Do you remember the last time you absolutely loved a song? You just couldn’t stop listening to it. But, after 50 or 100 times, the song didn’t excite you anymore and you move on to another song. That is essentially what habituation is. It’s when your brain identifies a sound, sight, smell or touch , but reduces its awareness or emotional response to it. Habituation to Tinnitus is very important as there is officially no cure for Tinnitus. It is a proven coping mechanism that will allow you to enjoy a higher quality of life and also help you be more productive. Below, you will find 10 tips to help you habituate to Tinnitus better. If you want to learn more about habituation in general, this resource is an excellent starting point.
Top 10 Tinnitus Habituation Tips
1 Understand that habituation is NOT a cure for Tinnitus
Most people abandon their efforts to habituate to Tinnitus because they don’t understand what habituation is supposed to do for them. Habituation WILL NOT stop the ringing in your ears. It will only help your brain not pay attention to it anymore, in due time. Even if you are perfectly habituated to Tinnitus, you will continue to hear the sound. It’s just that it will not bother you anymore.
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2 Stop the Fight or Flight Responses
People who find their Tinnitus annoying, intrusive and debilitating usually have one of two emotional responses to it.
One is to fight the sound. You just don’t want to hear it anymore and you resort to many measures to accomplish this. From always using sound machines to trying to perennially stay busy or completely avoiding quiet environments, you try to fight it as much as you can. But, almost all of these measures are a losing battle against Tinnitus. And, they are also all counter-productive to the process of habituation. When you eventually give up the fight out of tiredness, the Tinnitus sound returns and your body’s adrenaline level spikes again, because it wants to fight. The cycle continues again and again, transforming into emotions like resentment, anger and frustration.
The other response is to flight away from Tinnitus. This leads to worrying and trying to think away Tinnitus that is another vicious cycle. Worrying will not make the sound go away. So, what do you do? You worry more. This adds to stress, anxiety and fear that will not just let you habituate to Tinnitus, but make it more and more debilitating as time goes by.
How Severe is Your Tinnitus?
Find out by using this THI (Tinnitus Handicap Inventory) Scoring Calculator
3 Be patient with habituation
How long will it take to habituate to Tinnitus? This depends on so many things. The type of sounds you hear, the volume it rings at, your personal circumstances, your stress levels, your environment and even your diet and exercise routine will dictate how long it takes to habituate to Tinnitus.
The key takeaway however is to understand that it is not an overnight process. In fact, you can assume that habituation will not happen for a few months at least. It could even take you two or more years to fully habituate to the sound of your Tinnitus, especially if you want to get to a point where you almost forget you have it.
The good news however is that consciously trying to habituate to Tinnitus will usually greatly speed up the habituation process. But, even without it, your mind will naturally habituate to Tinnitus over a few years.
4 Stop Monitoring your Tinnitus
If you have ever been to a Tinnitus support forum, you would have seen posts about people monitoring their Tinnitus levels. There are some who go to great lengths to monitor their Tinnitus sounds on a daily and sometimes even hourly basis.
While it is important to know what your baseline is, it is not at all helpful to constantly monitor your Tinnitus level. Persistent monitoring will make your brain subconsciously reassert Tinnitus as a problem that you are trying to solve, making it almost impossible to habituate to. Remember what we said about fight or flight earlier.
If you have ever read an article about losing weight, you will almost invariably read a tip by authors who will say that you shouldn’t weigh yourself everyday. It’s the same concept with Tinnitus habituation.
5 Find a Way to Sleep Better
If you are reading this article about habituation to Tinnitus, chances are that you don’t sleep very well. While it is obviously difficult to sleep with a constant ringing in your ears, there are ways to better sleep with Tinnitus. Even marginally improved sleep can dramatically reduce stress and anxiety levels that will then give you a much greater chance of successfully habituating to Tinnitus.
6 Clean Up Your Diet and Lifestyle
What you eat can help your Tinnitus from getting worse. In other words, you can do away with Tinnitus spikes. Sugar, alcohol, cigarettes and a diet full of processed foods, fast foods or fatty foods can make your Tinnitus considerably worse. Here’s a post we wrote about foods that make Tinnitus worse. Avoid them like the plague and you will find your Tinnitus becoming more manageable and stable, finally allowing you to also habituate to it.
7 Be More Active
Exercise, yoga, jogging, walking or working out all releases endorphins. Endorphins are the body’s natural pain killers and mood elevators. Having an active lifestyle will also bring down your cortisol and adrenaline levels, allowing you to relax and stay relaxed. You have a much better chance at Tinnitus habituation if you are in a relaxed state. The key is to have an active routine that you can consistently practice. Here are posts we wrote about best yoga exercises for Tinnitus. And, here’s a post with Tinnitus exercises that includes exercises for your breath, neck, shoulders, ears and jaws.
8 Protect Your Ears Against Loud Sounds
If you have Tinnitus, chances are that your ears don’t like loud sounds. It might even be the reason why you got Tinnitus in the first place. Consistent exposure to loud sounds can cause your ears to lose more and more of its hearing. Tinnitus is a condition that exacerbates as your hearing loss becomes more and more profound. An excellent workaround is to wear non-electronic Tinnitus ear plugs that normalize loud sounds. Such ear plugs will still allow you to hear all the sounds in your environment, making them a practical choice for everyday ear protection.
9 Taking an Antidepressant or Anxiety Medication? Choose Wisely
Almost all anti-depressants and anxiety medications can actually make your Tinnitus worse. The relationship is called Ototoxicity. Paxil, Xanax, Ativan, Zoloft, Wellbutrin, Klonopin and most anti-depressants are ototoxic to various levels. Here’s a post we wrote about choosing the best anti-depressant for Tinnitus. Please also understand that anti-depressants themselves do not cure Tinnitus!
10 Meditate
Though it might sound a bit odd, meditating and actually intensely focusing on the sound of your Tinnitus actually lets you habituate to it. Please read this post about Tinnitus meditation, where we explain the steps to try out this process. But, please understand that meditation is also a slowly progressive method that can take days, weeks or months to get right.
If you want to learn more about the psychology being habituation as a coping technique, this resource is an excellent starting point.
