So you’ve noticed an increase to sounds in your head or it’s the first time you’ve had them. Unfortunately Tinnitus will make itself known to you when there s an increase of either physical or emotional stress. At times like this a large proportion of us will have increased stress and for some of us that means tinnitus perception gets louder and for others it leads to other stress related issues like headaches, irritability etc.
As you are probably trying to stay out of the way of GPs while they deal with essential services, you are still finding it hard to tolerate. Firstly, if you are going to google, please try our trusted friends. Tinnitus Association of Australia tinnitus.org.au
British tinnitus Association tinnitus.org.uk
Both these groups are elf help groups who only talk about items that have tried and tested and also reviewed by health professionals. They have different forms of education, distractions and meditations to help you with all sorts of issues.
The Basics of tinnitus is that anything that makes you stressed can make it more noticeable, and anything that distracts you (sound, sight, feel etc) can make it less noticeable. So if it is a stress you can reduce – work on that, and if a certain activity is one where you never notice it, try that. Sometimes we can’t deal with the stress head-on ie all the unknowns of a pandemic, but when we read a good book it softens.
How do i know what caused it? Mostly that is quite simple. for example, you have heard tinnitus for two weeks, What has been stressful either physically (tired, dehydrated, pain etc) or mentally (worrying about job, grief and loss) for you in last two weeks? So if people come into the clinic stating they have had it for a few weeks at present, my first question would be “How are you coping with all the changes at present?”. The cause is only important in that it proves that it has a cause and therefore it is treatable. People worry far more about it when its appearance doesn’t make sense to them.
