CureTinnitus.org Tinnitus Tip: What are tinnitus people like and what does that mean for you?
Very similar to Dr. Greuel’s study, in Julian Cowan Hill’s “Tinntus, from Tyrant to Friend,” we find the following: What are tinnitus people like? [wcm_restrict]
- Focussed in your head and not in your body
- Racing thoughts
- Tense body
- Not able to settle and switch off
- Can’t do nothing – it’s a waste of time!
- Constantly worrying
- Not able to feel body clearly
- Accelerated
- Never satisfied
- A driven approach to life
- Highly reactive to people around you
- Oversensitive to moods, atmospheres
- Always doing too much, working to lists, deadlines and achievements
- Easily angered, irritable
- Gets hot easily but hands and feet are cold
- Digestion is sensitive, bloated, irregular
- Forgetful
- Sleep is light and you wake easily
- Collapse in a heap at night, groggy in the morning
- Prone to anxiety and panic attacks
- Distracted by everything going on around
- Hard to focus on one thing
- Moody, up and down
- Crave sugary foods, coffee and other quick fixes
- Breathing is centred in upper chest rather than belly
- Breathing tends to be shallow and quick
- Eyes dart about
- Ears pick up all background noise
- Background noises are irritating and distracting
- Sensitive to smell
- Sensitive skin
- Heart beat is quick, too strong, accelerated or irregular
So what does that mean? I mean, wasn’t your tinnitus caused by exposure to noise, stress, sinus infections, or meniere’s disease? Or, could even those causes have an underlying root in your personality and lifestyle?
You can decide for yourself whether any of these characteristics ring a bell for you.
Dr. Gruel’s work talks about a “trigger event,” which many tinnitus patients blame their tinnitus on. Do you have a “trigger event” or “trigger situation?”
Fortunately, with this outline of characteristics, we have something very clear that you can work on right now. You can choose the characteristics you can do something about…and do something about them. For example, if tinnitus people can’t relax and have racing thoughts, you can work on learning to relax and coming into your body. You can also find non-tinnitus specialists that can help you do that, and you can certainly do activities that you find enjoyable and relaxing more often.
For me, I want to go windsurfing, and I will make a point to not let the summer pass without going windsurfing. I’ve only windsurfed a few times in my life, but I really like it. Just thinking about going widsurfing this summer makes me feel happy and it relaxes me. Also, I guess I used to be decent at doing nothing, but not lately. So, I can make it a point to “do nothing” more and see how that affects my tinnitus.
What kinds of activities relax you? Are you neglecting yourself?
Can you see how your solution will be different than mine, and that “a cure” for tinnitus is a pretty silly concept? Still, your recovery will likely be similar to mine in that both of us need to learn how to recover and relax, and we certainly need to work on our lifestyles and habits. That might make a flexible, but “curative” process a more viable goal for organizations like National Tinnitus Associations. Also, it sure doesn’t hurt to start by learning how to “get better,” which is totally possible. So why not learn how to get better?
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That list is somewhat frightening, especially when I can identify with at least 80% of it. But with the help of this site, I am learning to deal with such things, and my -T- is becoming less and less noticeable.
Isn’t it though? Frightening, freaky, whatever you want to call it. Dr. Greuel calls it psychoneuroimmunologische therapie: Psycho (mind spirit emotion) Neuro (our nervous system) Immunological (our immune systems). It’s a real trip when T starts letting up based on how you treat yourself. I mean, the situations, relationships, jobs, conflicts, those don’t really even need to change if you change how you deal with stuff and whether you embody those characteristics.
Having chronic t for about three years and believeing (perhaps mitakenly) that it has gotten worse with a recent illness (gallbladder removal) I find that stress IS definitely a major player here; so much so that I think my duodenitis was stress induced and not stomach acid induced. I can identify with almost ALL of the points listed and am working on reducing my stress using self-hypnosis downloads, meditation, therapy (physical and psycho) and masking – of course I have started eating better, cycling now that winter is done and will soon be joining the old health club. Your site and insights have helped me but I’m still not 100% convinced that there is not “some” physiological link (i.e., damage) causing the t as I am a club DJ and only recently started wearing earplugs. Steven Chu has a very interesting video shot at Berkeley where he illustrates what a finely-tuned and delicate apparatus the ears are and how easily they can be “driven” into hyper-sensitivity mode. Again, thanks for your website, emails and videos as they give me hope and hope coupled with other alternative forms of therapy might just help me get back to a more normal life.