The D Word: Distraction And Tinnitus

09:12

The D Word: Distraction And Tinnitus

by Peter Vernezze

Type

talks

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Everyone

Plays

1

In this talk I explain why I am not a fan of the word distraction when it comes to tinnitus. I share the question from a presentation that first made me think about it, and the two things the word seems to imply to me: that the sound is something heavy to escape from, and that the rest of life is something trivial. Instead, I suggest turning your attention toward what you are doing in your life and letting the sound sit in the background. I also say where a short-term break from the sound can still make sense, such as during a spike. This content is educational and is not a substitute for one to one professional care.

Sound Focus Mindful Awareness Tinnitus Attention Acceptance And Commitment Therapy Mindfulness Distraction Attention Redirection

Meet your Teacher

Tucson, AZ, USA

Meet your Teacher

Tucson, AZ, USA

Transcript

So. In tinnitus, You're often told to distract yourself. Something we all hear from a very early stage in our diagnosis. I am not a fan of the word distraction. I want to use this video to talk about why. Because it has gotten me into some arguments with folks. Want to justify my take on why I am not a fan of distraction. The first time it occurred to me that I did not like the word distraction when I was giving a presentation. And someone asked the question, It was roughly, Well, You talk about mindfulness all the time and we're told to be mindful of everything. But we're not supposed to be mindful of our tinnitus, Are we? We're supposed to distract ourselves from our tinnitus. The questioner said, Which one is it? Are we supposed to be mindful of everything and hence mindful of our tinnitus? Or are we supposed to distract ourselves and not be mindful of something? And I thought and I paused and I realized, Well, This is a classic destructive dilemma with two Two horns, Either of which are supposed to get me in trouble. Abandon the practice of distractionist, Age-old piece of tinnitus wisdom. Or I abandon mindfulness. And me being me, I went, As we said, In a dilemma, You can either grab one of the horns, Or you can go between the horns. Technically qualified as going between the horns. We don't distract ourselves from anything. We just. . . Place our attention on something other than the tinnitus. There are a million things that could give attention to. The inputs we have in our mind are literally, If not endless, Very many. And I just. Decide not to give my attention to tinnitus. I'm not distracting myself from anything. So I guess technically actually I went with throwing out distraction, Now that I think about it. And I never looked back. Distraction and I've been vindicated by the dictionary and I'll talk about that in a second. But distractions always seem to me to have two implications for tinnitus that I particularly dislike. When I distract myself from something, Usually the thing I distract myself from is something that's you know, Irritating or weighty. I need to distract myself from my work. Or I was waiting, I remember very vividly for. . . The outcome of one of my family members in an operation in the operating room and I felt I could only distract myself by playing video games or solitaire on the phone. So, The upshot is that when you distract yourself, The thing you distract yourself is this very heavy, Weighty thing. Object. And that to me gives tinnitus way too much weight. I wouldn't give it that much credence that I need to distract myself from it. A couple of Tinnitus Today magazines ago, This wonderful interviewer, A couple of essays and an interview with Stephen Hayes, Who is the founder of this, Which I've talked about on here, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Developed tinnitus later in life and used this therapeutic intervention, Which is grounded heavily in mindfulness, To work with his own tinnitus. And at one point he says, Talking about his tinnitus, Talking about writing this article, Um. . . I go weeks and months without looking for the tinnitus, And when I'm not looking, It's not there. I don't care that it's not there. Um. . . I don't care about that either, And you can't make me. Ringing or not ringing is equal. It's not of interest. By its nature, Implication, Gives the thing, Gives tinnitus way too much weight, Like this thing, I need to distract myself from this. It's just one of many things vying for my attention. I'm not placing my attention on it. It's not of interest. That's the best way to put it. And the flip side of of distractions. When I distract myself, I usually distract myself with something trivial. Like I was using the example of waiting for an operation. I might do a crossword puzzle to distract myself. So I distract myself with trivial little things. What we do is, When we turn our attention away from tinnitus, We turn it towards life. Itself, Whatever we are doing at the moment, Which is hopefully not a trivial little thing. We're engaged in our lives. So we're not just picking up a crossword puzzle or a video game to distract ourselves. We're turning ourselves away from our tinnitus. Turning our attention away from our tinnitus towards our life. A very positive, Meaningful thing, Not some little trivial event or game that I can occupy myself with for a few moments. So. . . Those two implications that distraction implies that gives the tinnitus way too much weight than I want to give it, And it implies that what I'm turning towards, I. E. My life, Is just some minor hobby to pass my time, When in fact it's an engagement with life that I want to do. I prefer turning my attention towards other things, Focusing my attention on other things besides the tinnitus. And some of the dictionary definitions, I mean, Distract, Many definitions, But one of the definitions of distract is to disturb or trouble greatly in mind. So grief distracted him is the example. It's a heavy state of mind. The word distracted, One of the definitions, Is rendered incapable of behavior in a normal manner. When you're distracted, You're not in life. So if I'm distracting myself from my tinnitus, I am distracted and incapable of normal behavior. And that's what distractions are. They're just little things that aren't in your life. They're little hobbies or things to pass my time. You know, A crossword puzzle, A classic distraction. Action. Um. . . Because I can't go on with my normal life. I'm just distracted. Distracting. Distraction. Mental stress or derangement. Oh. So, Distraction I avoid as a term and as a concept. Now, That said, I think there are times when, Especially when the tinnitus is spiking, Moments when you do engage in something like distraction, When all you are capable of are little moments of maybe doing something, Listening to something, Or doing something to give you a break from the tinnitus. But that has to be the exception rather than the rule. These moments of distraction cannot be something that can be done on a regular basis. It's a short-term strategy for extreme cases, And I think it fits well with the Bruce Hubbard piece I mentioned last time about strategies when the tinnitus is spiking. Strategy worth invoking for a short term. But as a long-term strategy, We don't want to distract ourselves from our tinnitus. We want to just have it be there and we're focusing on our life and not on our tinnitus. And as. . . Again, Stephen Hayes says, Ringing or not ringing, It's equal. It's not of interest. I don't need to distract myself from it because I'm not giving it that much credit. So that's where we're going. It's just focusing on our life and letting the tinnitus drop in. Into the background, Not distracting ourselves, Just not paying attention to it, Choosing to place our attention elsewhere. I'm glad I got that off my chest. And I hope that helps.