Coping with tinnitus

Hearing sounds in your ears or head? Tinnitus is a common, but often misunderstood condition with numerous causes. Many people are told by various health care professionals that "nothing can be done" or "you must learn to live with it." While it is true that there is no cure for tinnitus, there are treatment options and coping strategies available.

For those with mild tinnitus, masking the condition with other sounds is often enough to find relief. At home remedies can be as simple as turning on a fan or some light background music to drown out the tinnitus. Tinnitus maskers are also available. They can be worn like hearing aids and produce white noise or tones to mask the tinnitus.

In some people tinnitus can be exacerbated by other medical conditions such as high blood pressure, anxiety, fatigue and depression to name a few. So, avoiding things that can bring on or make these conditions worse is helpful. Try to avoid stress when possible and reduce intake of salt, caffeine and alcohol, especially in the evening.

In many cases tinnitus activates parts of the autonomic nervous system and can become associated with extreme anxiety. In these cases a combination of counseling and masking in the form of Tinnitus Retraining Therapy can be used to reduce the negative emotional reactions to tinnitus. For more information about this treatment contact your local hearing health care professional.

The take home message from this article should be that you don't have to "just live with tinnitus." There are treatment options and coping strategies available. The following site offers some good information on tinnitus:

http://www.kadis.com/ta/tinnitus.htm

If you would like to speak to someone for more information about tinnitus please contact us at 252-3004 in Lower Sackville or 423-7734 in Halifax.