First, there is no definitive tinnitus cure for most people. While some people have tinnitus symptoms that are less severe and easier to control, many have a form of tinnitus that does not respond to any type of current tinnitus treatment options, and for those people, your best option is to learn how to cope with your tinnitus symptoms. As a tinnitus sufferer, I know how crippling the symptoms can be at times, and it can and will drive you crazy at certain times in your life.
What I have found though is that my tinnitus does indeed respond when I create the proper environment and work at reducing my stress while eliminating certain foods that aggravate my ringing ears. Not everyone is so lucky, but if you have not yet tried some of the behavioral therapy options, then you may be missing out on the one and only thing that will help you with your tinnitus issues. There have been several studies in recent years that have clearly shown that there is an increase in the quality of life for those that learn to cope with their tinnitus through behavioral changes versus those that allow their tinnitus to go unchecked.
Here is what we found at www.livestrong.com in regards to some of the steps you can take to learn to cope with your tinnitus symptoms.
Learn how to cope with the sounds in your ears by going through cognitive-behavioral therapy. During cognitive behavioral therapy, a therapist teaches you how to train your mind to react less negatively to the tinnitus sounds. After reviewing multiple scientific studies on cognitive-behavioral therapy and tinnitus, the ENT Department at John Radcliffe Hospital concluded that cognitive-behavioral therapy has proven beneficial for tinnitus sufferers. Attend a tinnitus support group where you can share your feelings with others who understand what you are going through and discuss different coping techniques that are working for people in the group. Undergo tinnitus retraining therapy, commonly called TRT, with an audiologist. TRT was invented by Professor Pawel J. Jastreboff. It combines educational counseling about tinnitus with sound therapy using in-the-ear noise generators that produce broadband white noise. In-the-ear noise generators look like and are worn like hearing aids. The goal of Jastreboff’s TRT is not to simply mask tinnitus sounds; the therapy habituates the auditory system to noise, making tinnitus noises less noticeable to the wearer. Combination hearing aid and sound generator devices are available for tinnitus suffers who also have hearing loss. TRT following Jastreboff’s protocol is a more effective treatment for tinnitus than sound masking, Phillips JS, McFerran D. wrote in “Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) for Tinnitus”, published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Mask tinnitus noises when they are bothering you by listening to music or a white noise machine, commonly called sleep machines. An alternative to using a white noise machine is to turn a fan on in your room. The constant “shh” sounds fans make sound similar to the noise produced by white noise machines. You can read the rest of the original article here. Most people suffer the most from ringing in the ears when they are in a quite atmosphere, such as when they are trying to sleep or rest. This is where masking techniques can really make a difference for you. Be sure to read our masking article if you are not familiar with masking are have never tried to use masking to reduce your tinnitus symptoms. Not only can the masking help stop the ringing in your ears, but it will often reduce your stress levels as well, which further eliminates some tinnitus symptoms, since stress often exaggerates many peoples tinnitus symptoms, so it is a win, win situation in many cases. We have many different options for treating tinnitus, and some of them work for some people, while some of them won’t work at all for others. Masking is fairly standard, and there are few people that don’t get some benefits from it, so definitely consider it if you have not done so already. Other than that, you can start with the 4 steps we listed above. You should spend some time reading the other posts here on our website, as you can learn just about anything about tinnitus and the treatment of tinnitus right here. We also suggest and review many different tinnitus treatment options, so maybe you can find something here that will help you to improve your tinnitus symptoms. If you have tried all of the top options without success, then it’s imperative that you learn how to cope with your tinnitus symptoms in order to improve your quality of life.Step 1
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