The Early Days Living with the Sounds of Tinnitus.

An article by Adrian Featherstone:

Whether they realise it or not most people have heard the sounds of tinnitus. After exposure to any very loud noise we all have a ringing in the ear to some degree. We expect it and then we tolerate it. We have experienced this phenomenon as youngsters after listening to music at excess volume either through the radio, listening to records or from going to pop concerts. It isn’t something that really concerns us because it always goes away after a few hours. Because it is only ever a temporary condition we don’t think about it very much or even less give it a name.

But what if it continues, for days, months, years? That would seem unbearable! Well, that is how it is for the tinnitus sufferer. The ringing ears which are the sounds of tinnitus stay with you as a tinnitus sufferer. They stay with you twenty four hours a day and seven days a week. The sounds of tinnitus are with you when you finally get to sleep, and they are ringing in your ears when you wake up. The sounds of tinnitus are in your head and likely to be your constant companion, long term.

A new tinnitus sufferer can wake up one morning and find their ears ringing for no apparent reason. It is not always the case that tinnitus sounds just continue after exposure to loud noise. At the beginning of course there is an assumption that the tinnitus sounds will fade away. When they don’t it is at first annoying. Then it becomes worrying. Eventually it can be quite frightening. Frightening because you just cannot get away from the sounds of tinnitus, there is nowhere to go.

A consultation with the doctor often does little more than confirm a tinnitus diagnosis. Most doctors will say that there is very little tinnitus information available as there is as yet no known cure for tinnitus. At least there is comfort in knowing that there is no physical problem which could make a bad situation even worse.

So what should the new tinnitus sufferer do and where should he go for some form of tinnitus support? Fortunately in the age of the internet there is plenty of tinnitus information and tinnitus support available from your desktop. However, too much information can actually be counterproductive. Hours spent poring over negative websites can result in an increased negativity and resultant increase in tinnitus sounds.

Tinnitus feeds off attention. The new tinnitus sufferer will very soon notice that the more they think about their tinnitus, the more they listen to those tinnitus sounds, the more intense they become. But, there is an important clue here. Learning how to turn your back on the sounds of tinnitus is the starting point in the journey to defeat tinnitus. This is the signpost to tinnitus liberation.

More articles by Adrian Featherstone:

• Ringing in the Ear. The onset of a sound like a ringing in the ear can be caused by a sudden exposure to a loud sound, continuous exposure to noise or potentially to an underlying health issue.
• What Causes Ringing in the Ears.  What causes the ringing in the ears that we universally call tinnitus?
• Much Needed Tinnitus Relief.  Living a normal life with the sounds of tinnitus constantly ringing in your ears would seem an impossibility to most tinnitus sufferers.
• Tinnitus Cures That Might Work For You. With the realisation that the noises you are hearing in your ears or in your head are not going to go away comes the journey to either eliminate them or to learn to live with them.
• Alternative Tinnitus Treatment.  Most people who have found that they are living with the ringing in the ears which characterises the sounds of tinnitus will have been told by their medical practitioner that there is no known tinnitus cure.
• Subjective and Objective Tinnitus.  The sounds of tinnitus that will be so well known to those living with this condition are variously described as ringing in the ears, hissing,whistling or buzzing.
• Symptoms of Tinnitus.  Millions of people around the globe experience the symptoms of tinnitus. The ringing in the ears which characterises this complaint is especially common in the towns and cities of the industrialised western world.
• Symptoms For Tinnitus.  Ringing in the ear is one of the primary symptoms of tinnitus. Tinnitus being a condition which commonly affects about a fifth of the population aged 55 or over.
• What Causes Tinnitus.  There will be few people who have gone to a discotheque or to a live band concert who will not have experienced the sounds of tinnitus.
• Finding Your Own Tinnitus Relief.  Only those of us who have lived with the sounds of tinnitus singing away in our consciousness and who have suffered the constant ringing in the ears that goes with it truly understand the trauma tinnitus creates.
• Tinnitus Hypnosis.The use of Tinnitus Hypnosis and Tinnitus Hypnotherapy in the battle to clear tinnitus symptoms has long been recognised... 
•  The Effects of Tinnitus. Tinnitus is widely described as a condition
  in which a person hears noises where no corresponding external noise exists.
• Beginning the Search for a Tinnitus Cure. If you were able to ask a large group of sufferers who were looking for a tinnitus cure to describe the arrival of a tinnitus sound in their lives, a great many of them would tell you a remarkably similar story.
• Do Any Tinnitus Remedies Actually work?  Anybody who has had the misfortune to find themselves living with tinnitus will be only too well aware of the frustration that this debilitating condition can cause the sufferer.
• In Puruit Of A Tinnitus Cure. Realising that the noise in your ears just isn’t going away can initiate a sense of panic and stress into even the most stoic of us. The diagnosis of tinnitus that so often follows this realisation only serves  to compound the problem still further. 
• Tinnitus Masking. Those of us that suffer with the intrusion of tinnitus sound in our ears will know that the condition is at its worst when there is no other external noise to dilute that sound. It is at these times that tinnitus masking can be extremely effective. 
• Turn Down Those Tinnitus Sounds. The volume of your Tinnitus Sounds will almost certainly relate closely to your state of mind. When we are feeling down and out of sorts, when we feel depressed and moody we become very inward looking. Of course for the tinnitus sufferer, waiting for them inside their head there are always those tinnitus sounds. 
• Tinnitus Sound and Stress. Stress has long been recognised as being a major player in both the cause and subsequent intensity of tinnitus sound.