There Is No Tinnitus Distress

In this talk, I explain what I mean when I say there is no tinnitus distress on its own. The term only describes being bothered by the sound, and it does not tell you what to do. I describe how being bothered is made up of a physical reaction, an emotion, and a thought, and how sitting in meditation, with some background sound if you are just starting, can help you notice which of these is troubling you. I then outline, in broad terms, how each of the three can be worked with. This content is educational and is not a substitute for one-to-one professional care.

Transcript

There is no tinnitus distress. What could he possibly mean by this? Tinnitus distress is the term that's used to describe the state of being bothered by tinnitus. And it's to be distinguished from the condition of tinnitus by the fact that most of the people who have tinnitus do not have tinnitus distress. They are not bothered by tinnitus. So the term does separate off a group of individuals, And I had to include myself among those when I first got tinnitus. But the term, The usefulness ends there, In terms of delineating a group of people, Because the tinnitus distress is just a concept. It doesn't lead anywhere. What do I mean by this? Well, It doesn't tell us what then to do. If I have a headache, I know I should take an aspirin, Maybe lie down, And there's a course of action dictated by the symptoms. The tinnitus distress by itself is not really a symptom. It's simply the state of being bothered by tinnitus. So if we're going to take action and do something, We have to get beyond tinnitus, Distress, And ask or discover what it actually refers to. And when we look into it. Tinnitus distress refers to some combination of one of three things, One or more of three things. It can refer to a physical reaction, An emotional reaction, Or a cognitive reaction, A thought. Thought, Emotion, And physical sensation. These are the three components of our experience. And the experience of tinnitus, Distress is an experience, And so must be composed of one or more of those three conditions. And that is where we can start to act. So we need to discover where in our distress consists. And so we need to see, Is it a physical reaction I'm having? Is it a thought that's troubling me? Is it an emotional state? And then we'll talk about strategies once we have determined what exactly that distress consists in. Now, The best way, The most efficient way to begin to get a handle on one's distress, I argue, Is through the practice of meditation. When we meditate, Sit with our tinnitus, Not focusing on the tinnitus, But it's there. We meditate and if we're just starting, We put some background sound on as well. But as we sit we can begin to discover what is bothering us. And that's the first piece of information we need, What's bothering us. And many people, When I ask them, They can't tell me. They're bothered by tinnitus. Well, What is it? Is it a thought? Is it an emotion? Is it a physical sensation? So by sitting with it, We can begin to discover. Am I bothered by a physical sensation? Is it a rumbling in my stomach? Is it a tightness in my chest? Is it a headache? What exactly is the physical? Reaction that's troubling me, That's bothering me, That's causing distress? Is it a thought I'm having that I can't get rid of? That I can't live like this, And that thought is causing me distress. Is it an emotional reaction, Anxiety, Anger, Sadness? We need to determine which one or more than one of these is causing us the distress. And once we've discovered it, Then we can begin to work with it. If it's a bodily sensation, It usually involves some activation of the sympathetic nervous system. And so we learn to calm down the sympathetic nervous system through practice, Through training, In large part through meditation training. But other ways as well. If it's a thought, In mindfulness meditation has a very particular way of working with thoughts where we observe the thought and through practice, Through training, We learn to let that thought go, Come back to our present moment experience. And if it's an emotion, Well, In fact, You know, Emotions are primarily a combination of thought and sensation. So you can see an outline how we're going to work with these. Are actually trickier. They usually require that, Especially the distressing emotions, That we learn to regulate them. And there's a whole slew of emotional regulation practices we can develop to work with distressing emotions. So that's what we need to find out first. There is no tinnitus distress. There is physical reaction, There is an emotional reaction, And there is a thought or cognitive component to the condition. And we need to figure out, As I said, Wherein our distress consists and to work with each of those three. And mindfulness and mindfulness training allows us a path to work with each of those three. So I hope this is somewhat useful to you. Thanks.