
Here is a different perspective.
My tinnitus started up about 6 years ago (or so). It probably was faint in the background for a few years, then jumped up and could not be ignored. It was distressing, to say the least. I am not surprised that there are a high number of suicides as a result of tinnitus.
I went along to an audiologist (uni trained) who worked for a known and reputable organisation. After tests, my hearing loss was notable in the high frequencies (I think it topped out at about 5-6000Hz). Difficulty with background noise and some sounds in speech were my main issues. My consulting room is quiet, so no problem, but restaurants are another matter. After all was said and done, I signed up for in-ear hearing aids for both ears ($6000) and sound therapy treatment for the tinnitus (another $6000).
The sound therapy was a complete waste of money. After a year of listening to the same bloody music on the (rather) expensive music player, nothing had changed at all. The only positive I can say is that it saved my life (I guess that means something) because it gave me hope. But, in the end, it was a total waste of money. I also hated the hearing aids. They were in-ear and not easily seen (vanity .. vanity), but I hated the feel. Did they help with hearing? Yes. Did they help with tinnitus? Possibly ... a little.
I decided that I was a psychologist and should treat myself. Basically, what I planned to do was induce dissociation (detachment) from the emotions associated with tinnitus. Tinnitus is distressing partly because it is intrusive, and partly because we cannot rid ourselves of this (= loss of control). What I did was throw away the sound machine and stop using my hearing aids. I decided to face the "noise" head on, and damn the torpedoes.
About a week after I started this process, I was at Carbatec and talking with a couple of sales staff. They were wearing their new hearing aids and telling me how wonderful they were to block out their tinnitus. I did not have the heart to say that I have thrown mine away - I do not want anyone reading this to take from what I am saying that hearing aids do not work. They do. But I did not want to be captive to them.
So I endured the noise, which ranged from soft to LOUD. I recognised a pattern by now, that is, I could have a few days with it being soft, and then a few days of LOUD. After a couple of months I realised that my emotional reaction to noise had changed. The tinnitus was still there, but mostly I ignored its presence. There were days when it got louder - not as frequent as in the past - and it was hard to ignore, but again the emotional knee-jerk stress reaction was absent. It has been a couple of years now. The tinnitus is still there, but it is times like this that I am a made aware of it, or the roughly monthly few days when it gets loud-ish. It has become an appendage, but does not intrude much. Some days/weeks I forget about it completely.
I read somewhere that roughly 20% of all people acquire tinnitus over time, as hearing frequencies drop off due to age. It is comforting to know that one is not alone in living with this. Let it slide into the background by ignoring it. Don't let it dominate by concentrating your time and effort to diminish it.
Regards from Perth
Derek