Eliminating fear about tinnitus

Hello everyone as many of you know I've had my fair share of tms symptoms throughout the years.

However recently there has been one remaining one that has bothered me for tinnitus.

Now I've had it for 8 years and I believe mine might be from exposure to loud nosies. It did start after a party when I did not wear earplugs

As a result I have a hard time accepting mine as tms.

Recently I decided to not let my fear win and I went out to a karaoke bar that was decently loud for about 2 hours.

I did wear earplugs (earpeace) but today I woke up and I am experiencing a major spike and its definitely louder now I am worried I messed up and made it louder permanently just for one night of fun and I feel stupid.

This symptom has given me bad anxiety in recent years, affected my social life due to me avoiding going out. I just don't know what to do I miss going out to bars and concerts and being carefree before I had this.

 

Thanks, Jan. I removed the link to the video previously referenced above.
@NameK the YT episode you might find helpful is from the channel DocWorking. It’s called “How to Retrain the Brain to Process Stress and Emotions, and Eliminate Tinnitus & Chronic Pain.” It’s hosted by Jen Barna interviewing Peter Studenik, dated Oct 9 2023.

 

You may be experiencing a conditioned response where your brain has paired exposure to loud music with tinnitus even though there is no medical basis for this in your case. You can eventually override this response by using the technique of "talking to your brain", which uses your logical, rational higher brain to override your unconscious brain. So before or during your exposure to loud music, say to yourself something like "There is no logical reason for me to get tinnitus when listening to loud music. So just stop it brain! Stop it! I don't need a distraction right now!" Then forget about it. I used this technique successfully when my brain had paired changes in the barometric pressure with migraine headaches.

It does require that you believe that what you are telling yourself is true. So you may need to work on your belief first.

 

Today I went to a brunch place that happened to be alittle on the louder side.

Now I'm not saying it's like a loud bar or nightclub level but I decided to not let my fear win and decided against wearing my earplugs in fear that being there for an hour or two would somehow damage my hearing and make my tinnitus worse.

Of course after I thought to myself maybe I should have worn earplugs etc.

But I need to only wear them when I need to like at work or a concert etc stuff where you can actually lose and or damage your hearing

I don't want to be deaf but I also need to live my life I can't be scared of doing stuff that I like to do because of this. Even with earplugs I have not gone to a concert since getting tinnitus back in 2018.