Twofold Trouble!

Anxiety and ringing ears can quite often end up being harmful 'vicious circle' companions. High stress levels are, more often than not, one of the main causes of tinnitus. While at the same time, the feeling of constantly ringing ears can make anyone be anxious, and if we end up focusing on this ringing, the level of anxiety can obviously increase. And of course this can result in creating a vicious circle, as both the stress intensity and the volume of ringing increases. In fact one of the most common complaints associated with ringing ears is that it negatively affects sleeping patterns, causing a rise in anxiety and stress levels. Therefore for best results, when having anxiety and ringing ears at the same time, we address both of these conditions simultaneously.

Easing Anxiety and Ringing Ears

If we can tackle the issues of stress or anxiety, ringing ears will subsequently be reduced, and there's a number of ways we can do this. One of the simplest ways to minimize stress is to positively develop our eating habits and take regular exercise. So if regular exercise isn't currently part of your daily regime, it may be time to take a serious look at changing that. Even adding twenty minutes of exercise a day can have a huge impact in our well being and really isn't that hard to accomplish.

For diet choices, it doesn't have to mean switching to some complicated, expensive fad diet... some simple healthy changes to get started with can see amazing results quickly. First - try to minimize your salt intake. Along with causing a whole variety of heart issues, salt can seriously affect blood flow to the brain. It can also intensify anxiety, ringing ears and even impact mental health. There's normally more than enough salt in what we eat naturally, that we shouldn't have to add more to our food. It's a good idea to do this progressively though, letting your taste buds slowly get used to less salt. Over a relatively short space of time you'll be able to transform your salt intake to almost zero.

Another healthy change is giving up 'junk food'. This highly processed choice of food is high in fat, sugar and salt and regularly including this in our diet can see tinnitus and stress levels sky rocket! (I'd also advise taking a look at the Glycemic Index)

Alcohol and cigarettes should also be eliminated if at all possible. If you've been a tinnitus sufferer, for any time at all, you may have experienced the feeling of attending a party or get-together, and drinking and smoking in excess, then arriving home with really bad ringing in the ears. This can be the result of saturating the body with associated harmful substances. Reducing the intake of alcohol and nicotine will greatly help in diminishing the effects of tinnitus.

Dealing with the Ringing Problem

In many ways it's up to you how stress and anxiety affects your ringing ears, and vice-versa. If you choose to focus on the irritation caused by ringing ears, subsequently your stress levels will also increase. So it's in your best interest to find ways to divert your attention from the constant noise. For example, try not to allow yourself to be in a completely silent room, even at night time, as this will focus your thoughts on the sound of your ringing ears.

Overcoming the anxiety and ringing ears problem can be as simple as modifying the way you choose to view this condition. If you can be upbeat, optimistic and open to make changes to your lifestyle, you'll gradually start to see genuine improvements in the acuteness of your symptoms.