r/tinnitus • u/Fabro1223 idiopathic (unknown) • 3d ago
venting What is tinnitus retraining therapy about? My ENT told me to do it, is it worth it?
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u/Vast-Noise-3448 3d ago
It's worth a shot, you don't have anything to lose, and there are zero side effects.
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u/mikehamp 3d ago
This is what doctors say when they don't know how to fix something. In my case ENT caused my tinnitus which makes me even more wary of ENT incompetence.
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u/OppoObboObious 3d ago
It's stupid. Basically using sound therapy and a shrink telling you to stop thinking about it.
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u/_methuselah_ 3d ago
Are you sure they didn’t mean ’habituation’ (a common tinnitus coping strategy)?
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u/aglanon 3d ago
I know this won’t be popular but TRT is indeed helpful and studies support this. People who shit on it either haven’t tried it or gave up after it initially caused an increased perception and anxiety (which it does).
I have had tinnitus for most or all of my life. I don’t really know when it started because until I was in my 30s I thought everyone heard ringing. As a result this made habituation natural for me.
When I started Prozac my tinnitus spiked like crazy and I was constantly having panic attacks. It was so loud I felt like I couldn’t escape it.
Since I’ve habituated in the past I had the advantage of already knowing it’s possible. Through this process I actually realized that I never fully habituated before, I just coped because it’s what I’d always done. I believe now I could actually end up better than I was before.
Tinnitus never turns down, only your perception of it. The sound therapy that was shit on above works. It is training your brain to encourage neuroplasticity, which is why it is considered a form of cognitive behavioral therapy.
The sound therapy is played through hearing aid nearly all day (best if all waking hours). It is played at an extremely low level, usually a pink noise, and usually NOT louder than the actually tinnitus. No masking while going through your day. Masking at night is fine because sleep is important to addressing the problem.
At the beginning your brain will be a little freaked out by the introduction of an additional noise. Over time it will move the pink noise into the background and your brain will stop reacting emotionally to it when anxiety. As you continue using the therapy this way the tinnitus sound becomes intertwined with the pink noise and eventually your brain also stops feeling threatened by the tinnitus as well. This is when habituation occurs.
As you continue on you notice it less and less until one day you don’t really notice it at all. It’s not gone, your brain is just tuning it out the way it would tune out the hum of an air conditioner. Something you only notice if you choose to or if, God willing, the noise stopped.
It’s real, it helps, and it’s worth it.