The Therapy Guy

Living With Tinnitus

August 25, 2020 The Therapy Guy
The Therapy Guy
Living With Tinnitus
Show Notes Transcript

In this episode, we discuss tinnitus, what is it, and what you can do to help yourself or someone who is living with tinnitus.

In this episode, I mention a hearing clinic that we work with and a charity that works with those experiencing tinnitus.

https://www.horizonplymouth.co.uk

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Got you here.

Thanks for listening.

Hello, and welcome to the Therapy Guy.

My name is Alan and today I

want to talk to you about tinnitus.

Now, tinnitus is something that I

see quite regularly in my clinic.

It's a problem that a lot of us

experience in our lives and it's something that

we can struggle with from time to time.

So today I'm just going to give you

some brief overviews of what tinnitus is, how

you can help yourself, what you should do

if you start experiencing symptoms of tinnitus.

And then sort of some things that I

do and some suggestions I give to the

people that I see that are experiencing tinnitus,

I'm finding it quite overwhelming to live with.

So, first, what is tinnitus?

Tinnitus really is the term for the sensation

of hearing a sound without an external source.

You can hear it in your head, you can

hear it in your ears, that sort of thing.

And it may be different.

There are people who experience ringing

sounds, humming, whooshing or buzzing it's

lots of terms like these are used to describe it.

It can be to do with the bloodstream,

the blood flow, such as pulsatile tinnitus.

There are different forms of tinnitus

that we should be aware of.

Sometimes these noises can come and go, sometimes

they can be continuous again, sometimes it can

be very low, and other times it may

seem overwhelming and difficult to get rid of.

Also, you might get it in one ear.

Both ears, you may get it

in different parts of your head.

It may be difficult to pinpoint.

And this is part of the problem.

It is part of the reasons a lot of

people struggle is because they can't pinpoint it.

It varies from person to person and it's

very difficult then for people to get this

generic thing that's going to work for everybody.

Experience in tinnitus can for some

people, be quite debilitating for others.

People use it, they adapt their lifestyle,

they get used to it, they manage

the symptoms through different ways.

Who gets tinnitus?

Well, tinnitus is really common, at least roughly

around 30% of people will

experience tinnitus at some point.

But it can be more than that, because sometimes we live

through it for quite a few years before we actually report

it or before we actually take notice of it.

It's no different to most other physical illnesses.

What happens is we wait until the last one, we

can't take it anymore before we go and see a

GP or before we report that we're experiencing this.

Roughly the number at the moment is

about one person in every eight is

going to experience tinnitus at some point.

Tinnitus can be more common

in people who have lost hearing

or have other ear problems.

But of course it can affect the

soul, loud noises, these sort of things.

We can get these ringing sensations.

If you go to a music event or a gig where

the music is really loud, you can leave that and then

you can start to hear that ringing in your ears.

What cause is it?

Well, we don't really know.

That's the answer.

We know that it's not really

a disease, it's not an illness.

It can change, obviously, to do with

some sort of change in our life,

whether it's physical or sometimes emotional things.

I see a lot of stress and anxiety

exacerbate the feelings and the perception of tinnitus.

Whatever sounds it is, we're unsure of why people

end up with us, although there's obviously some generic

things where people have been working heavy machinery, but

that normally indicates damage to their earring and that

sort of thing, which is really great.

Nowadays we have all these different mechanisms and

health and safety for protecting our hearing.

On a personal note, I worry about the effect

that headphones, earbuds and the earplugs that people can

have in the future, especially with the young children

and teenagers now listening to music, the loud music

and listen to directly, and the damage that might

cause over a long period.

Obviously, if there's changes to your hearing, you

might experience an infection, or there might be

some sort of injury there to that hearing,

or just something in general.

This can affect how your brain responds to

your hearing, to what sounds are coming through.

So what can happen at times is that

the brain can sort of try to make

up these sounds for what it doesn't hear.

People say, you know, they can be aware of a

lot of these noises of the tinnitus after something,

or like a cold or the flu or ear infection.

While they're experiencing that, they've got

this blocked feeling in their ears.

For some reason they can feel that.

Which is why some of the things I'll be

suggesting in a minute about what you should do

when you start to experience that could help.

Fortunately for most people, they can live with it.

It's at a manageable level.

So for most of us, we can adapt our lives we

get used to it no different to anything else we overcome.

We are, as a species, quite adaptable.

What you really should do first is contact your GP.

So contact your GP, go along, get a hearing

test, be referred to ear, nose and throat.

So the ENT, they can have a look, go to

a local hearing clinic, there's lots of hearing clinics.

I would personally search for one that has experience

in tinnitus that can check your ears for ear

wax, make sure there's nothing physically wrong in that

way with your ears that they may have to

remove nowadays safely and easily.

And then obviously, if you need any sort

of advice and guidance, the audiologist that you're

seeing there will be able to help you.

I work with a clinic here in Plymouth and they

do some fantastic work and they help a lot of

people with alternatives by helping make sure that there's no

wax in your ears, by checking your hearing system, and

by giving you or providing equipment that you may need.

If there isn't here an issue there.

They give lots of fantastic advice and guidance.

And what I'll do is I'll drop a link to

that place in the blurb underneath this podcast today.

The most important thing, once obviously you've ruled out

any medical factors you've had your hearing assessed, is

to listen to what the specialist is describing.

Some people feel difficult about struggle with

hearing aids, that sort of thing.

It's a sign.

So it's no different to getting your

first pair of glasses or anything else.

But persevere keep trying.

You may struggle at first to wear your

hearing aids because there's something new, because there's

something different, but there's lots of these different

modern hearing AIDS now that will totally help

you to obviously manage your tinnitus, if that

is the equipment that you need.

There are other things that you can get

that you can maybe help your sleep.

Sort of white noise, background noise, machines that go

underneath your pillow and they produce noise that the

brain can focus on rather than tiny.

Some people might obviously play

music in the background.

If I try to sleep as your brain and your hearing

system will try to focus on that and try to listen

in for a lot of people, it obviously helps.

Also, we might try to change the

habits that we are so we might

avoid noisy environments, difficult or crowded environments.

While, yes, I think there's a benefit in doing this.

While I think we should be sensible with the

level that we're listening and the level that we're

exposing our hearing system to, I normally encourage people

to live their lives is normally impossible.

Talking to somebody, okay, is going

to be really key here.

Getting the right advice, whether it's from an audiologist from

a therapist like myself, I notice that stress and anxiety,

the worry and the fear of that change, of what's

going to happen, just exacerbate the perception of the tinnitus

and the noise that you hear.

Now, normally a rush to go out and have a

look and see if the cures and if you look

into Google, please don't do this, but if you look

on Google, there is a plethora of different curls, things

promising to take your tinnitus away and just encourage

you basically to part with your money.

At the moment, unfortunately, there

is no cure for tinnitus.

Yes, different things help different people, but please be

really cautious about where you spend your money.

Look and research reputable websites and associations

that can give you independent, impartial advice

and are experts on it.

Step away from the Google. Obviously.

You've got the NHS websites, you've got

the British Tinnitus Association, the BTA.

They are a charity who work extensively and

do lots of good work around tinnitus.

And there's lots of different advice

and guidance on their website.

And again, what I'll do is I'll put a link

in the bottom of this podcast in the blurb area.

It can also be leave us with feelings of

being quite anxious, unknown noise, this perception that we

can't seem to get rid of at times.

Again, what I said is talking to a

therapist who's had experience, who's trained in some

mindfulness techniques and relaxation techniques, they can offer

advice and guidance about what they can do.

We want also somebody that's had some tinnitus retraining

knowledge so they can help people and give you

advice about how you can think and manage your

alternatives in a slightly different way.

The best thing we can do is try to reduce the

stress and anxiety that we feel in general in our lives.

I mean, not only will that benefit us as a

whole, but it will definitely benefit the perception and the

sound of the noise that you're hearing and allowing people

to actually know that you're not alone.

There are other people out

there experiencing the same thing.

There are people out there who do understand and

do have knowledge and skills to help you.

Obviously using your hearing AIDS if

that is what you need.

If you have some sort of damage or

loss to your hearing, then that's important.

And again, what I encourage you to

do is build up to it.

So if you struggle to wear your hearing aids all

day, wear them for an hour, take them off, wear

them for another hour or whatever it is, and just

gradually increase the use that you can.

If you struggle with putting them in for 8, 10, 12

hours a day, I know for myself that's what I

do, I use my hearing AIDS when appropriate, I put

them in for a certain period of time and I

take them out again and I mix and manage them.

And gradually, over a period of time, it's got longer

and longer, easier and easier for me to wear them.

But we're all different, obviously.

Sleep is something that gets impacted

quite a lot with tinnitus.

Sleep in general affects our emotional health.

Sleep affects how we feel the next day.

It's not rocket science, really.

If we have a good night's sleep, we feel

better, we feel more energised the following day.

So it can be difficult to fall asleep

at times with obviously ten of us.

But in order to do that, we have to

get our minds and our bodies relaxed as possible.

Now, there's lots of different things you can do here.

There is obviously relaxation techniques, there

are mindfulness techniques, there's breathing techniques.

Please don't give up because there's a whole

range of stuff that you can try that

will have different success rates on different days

depending on your circumstances, et cetera.

You can try some herbal relaxation things.

One thing we don't want is for you

starting to have to rely on some medication

or some sort of treatment from the doctors.

We need that as a last resort and the

doctors will be quite resistant to giving you sleeping

tablets over a longer period of time.

So we have to encourage you to have

some new skills for dealing with that.

Falling asleep, having some relaxation

in whatever way is possible.

So as I said, there are lots

of different things that you can try

CBT again I would look for a therapist

who's trained and helpful, has knowledge, intended us

mindfulness techniques which are really useful to us

all at different times anyway.

Tinnitus retraining therapy, that's a structured way to

you managing your tinnitus and it gives you

different ways of dealing with things.

I use lots of different techniques for the people that

I see and it has to vary, it has to

be adaptable to each person and what their experience and

what they feel is their situation at that time.

Obviously taking care of your hearing,

getting regular cheques, all that.

Things that should be something that

we should all be doing really.

We do quite often go for dental, checkups for the

eyesight, when do we ever pay attention to our hearing?

If you can encourage and get used to going having

your hearing checked regularly, that would be great too.

What I really want to get through in this podcast

is people struggle but lots of people manage, lots of

people can adapt their lifestyle to leaving the tinnitus.

There's lots of help and support there for you.

Don't give up.

It can be easy to get

down despondent if something doesn't work.

Look for and get the expert advice that you

need to help with your tinnitus to help with

your situation, whether it's from a hearing loss and

you need equipment and advice around that.

Seek a local audiologist, someone who's got

the expertise and knowledge to help you

if you're suffering from stress and anxiety.

And seek a therapist that has experience again to

support you in the way that you need.

If you need any advice, if you need

any guidance, please don't hesitate to contact me.

As always, I'm here to answer any questions in the

best possible way and I know the colleague that I

work with a fantastic audiologist, as I said about here in Plymouth

he'll be more helpful with your questions and I'm sure

that if I haven't got any answers, I will get

the information you need from him to help you in

whatever way that we both can.

For now, I want you to stay safe, go

well and look after yourselves and please don't hesitate

to come back and listen to another podcast.

Thanks for listening today and it's me, Alan.

Sign off as a therapy guy for today.

Bye for now.

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