What is Tinnitus Retraining Therapy?

One of the hardest conditions to live with is tinnitus. It’s not just because the sound you hear incessantly in your ears is annoying, but because it’s a condition that is completely subjective. This means that you can’t just turn to someone and make them listen to the sound that you’re hearing. The loud ringing or buzzing in your ears is bothersome, but as you’re the only person who can hear it, it makes this a very lonely condition to deal with. Unfortunately, there is no true way to measure tinnitus that is objective. You can see an audiologist, sure, but you can’t walk in, have a blood test or an x-ray, and be diagnosed with one of the most annoying conditions on the planet. It also doesn’t help that we don’t really understand how tinnitus works, though we do have more of an idea of why it occurs in some cases. Understanding the causes of tinnitus is very vague, too, which makes treating the ringing or noise you hear in your ears quite difficult.

There is hope

While all of this can make you feel frustrated and worried, you shouldn’t feel hopeless about your condition. When you speak to your audiologist, you’ll be told about a range of treatment options to help alleviate the sound in your ears, and you’ll likely go on to show a vast improvement in the symptoms. With the right treatment plan, tinnitus doesn’t have to take over your life. While there are several treatments out there for tinnitus, there is one in particular that is providing significant relief to those suffering with tinnitus long-term. This is called Tinnitus Retraining Therapy. It has previously shown to be rather useful in helping the symptoms of tinnitus, but before you can understand how Tinnitus Retraining Therapy works, it can help to understand the two things that make up the tinnitus.

Tinnitus in two

When there is no external noise in the room, and yet you perceive a constant noise, this is what is known as tinnitus. There are two parts to tinnitus, and we break it down as follows:

The sound you hear

Sometimes, tinnitus is described as a ringing sound, but other patients can listen to a buzzing or hissing, swooshing, or clicking. Sometimes it’s constant, and other times, it’s intermittent.

The reaction to it

The perception of the noise and the way the sound is heard can cause mild to massive disruption in everyday life. The emotional response to tinnitus can make a person feel isolated and afraid to interact.

You cannot hope to have an effective treatment without looking at both sides of tinnitus, and this is what Tinnitus Retraining Therapy does best.

Tinnitus retraining therapy

Tinnitus Retraining Therapy works two ways: the sound therapy used to improve the noise, and cognitive behavioral therapy to address the emotional response to the sound. Let’s take a look at how it works.

Sound therapy

When you speak to your audiologist about your tinnitus issue, they may recommend Tinnitus Retraining Therapy because of the sound treatment that comes with it. External sound is used to mask the internal ringing, which is why your audiologist may prescribe the use of hearing aids. The hearing aids can amplify another sound to drown out the tinnitus noise, diverting your attention effectively. With Tinnitus Retraining Therapy, it works similarly by providing an external sound to distract you from the noise in your ears, and this can provide relief right away. Over time, the brain retrains to realize that the tinnitus is not a vital noise that needs attention, and this is called habituation. There are benefits to sound therapy, and it can be delivered through headphones and specialized devices to mask the noise.

Cognitive behavioral therapy

You need cognitive behavioral therapy to work hand in hand with sound therapy when treating tinnitus with Tinnitus Retraining Therapy. They can address the emotional side of dealing with it, and as tinnitus can be a trigger for isolation, anxiety, and depression, it’s also an important thing to do for yourself. The emotional side of tinnitus is hard to cope with, and cognitive behavioral therapy can assist with this in a big way. Your audiologist can recommend this therapy either one to one or in a group situation, and you can even receive this help over the phone.

Don’t wait to get help

Tinnitus Retraining Therapy is an effective therapy for those who are dealing with tinnitus, and you can get the right help that you need by calling Pittsburgh Ear Associates at 412-321-2480 today.