21 Practical Strategies for Coping and Living with Tinnitus

The constant high-pitched ringing feels like it’s emanating from your brain, and seeping out of your ear canal.

Tinnitus is an incredibly distracting sound that comes from inside your body. It is not an external sound, even though many people all over the world are burdened with it. People have described the sound like a ringing, hissing, buzzing, clicking and even howling in their ears.

While temporary tinnitus might follow as a result of a loud party, it can also be triggered by migraines or caffeine consumption. However, there is a close association between tinnitus and hearing loss.

In this article, I want to help those of us who experience this agony permanently or very frequently discover how to deal with tinnitus.

I’ve had it all my life. As a child, I would bang my head against a wall to try to get the noise out of my head. I had several x-rays taken of my head at the hospital but they couldn’t find the cause. I had to find my own way of coping with the relentless noise.

If it feels like the noise inside your head is consuming you, causing lack of sleep, claustrophobia, anxiety or even thoughts of suicide, I want you to know that you are not alone and that you have the power to take back control of your life.  

Tinnitus takes a toll on your quality of life. It can be extremely distracting, causing irritability, anxiety and depression. Imagine a mosquito burrowing into your ear, buzzing incessantly as its wings knock against the fragile bones of your middle ear – again and again, and again.

At first, you can’t understand where the noise is coming from or what it is. Sometimes, when your day is filled with activities, you might not even notice it’s there, then night begins, and the silence is drowned out by the high pitched flapping of mosquito wings. This is just how one person might experience tinnitus.

You can’t forget about tinnitus. It’s in your head all the time, but you can cope with it. Every person’s tinnitus experience is different. I hope these 21 best ways to manage tinnitus will help you figure out how to function and live happily.

1. Determine which situations trigger your tinnitus and learn to control your response to the sound. Mine gets worse if I’m stressed or tired, so I know I need to take time out and relax.
2. Treat underlying health problems. Tinnitus might be a side effect of another illness. Check with your doctor to rule this out.
3. Reduce anxiety and stress with mindful meditation. Some people have found yoga to be an effective way to calm their mind and body. Deaf yoga has certainly helped me.
4. Getting a massage from a qualified massage therapist might be the relaxation technique you need to give yourself a break from the internal noises.
5. Low doses of anti-anxiety drugs have helped some people reduce the effect of tinnitus.  
6. Avoid crowded and noisy environments, especially when wearing hearing aids as they magnify sounds. Where ever possible, try and avoid situations that cause you to feel overwhelmed.  
7. Hearing aids provide many people that have hearing loss with relief. When I had hearing aids, I’d listen to my iPod when in overstimulated environments, like shopping centres. Some hearing aids can be programmed to deal with tinnitus. I think it works by providing a more acceptable noise to your tinnitus, but you would need to check this with your audiologist.
8. Tinnitus masking devices are ear-level sound generators. Wearable maskers are available through audiologists. These are usually prescribed to patients who do not have a significant hearing loss.
9. Tinnitus instruments combine a hearing aid with a masker, so if you have trouble sleeping at night, you can turn the hearing aid part off, while the masker is left on.
10. Tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) is a multi-disciplinary approach that combines sound therapy and neuropsychological programming to help people adapt to the noise.
11. Sound therapy. Train your brain to listen to music instead of the tinnitus.
12. Avoid certain prescription drugs which can make your tinnitus worse or cause a flare-up. You might also want to cut back on stimulants like caffeine and nicotine.
13. Sound machines: Find background noises that are soothing and comforting to you. For example, many people use a fan to help them sleep at night. Try listening to mellow acoustic music at night or try white noise.
14. Relaxation therapy can help you gain better control over your emotions and how you react to your tinnitus. When you relax your blood pressure goes down, and brain activity decreases, providing a soothing and calming sensation.
15. Regular exercise can also help you ignore and cope with tinnitus, mostly because it’s a stress reliever.
16. Vitamin supplements such as Ginkgo Biloba, Zinc and B12 have shown to be helpful in alleviating the symptoms of tinnitus. However, always talk to your doctor first.
17. Electroacupuncture can be a useful treatment in reducing tinnitus. The electrical stimulation to acupuncture points is said to improve conduction in the auditory nerves, promoting circulation and subsequent delivery of nutrients to your hearing system.
18. Support groups. Talking about the ringing in your ears and how it affects your day-to-day life with other suffers can help you share this burden and feel some relief. If you’re wondering how to live with tinnitus and you’re in the UK, you might want to try TinnitusTalk or use the British Tinnitus Association to find a support group in your area.
19. Dietary changes, specifically reducing your intake of processed and pre-packaged foods high in sodium, fats and sugars, can help you find relief. Sodium restricts blood vessels which can significantly reduce blood flow to the cochlea.
20. Psychological management through cognitive behavioural therapy can help your brain habituate to the sound.
21. Quit smoking if you’re a smoker. Smoking can make tinnitus worse because it harms blood flow and acts as a stimulant.

How are you coping with tinnitus? Please share your tips, so other suffers can find relief too.