Are Your Ears Ringing?
If you've noticed that you're starting to get an annoying ringing sound in your ears, you're probably experiencing tinnitus. This can come from a number of causes, but the general reason for ringing of ears is that damage to the connection between the brain and ear has occurred. There are a number of things individuals with tinnitus can do in order to improve the health of their ears, but it should be kept in mind that the brain itself also plays a role in how effectively ringing of ears is dealt with.
Using the Mind to Cope with Tinnitus
People are often surprised to learn that the way a person directs their conscious mind has a lot to do with how well they cope with ringing of ears . Let's take two hypothetical people. The first notices that their ears are ringing and begins to panic, they find out that it's possible this ringing (tinnitus) will last their entire lives and they don't know what to do with themselves. They sit in bed at night, staying up worrying and just listening to the constant ringing they have to deal with. As a result of this increased amount of attention, this ringing of ears becomes more and more prevalent. Soon enough, it becomes difficult for this person to listen to music or experience anything in life without worrying and listening to this ringing of ears syndrome.
But the second person deals with the situation in a much more mature way. They notice the ringing and decide that they will have to live with it, and that it's not really so bad. When they are in bed and hear the ringing, they don't get into a panic about it, but accept the ringing and just let it be. When they listen to music, they focus on the music and don't worry too much about the ringing also being present. As a result of paying less attention to this ringing of ears, their tinnitus slowly begins to subside and the quality of their life is much greater.
Directing Attention Away From Tinnitus
If you've realized that tinnitus, your ringing of ears, has become a real problem for you, it's best to accept and learn to deal with it. Continually hoping it will go away on its own will have you ending up like the first person mentioned above. It's better to try and find ways to direct your attention away from your tinnitus so it won't be such a problem.
How can this be done? One way is to make sure you're rarely in completely silent areas. Keeping a window open while you're asleep is a good idea, as the sounds outside will mean you're distracting from the ringing. There are also music CD's and mp3's you can purchase which give white noise, keeping your mind of off the problem.
Ringing of ears is only as big an issue as you want to make it. If you're willing to accept that you've got a problem and deal with it head-on, you'll have a much better chance of reducing tinnitus symptoms.
