How I "Learned" To Overcome The Torment Of Tinnitus

Dear D,

I am so sorry to hear of the hard time you're having with tinnitus.

I too have tinnitus, a condition that presented more than 20 years ago. (In hindsight, I wonder if I had tinnutus since my early days as a rock-n-roll aficionado but just didn't "notice" it. More on this later...)

When first diagnosed, I was tormented by the condition, and for several months was totally freaked out, thinking I would go crazy from the non-stop "sounds in my head."

Then, an odd thing happened.

One day, while reading a magazine in the Orange High School Teachers Lounge, I suddenly realized my tinnitus was gone!?!

But then, when I "went into my head" I quickly "located" it.

Notably, this episode also made me realize that -- to a significant extent -- I had become "frozen" in the habit of focusing "the sound in my head" by deliberately delving into it, by giving it my "energy-of-attention."

For example, right now -- as I compose this email about tinnitus -- I am "bringing tinnitus to mind" and, as a result, am immediately hear it and am annoyingly aware that I "have it."

However, I doubt that I have been aware of my tinnitus more than 1% of the time over the course of this morning and afternoon.

The fact that I am blissfully unaware of "the sound in my head" has become so routine that it is now my norm.

When I first realized that my tinnitus had "disappeared" I took heart in the fact that "losing track of it" (by not focusing it) was a "skill" "I" possessed.

"Getting lost" in other occupations and interests -- particularly those we love -- seems to be the best way to become "blissfully forgetful" since these "beloved activities" draw all my attention into what's going on "outside" my head so there is no energy left to pay attention to the tinnitus "inside" my head.

You can learn more about this psychological mechanism by boning up on "Flow Pyschology," a psychological "system" that originally made good sense long before I "applied" my understanding of Flow Psychology to tinnitus.

Here is Wikipedia's article on Flow Psychology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

And here is Flow Psychology founder Mihály Csíkszentmihályi giving a TED Talk about "Flow."

Flow (and the "forgetfulness" that accompanies it) is not a "skill" that can be deliberately developed except to the extent that we increase the amount-of-time we spend "in flow" by participating more frequently in those activities we most love. In turn, this practice of "doing what we love" accustoms the unconscious mind to "generalized forgetfulness."

When you ponder these things, you might think it's nonsense.

But "the proof is in the pudding" and this "mechanism" actually worked for me.

I occasionally have episodes of noticeable tinnitus lasting 20 - 30 minutes, and when I have them, they are profoundly aggravating.

But I have also grown trustful that my mind will spontaneously revert to "blissful ignorance" and now just "knowing" I have this mental ability leaves me with the everyday assumption that these half-hour long episodes of obsessing on my tinnitus are transient and will soon pass.

This confidence that they will pass --- a confidence arising from long experience --- "works!"

Wishing you well,

Alan