A sea sound effect that you can use to avoid silence, mix with your tinnitus, and encourage relaxation.
Bringing it all together.
Taking positive action.
What not to do...
Introducing a case study over the following chapters with Miss Ring and Mrs Hum.
A good understanding is a great start.
When tinnitus is noticed and there are no negative feelings associated with it, then it is unlikely to become a problem.
Non-meaningful sound must be mixed or matched with tinnitus. If you try and mask tinnitus the brain cannot change the nerve connections that affect it so easily. The brain may even increase the loudness of tinnitus so that it can be noticed over the masking sound!
If a change is made in the emotional evaluation of tinnitus or the ease that tinnitus is noticed, then the connections in the brain that made tinnitus a problem change. This reduces the frequency with which tinnitus occurs in the future and diminishes the negative feeling associated with it.
(See diagram in the cover image)
Surround yourself with low level sounds.
Reduce your time in quieter situations.
A trial with hearing aids, or other hearing remediation, is recommended if you have a significant hearing loss..
A hearing test or series of auditory function tests are recommended.
It takes time for physical changes to happen between nerve cells in the brain and for the emotion-attention loop to unwind. Therefore any improvement in tinnitus often takes time too.
When tinnitus is less of mystery the negative feelings associated with it can become reduced.
Connections between nerve cells in the brain become stronger through simultaneous activity.
The loudness of tinnitus can be unrelated to status of the hearing system. It tends to be more closely linked to the degree of attention directed towards the tinnitus.
An attention-emotion loop can cause a negative spiral for tinnitus.
(See diagram in the cover image)
If tinnitus is associated with negative feelings then it tends to get more attention.
Emotional associations are formed all the time. These can be neutral, positive, or negative.
