Tinnitus is a term given to a disorder of the auditory system, that refers to hearing constant sounds like buzzing, ringing, and humming and have no apparent external or internal source. In some rare cases, these loud noises are caused by a physical issue within the ear.

Tinnitus and Mental Health.

As you can imagine, dealing with these phantom noises on a regular basis can put quite a strain on a sufferer’s mental health. But exactly how impactful can tinnitus be, and, if you have tinnitus, what do you need to do in order to overcome these issues? If tinnitus is causing you great distress, here’s how tinnitus can affect your ability to self-care and what you can do about it.

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How can tinnitus impact you?

For some, the symptoms of tinnitus are minor. These individuals are only mildly annoyed by the sounds that they hear but are able to lead their day-to-day lives relatively unimpacted. However, for more severe kinds of tinnitus, the symptoms can be debilitating, leading to serious mental health disorders like depression and anxiety. These symptoms of mental illness are then exacerbated by being unable to sleep well, focus on important tasks, and engage in other aspects of daily life that are essential to good health and wellness. Put simply, it can be hard to properly care for yourself and maintain the quality of life that you need, while dealing with tinnitus.

How do I begin to move past these symptoms?

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The good news? Although more severe cases of tinnitus can be quite detrimental to your mental and physical health, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways to overcome this and provide yourself with the level of self-care that you need in order to thrive. To help you work through your tinnitus symptoms, here are a few tips that’ll allow you to make the self-help progress that you’re looking for.

  1. Seek help for your tinnitus symptoms: Severe tinnitus does not mean that tinnitus sufferers will have to cope with their symptoms forever. In fact, while chronic tinnitus does exist, tinnitus is generally a symptom of another condition that may disappear once that underlying condition is cured. However, you can’t truly know what your own case looks like until you reach out to an audiologist. Make sure to seek out help as soon as possible, so that you can get a hearing test performed, get your results, and get the most effective tinnitus treatment for your situation.
  2. Find solutions that can help you cope: For individuals who do have chronic tinnitus, there are ways that you can cope with the symptoms and reduce their overall impact. Some of these coping methods include using white noise machines around the house, finding noise maskers that distract you from tinnitus sounds, and even getting hearing aids to ward off tinnitus as a result of hearing loss.
  3. Look for ways to deal with the symptoms of mental health disorders as well: When tinnitus feeds into mental health problems, it’s important that you address the serious symptoms of both conditions. Practicing self-care for issues like depression can be as simple as purchasing nail sticker polish and giving yourself a beautiful, stylish at-home manicure with ease. Doing something as simple as taking care of your nails with fun stick-on gels is a great way to focus on self-care, even if you’re dealing with fatigue due to the impact that tinnitus has had on your mental health.

Overall, better self-care begins with addressing and learning how to overcome the symptoms of tinnitus and its effects on your mental well-being.

At first glance, tinnitus may not seem that serious. However, for those who deal with the symptoms of tinnitus day-in and day-out, it can be a problem that affects their ability to function normally. So if you have tinnitus and are finding it difficult to cope, use the guide above to learn more about why tinnitus has such an effect on you, and what you can do to overcome these symptoms.