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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Tinnitus / May 2005Habituate
I read in another post Susan said : "The reality is that once folks habituate T, they don't notice it unless they try to. Even folks with awful, intrusive, loud and variable T." What is habituate? How do I learn this? Any good web pages on it? I am willing to learn I just don't know where to start. Thanks for any help i can get Thank you!! athena > I read in another post Susan said : "The reality is that once folks > habituate T, they [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > Thank you!! > athena A long time ast poster, Bill Gerrells wrote a brilliant piece about habituation (note to newbies, EERIE WAX is a longstanding joke here: Here's one of his periodic reposts that I just googled up: Hi newbies! Every year or so I impose on this group with the steps that led to my tinnitus habituation hoping someone else can find relief. Habituation is a wonderful thing, IMO, considering my T level is probably higher now that when I regularly posted to this group while, at the same time, I can completely shut it off for weeks or perhaps months at a time. Hard to imagine, I suppose, but the ringing is only present if I pause to listen for it. Otherwise... dead silence or the sound of whatever is going on around me. 1. Visit your ENT. Excluding T caused by an acoustic neuroma at least brings some peace of mind. When your ENT says "learn to live with it" take him/her seriously. 2. Accept your situation and commit yourself to doing just what the ENT has told you. You may need some help but the vast majority of those with T will successfully adjust. Yes, this may take a year or more but remember... there is a strong likelihood you will succeed on your own. 3. Explain your situation to those with whom you live and work. It is likely your T will affect your ability to discriminate between multiple sources of sound. This is not to say your ability to hear soft sounds has been diminished but rather that your ability to hear one conversation while another it taking place nearby may be. It sure helps if they are patient with you as you try to understand them in a noisy environment. 4. You all know how important it is to avoid loud sounds. During the habituation period, it is probably more important to avoid silence. More about avoiding silence follows. 5. When you are interested in something else, and not concentrating on your T, notice that you are able to ignore it for that period. I think it important that the noise level you choose to mask your tinnitus otherwise distracts you. I'm so fortunate to receive Minnesota Public Radio's all-news broadcast. Maybe talk radio interests you. Whatever the source, it helps if it is intellectually stimulating. 6. Set your nightstand radio to something both interesting and laid back. Where I live, the BBC is broadcast around the time I go to bed. There is something about the BBC I can't put into words. It interests me while lulling me to sleep. Sometime after I'm in never-never land the timer on my radio shuts it off. Learn as much about your condition as you can, at least enough to know that, aside from EERIE WAX, there is no cure. Since it won't kill you, you MUST learn to live with it. Forget about herbal remedies, acupuncture, hypnosis, candles, massage and the rest of the crap out there. Avoid ototoxic drugs. Just do the six simple things I've outlined above and be patient. You will enjoy absolute silence again some day. > x-no-archive: yes > [quoted text clipped - 64 lines] > Just do the six simple things I've outlined above and be patient. You will > enjoy absolute silence again some day. Thanks Susan. Well worth reading again. As for me, I'm still a relative newbie at this 'habituation' lark and I can't claim 'absolute silence' as yet, but the interesting thing is that habituation clearly is better than 'just learning to ignore it'. The brain does seem to gain the ability to suppress tinnitus at a deeper level than that, and it seems to go hand-in-hand with one's emotional reaction to it; i.e if one really doesn't care about it any more, in some wierd way it really does seem to 'as-good-as' go away. Steve . > Thanks Susan. Well worth reading again. As for me, I'm still a relative > newbie at this 'habituation' lark and I can't claim 'absolute silence' as > yet, but the interesting thing is that habituation clearly is better than > 'just learning to ignore it'. Is there a difference between "habituating" and ignoring it? >The brain does seem to gain the ability to > suppress tinnitus at a deeper level than that, and it seems to go > hand-in-hand with one's emotional reaction to it; i.e if one really doesn't > care about it any more, in some wierd way it really does seem to > 'as-good-as' go away. I don't give a damn about mine, but it is still there, and it is still loud on most days! It seems "habituation" is like trying to tell a depressed person to "pull up their socks and get on with it" which is generally deemed unhelpful. My tinnitus is simply either there, or it ain't! Ben > Is there a difference between "habituating" and ignoring it? I think of ignoring as more active, whereas habituation involves an actual failure to notice it without making an effort to ignore it. > I don't give a damn about mine, but it is still there, and it is still loud > on most days! You seem to care about it, or at least give it a good deal of thought. Can you figure out why it's bothering you so much more since January? It seems "habituation" is like trying to tell a depressed > person to "pull up their socks and get on with it" which is generally deemed > unhelpful. My tinnitus is simply either there, or it ain't! Not at all. Habituation is how one learns to live with tinnitus and not be bothered by it. Do you notice your watch every minute you're wearing it, or your underwear? Further, a variety of treatment option have been mentioned here, so no one is telling you to just pull up your socks. Susan Ben! Listen to what people are trying to tell you and believe it. We have all been through this and most of us thought we wouldn't be able to make it through it. Many contemplated suicide. Some may have suceeded because of it. You need to have patience. Once day at a time. You can do this as we all have before you. Find a distraction and use the masking techniques. Get a nice nature sounds noise box from Radio Shack to go to sleep to. They time out after 20 minutes or so and you pick the nice sounds to drift off too. It does work! Get a hobby with some sound in it. After a while you will just relearn to forget about it. Next thing you know you will have to try to hear it. Mine comes and goes but believe me there was a few nights. I have found other ways to control it also using manganese supplementation. I discovered it by accident trying to cure dizziness. Now I don't require it if I do not eat gluten products. You can do this. Do you give in that easily on everything else? Give it some time and get on with your life. The quality will improve. Some day you will be telling somebody else this. > . > > Thanks Susan. Well worth reading again. As for me, I'm still a relative [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > Ben > You can do this. Do you give in that easily on everything else? Give it some > time and get on with your life. The quality will improve. Some day you will > be telling somebody else this. Thanks Larry, though I wouldn't consider tolerating tinnitus for 14 and a half years "giving up" easily? I did tolerate it easier prior to getting hearing aids approximately 3 years ago, which unfortunately were not programmed to my hearing loss - just two microphones letting in noises I didn't need all day! I persisted with them because I had been told to wear hearing aids on a daily basis took persistence, so I didn't discover the aids were not programmed until 6 months after getting them! Since then, my tinnitus has been *much* louder on more days than ever before. I was prescribed some new BTE aids a few weeks back, and some may remember my delight at the tinnitus subsiding completely - for a week! The 2nd week, the T began to make more noise, then the 3rd week back to pig squealing - just the same with Xanax, and any other thing I have tried. I sometimes feel very fortunate that my T varies as I can have the odd day of peace, whereas my daughter, who was born with a hearing defect, thought T was "normal" because she has always had it, but her aids [the same as mine] stop her from hearing her tinnitus every day - trust me to be different! I sleep really well, for which I am thankful - well, I know I wouldn't be here to write this if I couldn't sleep. I tend to believe Elly has a point that mine may be muscular related as I can lie on my left side and the T go away completely - it just suddenly switches off after about 10 to 15 minutes - and yes, I lie there listening for it, and can't believe it isn't. As I keep saying, and no-one is listening due to habituating to me :) that my T is either there, or it isn't! As I type at this moment, it is tolerable, but it is there. Another day [although it is *always* noisy when I wake up] it can abate to nothing, so I don't seem to fit the general pattern of a lot of sufferers. It isn't TMJ as I have no facial pain, nor do I grind my teeth, or any other symptoms of that, though I am a bit of a jaw clencher. I am finding it increasingly difficult to "get on with my life" because I feel the quality of my life is nil when it is loud. I am fool enough to go to bed every night hoping I will wake up and it will be quiet, but that has only happened once in about 8 years! When I enjoy a quiet , or quiet-ish day, I am a completely different person, and the person I really want to be, instead of some miserable depressed being who would much rather be dead than have to listen to loud tinnitus - and I do mean loud, because I consider myself to have a long tether to get to the end of, but am nearly there. I am seeing a ENT consultant this Thursday, and to be honest, I feel scared shitless that he will only give me maskers - more damned noise to listen to! I just want some peace, even if I have to resort to suicide, which is becoming increasingly likely by each noisy day, because although I can lie down and it go away, that is NOT the klind of life I want to lead - get up with loud T, hope until after lunch that it will quieten down, then if it doesn't, lie down, and when it goes quiet, drop off to sleep in complete relief and exhaustion! Ben You are just having a "down cycle" right now. Things will get better. Watch for them. > > You can do this. Do you give in that easily on everything else? Give it > some [quoted text clipped - 47 lines] > > Ben Larry wrote:" Listen to what people are trying to tell you and believe it. " Fortunately i listened to what my t told me and not what other people said when it first started. That is why I have managed to tune down the volume and have the nerve discomfort totally eliminated. > Is there a difference between "habituating" and ignoring it? Yes. Surprisingly there seems to be. The 'ignoring' seems to be done at quite a deep level. In other words, it's not a case of: "Where is it? Ah yes there it is as always" ... rather... "Where is it? Hang on a minute I'll listen out for it. Ah yes there it is! " The habituated person gets into the 'habit' of suppressing it so effectively that a positive effort is needed to hear it, rather than not to hear it. > I don't give a damn about mine, but it is still there, and it is still loud > on most days! It seems "habituation" is like trying to tell a depressed > person to "pull up their socks and get on with it" which is generally deemed > unhelpful. My tinnitus is simply either there, or it ain't! Sure, but something I've learned from my tinnitus is that my brain is an integrated system, in the sense that its beliefs, emotions and arousal level are part-and-parcel of how it perceives the world - and this includes tinnitus. So Ben, if you're determined to stick to your view - it'll be proved true. Just as mine will be. Only mine means less tinnitus !! ;-) Steve >. So Ben, if you're determined to stick to your view - it'll be > proved true. Just as mine will be. Only mine means less tinnitus !! ;-) It is NOT my view - it is [put simply, for those who do not seem to be able to grasp it] a loud noise which I either can, or cannot hear, and even sometimes is a tolerable level, but usually intolerable. Blimey! Either it is making a noise or it ain't? If yours is and you can't hear it, then :1. you are deaf. 2. it isn't making a noise! To me - something is there, or it isn't. "Habituation" seems pretending it isn't there, even when it is, so you can come on here and tell us how great you all are for ignoring it. Well done for fooling yourselves Ben <who definitely has had enough of this tripe and can unsub!> > It is NOT my view - it is [put simply, for those who do not seem to be able > to grasp it] a loud noise which I either can, or cannot hear, and even > sometimes is a tolerable level, but usually intolerable. We all grasp it, we've all been where you are. Some of us have had wildly variable T. In my case, it's usually absent or very soft, occasionally very loud. Blimey! Either it > is making a noise or it ain't? If yours is and you can't hear it, then :1. > you are deaf. 2. it isn't making a noise! To me - something is there, or > it isn't. "Habituation" seems pretending it isn't there, even when it is, > so you can come on here and tell us how great you all are for ignoring it. > Well done for fooling yourselves Maybe we're fooling ourselves, Ben, but we're not the ones being driven to suicidal feelings by our T. You may not be able to control the volume or variability of your T, but you can learn to control your reaction to it, if you choose to. > Ben <who definitely has had enough of this tripe and can unsub!> Best of luck to you, then. Susan Susan wrote:"We all grasp it, we've all been where you are..." No! Not everybody could do it for the simple reason that some people have multiple causes of their discomfort. It took me a year of suffering before I found out that I was suffering from a combination of t sound and nerve discomfort. Now, the discomfort is gone but the t sound, though much much lower in volume is still there. That is to say, I was suffering from TWO ills that were independent in nature but nevertheless inter-related in some ways. "Ben" <hand.knitter@ntlworld.com> wrote in part: >It is NOT my view - it is [put simply, for those who do not seem to be able >to grasp it] a loud noise which I either can, or cannot hear, and even [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >so you can come on here and tell us how great you all are for ignoring it. >Well done for fooling yourselves The mind is a much more complex place than what you describe. Many, many things are sensed (at the sense organ) and are not admitted to the consciousness. You can be unaware of even quite intense stimuli. And there is also the fact that one can, over time, train themselves to have a different reaction to the sound. Your reaction is not written in stone.  SignatureJim Chinnis / Warrenton, Virginia, USA Want to discuss Meniere's? See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MenieresDG > If yours is and you can't hear it, then :1. > you are deaf. 2. it isn't making a noise! 3. OR I simply don't _notice_ it most of the time because I'm so used to it... To me - something is there, or > it isn't. "Habituation" seems pretending it isn't there, even when it is, > so you can come on here and tell us how great you all are for ignoring it. > Well done for fooling yourselves > > Ben <who definitely has had enough of this tripe and can unsub!> You previous long post to Larry drives home how much you've suffered (and you've had bad luck with your treatment too). But also your present reaction can't be helping. You're an old pro at this. You shouldn't need a newbie like me to tell you to be less angry about it, it won't matter so much, you'll notice it less. When you don't notice something, it might as well not be there. If you call this 'fooling yourself' - fine - though I disagree, it's more about how our senses take in information. "Jeez, whenever I go out on cloudless days there's this annoying, piercing, dazzling light that's always there and I have to continually make sure I don't look at it or it will blind me. It's always changing its position and it can catch you out whenever you look in the wrong place. It's a bl**dy nuisance. I just can't get used to it. It's called the Sun. Other people say if only I 'got used to it' it wouldn't bother me. They just don't realise how intensely annoying it is having to allow for it all the time." S
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