What Is Ringing In The Ears Caused By - Manging Tinnitus

What Is Ringing In The Ears Caused By

Previously, we began by discussing some of the common problems that people might experience in relation to tinnitus. In this post we will offer you some further tips on how to manage some of these common problems.

Dealing with Distressing Emotions

In order to manage the distressing emotional problems that might arise in response to tinnitus, it is important for you to keep in mind the powerful influence of your thoughts on your emotions. You can learn to reduce feelings of depression, low mood, helplessness, and hopelessness, by practicing the cognitive methods.

Symptoms of anxiety, tension, and frustration may also be addressed by these cognitive strategies in combination with the relaxation procedures. Relaxation training will also assist you if you find that your tinnitus is worse when you are under some form of stress. The self-instructional and problem-solving skills, and the procedures for identifying and preparing for high-risk situations, can also all serve as effective methods to manage stressful events. Feelings of helplessness and frustration may be overcome by learning to gain a greater sense of control over your attentional processes in response to tinnitus using the attention control and imagery exercises. We will now spend some time offering a few further tips on how to deal with feelings of suicide and anger.

Summary of common problems associated with tinnitus

1. Distressing Emotional Problems

Tinnitus causes feelings of depression, tension, irritability, anger, annoyance, and frustration.
Tinnitus is worse during periods of stress.

2. Sleep Difficulties

Tinnitus causes problems in falling asleep.
Tinnitus makes it difficult to remain asleep.

3. Detrimental Effects on Hearing and Communication

Tinnitus makes it difficult to follow conversations or to hear what is being said against background noise.
Tinnitus causes problems in quiet environments.
Tinnitus causes problems in noisy places.

4. Intrusiveness on Daily Activities and Lifestyle

Tinnitus disrupts one's ability to concentrate on work activities and other mental tasks.
Tinnitus causes negative changes in relationships with spouse, partner, family members, and friends.
Tinnitus leads to reduced participation in work, social, and recreational activities.
Tinnitus leads to reduced pleasure from social, leisure, and recreational activities.

Suicide

In many parts of this blog, we have mentioned the fact that some people with tinnitus contemplate committing suicide. We may consider at this point in the blog three different types of experiences that may arise in relation to suicide. Some people are aware of suicidal thoughts, but are confident that they will not actually carry through with any suicidal actions. Others are troubled by suicidal thoughts, even to the point of making plans. On occasion, such people may get to the brink of suicide. A third group of people may make an attempt to kill themselves, but, for various reasons, do not succeed. Even if a person does not intend to carry out a suicidal plan, the thoughts themselves can be very frightening.

Clearly, this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional assistance for any person who thinks about suicide. These thoughts or plans should serve as a signal that appropriate professional assistance ought to be sought. It is imperative that you mention these issues to your regular medical practitioner, specialist, or other member of the helping professions with whom you are in contact. That person can then consider whether you would benefit from a referral to a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist.

Of course, you may realize that your situation is desperate and that more rapid action is needed. If so, you may decide to refer yourself for an appropriate consultation. (We are aware that different referral practices occur in different parts of the world.) The important point here is not to panic, nor to give up. You must not give up the hope of finding help – help is available. Professional assistance may be needed to find that help. By all means, take this blog with you, because you may be able to use relevant posts of this blog to highlight the most urgent issues for you.

Anger

Some people who experience tinnitus display a great deal of anger. This display of anger often consumes an unnecessary amount of energy that could be better harnessed in directly dealing with the problems. In addition, anger tends to be very difficult for other people, such as friends and family, to cope with.

If anger is a problem, you need to think about how to manage it while still expressing your legitimate frustrations in other more productive ways. It is more effective to be assertive in a way that respects the rights and feelings of other people.

Ask yourself: What or who is the real subject of this anger? Sometimes the anger is just being directed at anyone, even when these people are not the real or legitimate object of the frustration.

The common objects of anger are the person, company, or institution that might be responsible for causing the tinnitus; other people who do not display an adequate understanding of the tinnitus, and who therefore do not provide the support that is expected; people who make loud noises or are responsible for noisy machinery; the medical profession for failing to provide a cure; or the government for not spending more money on tinnitus research.

Of course, a person who experiences tinnitus may be angry about various issues that have no relevance to the tinnitus, although tinnitus may increase the frustration level, making it difficult to deal with annoying events in a calmer, more accepting way. If you can identify who (or what) it is that makes you angry, you may then be able to develop a plan to deal with the problem more appropriately. You could tackle this issue as a subject of the problem-solving exercises. You need to identify the thoughts that connect the events with the emotion of anger using the A-B-C analysis.

Having identified the thoughts, and examined their validity or constructiveness, you can then generate more constructive and appropriate counterstatements. The applied relaxation techniques might also be used to deal with specific events that make you angry, even if these events are unrelated to the tinnitus. To learn more, you can check out What Is Ringing In The Ears Caused By.