Tinnitus is a highly impactful disorder in which the ears and brain produce auditory sounds without any external stimulus. What this leads to is a constant ringing in the ears with can lead to stress, anxiety, lack of sleep, depression and many more negative things.
While 50 million Americans deal with some form of tinnitus, about 2 million of those people deal with constant, debilitating tinnitus. For that reason, there has been a lot of research done to try to cure tinnitus or help people overcome the negative aspects of the disorder.
Whether it’s using hearing aids, sound-making devices, tinnitus sound therapy, or some other common form of treatment, continue reading to learn about some of the most common and impactful treatments that help people overcome tinnitus every day.
Hearing aids
One of the most common causes of tinnitus is hearing loss. The reason why is because when a person loses hearing, the brain undergoes changes in the way that it processes sound frequencies. For many people who suffer from hearing loss and tinnitus, they find that the better they hear actual sounds, the less they notice their tinnitus. In fact, a study back in 2007 found that 60 percent of people with tinnitus experienced some amount of relief thanks to hearing aids. Now, there are hearing aids that are built specifically to help those with tinnitus. This includes not only helping amplify outside sounds, but also creating relief noises to reduce tinnitus.
Sound therapy
Another really common way for people to try to treat their tinnitus is to undergo sound therapy. This basically involved playing soothing and pleasant background noises such as “white noise” to help distract from tinnitus or simply change the brain’s sensitivity to the pitch of the tinnitus. There are also forms of sound therapy that also help patient’s deal with their emotional and cognitive response to the tinnitus, thus trying to reduce the amount of stress that comes from the tinnitus itself.
Exercise and sleep
Believe it or not, some tinnitus can be easily cured or greatly reduced simply by living a healthier lifestyle. That is the reason why many specialists will ask patients about their daily lifestyles in the very early portion of treatment. Studies have shown that a healthy amount of sleep and exercise – as well as other activities that connect closely to overall health – for that reason, it is possible that move sleep and exercise will help ease or completely resolve tinnitus.
Antidepressants and antianxiety medication
For some people, tinnitus is a symptom related to serious mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression. Luckily, there are some incredible medicines on the market that can help treat those illnesses along with the tinnitus that can come along with it. Some of the most popular medications that are known to help ease tinnitus that comes with anxiety and depression includes:
- Clomipramine
- Desipramine
- Imipramine
- Nortriptyline
- Protriptyline
As you can see, there are many ways that people go about treating tinnitus. All you have to do to get started is speak with a professional and begin your path to treatment.