I have had tinnitus since the early 1990’s and it would seem that I got this condition due to playing guitar in a loud rock band and my time spent riding and racing motorcycles, both of which I did without the use of any form of ear protection, in those days it just was not the done thing , not cool. My case seems to be a straight forward case of exposure to loud noise but tinnitus can also be brought on as a result of disease in the ears, head injuries, some medications can also produce tinnitus. The causes of tinnitus are still not fully understood, but in recent times far more research is being done to create solutions and treatments and also to hopefully one day find a cure for tinnitus.
Tinnitus CureI knew I had tinnitus for a long time, I had ringing, buzzing and clicking noises in my ears for years, only when it started to get worse did I eventually go to see a specialist. Then after a hearing test and an MRI scan, I was finally diagnosed with tinnitus and I was basically told that there was “No Cure“ for tinnitus and the best thing I could do was to go away and “learn to live with it “ and my audiologist also said that I should give up playing the guitar and riding motorcycles. Without knowing it, he had just asked me to give up the two things I really am passionate about. This came as quite a shock and after thinking about what he had said for a few weeks I returned to my audiologist with 20 questions about what I could and couldn’t do regarding tinnitus, as I was concerned about making it worse. He was dismissive of my concerns and suggested I try not to give it much thought. I then did what a lot of people do, I searched the internet for a miracle cure, I found lots of people who where going to sell you all sorts of potions, food stuffs, chemicals, etc, and all of them designed to eradicate tinnitus. I read articles, I researched many case histories and in fact I did exactly what most people are advised not to do, I focused on the tinnitus.
Some years before in the early 1990’s while in was learning to fly in the United States, I had spare time in the evening and I enrolled in a visualisation course at the local college in the town where I was staying. Visualisation is a form of hypnosis. On this course I learned self-hypnosis which at the time was very helpful in aiding to me land the aircraft in a crosswind, which for the novice flyer is a difficult manoeuvre. I would create in my mind a vivid mental image of me at the controls of the aircraft and in real time I would mentally go through each step of the landing, I did this time and time again in my mind until it felt a very natural, so when the time came to do it for real, it was easy for me, it just seemed to happen as I had imagined it. When I started to think back about visualisation, I wondered if I could use hypnosis and visualisation to help with my tinnitus.
I have now developed different methods using these techniques to help people with Tinnitus. Tinnitus can be a debilitating and worrying condition and the more you worry and focus on it the more stress is created and the worse the tinnitus gets, leading to more worry and more stress it is like a vicious circle. I trained with the British Tinnitus Association as a counsellor. I did this in order to learn the counselling skills, which I can use in conjunction with hypnosis and hypnotherapy to help people with tinnitus. I have now learned to deal with my tinnitus and it has no real affect on my life and well-being. I have managed to reduce considerably its effect on me and by the way, I still play guitar, not as loud as before but I still play and I always wear my custom made ear plugs and I still race motorcycles, but again with ear plugs and a helmet that I selected because it is very well insulated against noise.
Tinnitus has to be managed and you can take control of the tinnitus rather than it taking control of you, I know this from my own experiences and I can share them with you and help you to overcome the worry and stress attached to tinnitus, so It can be reduced to the point where it has little effect on your everyday life.
