Speak to your local audiologist, and they’ll tell you that tinnitus is one of the most common conditions they treat every day. A lot of things can cause tinnitus, and the symptoms can be frustrating to deal with. Typically, you’ll have a constant ringing or clicking sound in your ears. No matter where you go, it doesn’t disappear.
As you can imagine, this causes a fair bit of annoyance in your life. But it can also impact the quality of your life as well. Here are four different ways that tinnitus can be a regular burden for you:
Can lead to insomnia
Insomnia is a condition where you can’t get to sleep. When you have tinnitus, there’s a high chance you’ll end up with sleep issues. It’s very hard to relax when you can hear a loud ringing or buzzing sound the whole time. To make things worse, it feels as though it gets louder when you become aware of it. You can’t stop thinking about the ringing, and you can’t get to sleep.
Human beings need sleep to recover after a long day. As a result, tinnitus stops you from feeling refreshed every morning. You wake up with bags under your eyes and just a couple of hours of sleep to pull you through the day. In turn, this can impact your work and your personal life.
Makes it hard to concentrate
Similarly, tinnitus makes it very hard for you to concentrate or focus on specific things. If you’re trying to work, then it provides a constant distraction. No matter how hard you try, you can’t get rid of the ringing in your ears. It’s the only thing you can think about, and this leads to a complete lack of focus.
Even if you’re at home reading a book or watching TV, this is an inconvenience. It stops you from enjoying your hobbies! But, it’s even more of an issue when it impacts your job. A lack of concentration will lead to a dip in your work performance. If things don’t improve, then your boss might start having words with you.
Causes emotional distress
If you are experiencing tinnitus, then it can be very emotionally challenging. In effect, it’s a burden on your mental health and emotional wellbeing. It almost makes you feel paranoid every single day. As soon as you wake up, you wait to see if the ringing is still there. When it is, you really struggle to shake it from your mind.
In some severe cases, tinnitus can cause people to experience emotional difficulties. This has nothing to do with pain – it’s completely painless – it’s just the sheer psychological effect it carries. Tinnitus can consume your life if you don’t get it treated. As a result, your relationships can be affected too. Some people become closed off from their friends because tinnitus is just weighing down on them and stopping them from feeling happy and cheerful.
Difficulty communicating with others
Lastly, tinnitus can make it hard for you to communicate with others. First of all, it sometimes comes about as a result of hearing loss. Already, that impacts your ability to communicate. But, having the ringing in your ears also plays a big role here. It relates back to the idea of being unable to concentrate. Instead of focusing on what the other person is saying, you’re focusing on the noise in your ears.
Consequently, conversations are littered with pardons and can you say that again please? It can make you feel embarrassed.
How do you treat tinnitus?
The good news is that there are tinnitus treatment options out there. An audiologist will likely recommend one of these three methods:
- Hearing aids: Special hearing aids contain tinnitus masking features that block out the ringing sound from your ears.
- Sound machines: These machines can be placed in your home and provide white noise or other sounds to mask your tinnitus.
- Tinnitus retraining therapy: This method involves training yourself to get used to the tinnitus. Instead of seeing it as a burden, it becomes a normal part of life. In turn, this almost makes it fade into the background of your mind.
Contact us to learn more
Are you experiencing tinnitus? If so, then we highly recommend giving the team at San Francisco Hearing Center a call. We provide help for anyone suffering from hearing-related issues.
