Tinnitus is a disorder where the degree of distress caused by the symptoms depends largely on the amount of worrying and attention that a person devotes to it.  A vicious cycle results, with anxiety and over attention leading to mental and physical tension, which in turn cause the auditory centers in the brain to increase their selectivity for seemingly important or threatening sounds, such as the tinnitus.  That then causes more anxiety, and so on.  This cycle, however can usually be broken and reversed, either because of appropriate counseling or due to the gradual spontaneous process of habituation of an ongoing sensation.

Almost any tinnitus counseling that explains the condition and allays some of the anxiety while suggesting improvement is possible will enhance the treatment. 

If you have tinnitus, you should be able to get a very worthwhile degree of relief with the approaches suggested in this brochure.  This self-treatment can be done either before or after seeking professional advice.  However, we recommend that you visit an ENT specialist or audiologist to reassure you that there is no underlying health condition causing the tinnitus for you to worry about.  If you are not reassured, you could ask to be referred to a hospital or specialist to make sure.  It is possible that you will have to wait for an appointment - so why not start to help yourself to manage your tinnitus now.

By following the advice in these notes, you can actually treat your tinnitus yourself and possibly achieve a gradual reduction of tinnitus to something that will eventually no longer matter much or at all.

Tinnitus is the experience of hearing a sound coming from within one or both of your ears, or your head.  It is often described as a ringing, buzzing, or whistling noise.  It is usually due to a minor disorder of your hearing system and is often associated with aging or exposure to loud noise.  It is a symptom, not a disease.

Although tinnitus can sometimes be very distressing, it is usually not life - threatening, and the quality of your life can be recovered.  You may not be able to get rid of your tinnitus noise completely, but you can gradually reduce or eliminate the way tinnitus affects you, so that you hardly notice it.  Most people who are upset by their tinnitus learn to mange it through doing things for themselves to improve their tinnitus. However, it may take several months – this is quite normal, so do not feel disheartened.

When you hear outside sounds, those sounds travel in waves in the air and are converted by your inner ear (cochlea) into nerve signals that are like tiny electrical currents.  These signals pass up you hearing nerve to the base of your brain.  Your brains then sorts out what is immediately important.  It usually ignores meaningless sound.  For example, most people can probably pick out the sound of their name uttered by someone in a room of chattering people and can detect a single musical instrument in a full orchestra.  Unfortunately, many people with tinnitus tend to do this with their tinnitus when it starts –we naturally home in on that new, unfamiliar, and unwanted noise.