Recently some people have touted hypnosis as a potential cure for tinnitus.
Can this really be true? Given that there is no medical cure for tinnitus, the prospect of using what appears to be a method without side effects looks an interesting one.
Sound Therapy The first method is simple tinnitus sound therapy.
This is where a white noise machine and behavioral therapy are used to learn how to "detune" out any tinnitus noises.
Strictly speaking, this is not hypnosis at all because there is no use of affirmations or putting someone into a trance.
However, it is similar as you will see next.
Professional Hypnotherapy By professional I mean using a session led by a professional hypnotist.
The hypnotist puts you into a trance, a technique called induction.
He or she may then use a deepening technique to get you even further into a trance state.
The idea of this is that the deeper you are, the greater the positive benefits will be.
At this stage you are now given a series of suggestions.
Like with the sound therapy, the idea is to suggest to you that if you hear tinnitus that you will ignore or not notice it.
This is in fact something that we do every day anyway with all sorts of sounds but here we can specifically target the tinnitus ringing or buzzing sounds.
Finally you are woken up.
You may need several follow-up sessions over a period of weeks to get the full benefit from a hypnotist.
The downside is that the effect can wear off after several months and you may need to go back once or twice a year.
Drawbacks Both of these methods really achieve the same thing, to allow you to tune out of your tinnitus.
As tinnitus is also related to stress, this will itself also increase your tinnitus intensity a little.
But the main drawback of hypnosis for tinnitus is that it doesn't really cure your tinnitus.
You might experience some minor decrease in symptoms as just described.
But your tinnitus does not really decrease by much and you are certainly not cured.
Nevertheless, this may still be useful as a coping mechanism for anyone with this condition and could significantly improve your quality of life.
Can this really be true? Given that there is no medical cure for tinnitus, the prospect of using what appears to be a method without side effects looks an interesting one.
Sound Therapy The first method is simple tinnitus sound therapy.
This is where a white noise machine and behavioral therapy are used to learn how to "detune" out any tinnitus noises.
Strictly speaking, this is not hypnosis at all because there is no use of affirmations or putting someone into a trance.
However, it is similar as you will see next.
Professional Hypnotherapy By professional I mean using a session led by a professional hypnotist.
The hypnotist puts you into a trance, a technique called induction.
He or she may then use a deepening technique to get you even further into a trance state.
The idea of this is that the deeper you are, the greater the positive benefits will be.
At this stage you are now given a series of suggestions.
Like with the sound therapy, the idea is to suggest to you that if you hear tinnitus that you will ignore or not notice it.
This is in fact something that we do every day anyway with all sorts of sounds but here we can specifically target the tinnitus ringing or buzzing sounds.
Finally you are woken up.
You may need several follow-up sessions over a period of weeks to get the full benefit from a hypnotist.
The downside is that the effect can wear off after several months and you may need to go back once or twice a year.
Drawbacks Both of these methods really achieve the same thing, to allow you to tune out of your tinnitus.
As tinnitus is also related to stress, this will itself also increase your tinnitus intensity a little.
But the main drawback of hypnosis for tinnitus is that it doesn't really cure your tinnitus.
You might experience some minor decrease in symptoms as just described.
But your tinnitus does not really decrease by much and you are certainly not cured.
Nevertheless, this may still be useful as a coping mechanism for anyone with this condition and could significantly improve your quality of life.
Source...