Tinnitus SA was established with support from the South Australian Government.
It is important to have a consultation with an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist to eliminate any source of the tinnitus which could be treated. The specialist might recommend some tests, e.g. sinus/neck Xrays or a scan of the head/brain. Treatment might then be as simple as changing your medication (under medical supervision), removing obstructive wax, or treating a middle ear infection. Very often, no particular source for the tinnitus can be found. If the ENT Specialist can do nothing more for your annoying tinnitus, you should seek a consultation with an audiologist or psychologist.
Some things will make tinnitus worse for a short time in some people. Such aggravators may include:
If you notice that particular drugs or substances you consume or some things you do worsen your tinnitus, you might choose to avoid those things (changing your medications should only be done with the advice of your doctor). Typically, however, these things affect your tinnitus for only a short time and it will not become louder or more annoying indefinitely. Generally speaking, people have reported that their tinnitus became quieter over time rather than louder, therefore aggravators have an insignificant effect in the long term.
Stress, anxiety, depression, fatigue and lack of sleep can aggravate tinnitus as well as trigger it. It is important to learn to recognise and manage such issues as these affect your overall feelings of health and well-being, apart from heightening awareness of the tinnitus. Relaxation training and hypnotherapy are techniques which can help you to relieve mental and physical tension. If you need support to address these issues, you should consult your doctor and/or seek assistance from a psychologist or counsellor.
Jaw-joint problems can cause an increase in muscle tension and intensify your tinnitus. You may wish to consult a dentist or orthodontist about a splint to relieve the pressure on your jaw. Some physiotherapists also provide therapy for jaw and facial tension.
If the nerves in your hearing system are ‘humming’ at a low level all of the time, why are you not aware of them all the time? The things which determine whether a sound attracts your attention are your past experience, what the tinnitus means to you, and how you feel about it.
Between the ears and the processing of meaning in the brain there is a network of processors, such as pattern receptors. These pattern receptors ‘recognise’ some sounds and allow them pass through to be attended to, but ‘ignore’ other sounds. So, when listening in a crowd you react to hearing your name (it means something to you) but not to many other parts of the conversation. Similarly, the mother of a young baby will wake when the child cries (it requires her to act), although she may sleep through many louder, less meaningful sounds. The pattern receptors develop over time and are related to both the meaning or consequence of the sound and to its emotional importance.
Because pattern receptors have been ‘set’ to exclude unimportant sounds and to respond to important sounds, the loudness of the sound is seldom a major factor. For instance, if you move from a quiet neighbourhood to a house beside a railway line it can take several weeks to adjust to the new sounds, after which you’ll ignore them, even though they continue to be just as loud.
Several things may happen when you become aware of tinnitus. First, you may worry about what it means: Do I have a brain tumour? Am I having a stroke? Does this mean I’m going deaf? Does this mean I’m going mad? How can I cope with this unending noise in my head?
These feelings may be encouraged by the comments of some health professionals who may tell you to ‘go home and learn to live with it’, instead of offering the necessary advice and support. You may then come to associate quite strong emotions with the tinnitus due to a sense of helplessness or hopelessness. Because you have been worrying about it and paying it a lot of attention you have successfully tuned your pattern receptors to attend to the tinnitus.
Many people who notice tinnitus pay it little attention. In other words, though they have tinnitus they quickly learn to ignore it and not react it. This is called ‘habituation’ – the tinnitus becomes a ‘habit’ which they no longer notice consciously. Habituation doesn’t happen all at once – it is gradual, and several stages can be recognised:
Stage One:
Stage Two:
Stage Three:
Stage Four:
Two key components of TRT directly follow from the neurophysiological model of tinnitus. One of these principles includes directive counseling aimed at reclassification of tinnitus to a category of neutral signals, while the other includes sound stimulation which is aimed at weakening tinnitus related neuronal activity. The goals of TRT are to help the person habituate to the tinnitus and to stop being aware of it. This is done by an audiologist in the following ways: