Thank you everyone for your good and helpful responses. I'm working with her partner to help manage this.
kc, thank you for your post below. In the last year+ she's had to deal with a lot. Death of her father, death of her brother's wife and
then death of her brother, she had to become the guardian for her nephews, recently death of her partner's father, and now her mother isn't doing so great. A lot on her plate, I'll recommend she see a psychologist.
Thank you again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kcf7z
As an otolaryngologist, I treat people with tinnitus daily. People do have a broad range of reactions to it. The first step is a proper audiologic assessment which sounds like has been done. As ear physicians and surgeons, this is a tough one for us to treat because no one thing helps in everyone.
Stress makes it worse and her stress over the condition is likely making it so. I have found that patients that respond this way often have underlying issues that counseling often plays a role. I have had patients with suicidal tinnitus that have benefited less from anything I did and more from what a psychologist or psychiatrist could offer. Exploring what is going on in her life holistically outside of the tinnitus itself may provide benefit.
Also, there are tinnitus rehabilitation centers around the country that specialize in difficult to manage tinnitus using biofeedback and special noise-canceling hearing aids. This is a manageable condition and hope should not be lost; however, each person responds to different management strategies in different ways.
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