Notice a persistent ringing in your ears?  It might be tinnitus! The stress and anxiety around COVID-19 could actually increase your tinnitus. With April being Stress Awareness Month it’s the perfect opportunity to discuss tips to manage tinnitus during a stressful time.

Simply put, tinnitus is hearing sounds that aren’t coming from outside of the body and they generally can’t be detected by others. Tinnitus isn’t a disease but is instead a symptom of an underlying health problem.

But how can the stress or anxiety associated with COVID-19 impact my tinnitus?

Tinnitus is known to impact individuals in a variety of ways including commonly disrupting sleep and causing stress or anxiety. Persistent tinnitus can fuel a stress response when the limbic system tells the brain that the tinnitus could be harmful or threatening.

The stress or anxiety associated with the pandemic (such as adjusting to working from home, fearing for yourself or loved ones, dealing with uncertainty etc.) can play a role in making the tinnitus symptoms worse. These include a loss of control over mood or emotions such as being short tempered or easily annoyed all the way to changes to our brain structure.

Andreas Seelisch, Audiologist at Hearing Solutions recommends these four ways to help manage tinnitus:

1. Engage in self care: Whether it’s exercise or doing something else that gets you to relax, taking a moment to look after yourself can reduce stress.

2. Enrich your acoustic environment: While it might seem counter intuitive, your brain tends to focus more on tinnitus when its quiet. By adding other sounds to the environment you can shift your brains attention away from the tinnitus. This solution can be as simple as turning on a fan or listening the radio.

3. Promote good sleep: Get to bed early. Avoiding caffeine, alcohol, screens or screens or anything that could disrupt your sleep. For those who find the tinnitus problematic in falling asleep, using sound to manage tinnitus can be helpful. 

4. Consider a hearing consult: Tinnitus is commonly linked with an underlying hearing loss, which is the potential cause of changes in the brain that result in tinnitus. There is even a therapeutic benefit to understanding your tinnitus and what you can do about it. For others a personalized approach to managing the tinnitus symptoms can be planned.