How To Overcome Anxiety Tinnitus

Tinnitus is a common problem that can really mess with your daily life.

People with tinnitus often feel really anxious and like something bad is about to happen, which makes the condition even worse.

It’s important to know how to handle anxiety and bad tinnitus when it flares up. This can help reduce its impact in a way that works for you and helps lower your anxiety.

This guide will give you strategies to overcome anxiety related to tinnitus. We’ll cover coping methods and behavioral therapies you can use during flare-ups.

But first, let’s talk about what anxiety tinnitus actually is.

What Exactly Is Anxiety Tinnitus

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Tinnitus is when you hear a high-pitched tone, a hum, a buzz, whistling, or in some rare cases, even singing, music, or voices.

It can happen with or without anxiety and can affect one or both ears.

People with tinnitus might have other hearing problems too. It can mess with their sleep, relationships, and daily life in general.

We don’t know exactly what causes it, but there are some common factors. People with hearing loss are more likely to get tinnitus. Other factors include:

– Being around loud noises or sounds
– Having a broken hearing aid
– Ear wax stuck in your inner ear
– After a car accident or head injury
– Having ear infections
– Having anxiety or being really stressed

In some less common cases, it can also be caused by dental problems or even life-threatening health issues.

What’s The Link Between Tinnitus And Anxiety

We don’t know exactly how these two are connected, but we do know that anxiety can cause a bunch of mental and physical symptoms that can make other problems like tinnitus worse.

Some people say their tinnitus gets worse when they’re really stressed or anxious, or even during panic attacks.

When our brain thinks something is a threat, our body might show physical signs of anxiety.

These can include:

– Worry
– Anger or irritation
– Depression
– Restlessness
– Poor concentration
– Low self-esteem
– Tension
– Fast heartbeat
– Sweating
– Trouble sleeping
– Difficulty breathing
– Digestive problems

Some of these symptoms can also trigger a tinnitus flare-up. The relationship between tinnitus and anxiety isn’t considered cause-and-effect, but rather they often happen together.

In simpler terms, one doesn’t cause the other – they can go either way, but you can experience both at the same time.

How To Cope When You’re Experiencing Tinnitus

Unfortunately, there’s no medical cure for tinnitus, and no real cure for anxiety either.

But both conditions can be managed in certain ways to try to make them less severe.

Here are some ways to get treatment for tinnitus:

Talk To A Doctor

If you’ve just started experiencing tinnitus, the first thing to do is talk to a doctor.

There could be many reasons why you’re suddenly feeling symptoms of tinnitus and this might be increasing your anxiety levels.

If your doctor spots an obvious cause, they might be able to give you medical treatments. If not, they can refer you for more treatments.

A doctor might notice an obvious cause from your first visit, like a dental problem or head injury.

If so, they’ll send you to a dentist or head specialist. But it might not be that simple.

More often, a doctor will first send you to an ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) specialist.

They’ll do a full check of your ear and can tell if you have an obvious cause (like ear wax stuck in there, for example).

See An Audiologist

If you know you have hearing loss or there’s no other reason for your tinnitus, it might help to see an audiologist.

You can often find them in opticians, get referred by your doctor, or they might have their own practice.

Hearing aids sometimes help people with tinnitus. They can often improve your hearing and also make other environmental sounds louder, which can take your mind off the ringing as you hear other things more clearly.

An audiologist might use a similar method if they choose to give you a hearing aid.

There’s a device they can put in the hearing aid called a masker. It makes other sounds to help your mind focus on something other than the high-pitched sounds of tinnitus.

Sound Therapy

Sound therapy can also help. Some people notice their tinnitus gets worse in very quiet situations. That’s why some people have trouble sleeping at night – they notice their condition gets worse.

Some sound therapies include listening to quiet white noise at night, or using headphones during quiet times to listen to relaxing apps that make sounds to help you calm down.

Counseling

If anxiety is the main trigger for your tinnitus, seeing a counselor might be the best thing to do.

The counselor might put you on a course of CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy).

This aims to train your brain to rethink certain situations, which then causes new physical reactions.

One method counselors use for people with anxiety is called grounding.

This is where the person puts their hands on a solid object and practices breathing techniques to try to ground themselves and feel better.

Wrapping It Up

While there’s no cure for tinnitus or anxiety, and we’re still studying how they’re related, there are the above methods you can try to help you cope with the symptoms of these conditions.

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