She told me some interesting things, and a new way of looking at
tinnitus.

I've had it now for 8 months and now it's 24/7 and I'm aware of it most
of the time. It's affecting my sleep patterns etc. Horrible. Especially
when the pitch changes.

She explained what they think tinnitus is, showed me an interesting
diagram about what happens to sound when it enters the cochlea, about
the hair cells, about the limbic system and subconscious hearing... how
emotions diagnose the sound by waking us up if we hear a baby cough, but
allowing us to sleep through a thunderstorm, even though we're asleep,
because subconciously the limbic system knows that a thunderstorm is not
a worry.

I asked her about masking the sound using white noise generators (I've
been using the soundmasker program mentioned here on this group). She
said that she does not think it's the best way, as it offers only
temporary relief and that it is tackling tinnitus in the wrong way.
Rather than fight it, we should embrace it almost as a friend. If we
hear it changing tone, chuckle, have a drink, think "ah the old gas
escaping sound has come back, haven't heard that one for a while" and
smile. This will eventually retrain the limbic system into thinking it
is not a threat, not something to be fought or masked, much like the
thunderstorm. At the moment, I have been looking at the different
tinnitus sounds much like the baby coughing.

Once the subconcious no longer perceives it as a problem, it is much
more likely to go. And I'm not saying "we'll get used to it", it will
actually go.

Basically, she believes that tinnitus is always there. Even someone with
perfect hearing can get temporary tinnitus if they are in a completely
soundproofed area. Because I lost most of my hearing shortly before my
operation for an attic retraction last August, and after the op I had
wadding in my ear for two weeks so couldn't hear a thing except the
inner workings, my hearing was trying to hear and all it could hear was
silence - or rather the tinnitus that is always there, but for the first
time the brain distinguished it. Because it was accompanied by the
trauma of the operation (mental trauma, she doesn't think the operation
ITSELF would have caused the tinnitus), and I was expecting the tinnitus
as it said on the factsheet to expect it for two weeks or so - and
because of the negative things happening in my life around that time -
threat of redundancy at work, and the London bombings (my first
operation was scheduled to take place on the 7th July - and the hospital
is in Kings Cross - we drove right into the scene and there were walking
wounded etc, my op was cancelled and postponed a month as all the
anaesthetists were of course otherwise engaged, tending to the wounded).  
So these negative things, coupled with expecting the tinnitus, coupled
with the hearing loss, meant that I identified subconciously the
tinnitus as a threat, and it stayed prevalent and got worse and worse,
rather than lasting only two weeks as the factsheet had said.

I'm going back there next week for another hour, and some tests as well.
But very interesting yesterday, I must say. I learnt a lot, learnt not
to fear it, and learnt why (they think) it happened.

Incidentally, someone on this list said that they found that when they
started smoking again, the tinnitus went. Amazingly, this apparently
does make sense. Unfortunately I am already a smoker, and can't smoke
any more than I already do! :-)  But it was interesting that she did
confirm that there have been some conclusive research about the benefits
of smoking on tinnitus. Of course, the smoking could bring with it even
worse things such as cancer.... Furthermore, as a health professional
she could never give that advice professionally (especially as yesterday
was National No Smoking Day!). But it was interesting that it backs up
the point raised by Bigjon (if I remember correctly) that restarting
smoking helped diminish his tinnitus.

There certainly needs to be some more research on this.

Anyway, that was my yesterday. Back again next week for another session.
Then in August they lift up my new eardrum and put in some prosthetic
bones which should improve the hearing, which could also lower the
tinnitus as I will be able to hear stuff better. And then, assuming it's
all OK, they will then start on my right ear and I guess I'll get it all
over again on the other side,,,,

TRISTÁN