Hypnotherapy for tinnitus
Most causes of tinnitus are not harmful, however it can be quite a nuisance for sufferers. The most common cause of tinnitus is damage to the sensitive hearing nerves inside the inner ear. In older people, tinnitus is often caused by natural hearing loss which lessens the sensitivity of the hearing nerves. In younger people, tinnitus can sometimes occur as a result of hearing damage caused by excessive noise. There are many other possible causes of tinnitus however, including ear infections or build up of ear wax.
Stress is not a direct cause of tinnitus but it can sometimes make the symptoms worse. For example, some people have reported that their tinnitus was worse during stressful events in their life, such as bereavement.
One of the major ways in which hypnotherapy is used to help with tinnitus is by realising that you can learn not to notice the bothersome sound so much. We naturally tune out sounds, so you can learn to invoke that ability where it is needed. You can also learn to manipulate the sound itself so that you can change its nature and pitch and as a result tone it down.
You will be taught self-hypnosis so that you can easily call on your new ability to not notice the sounds so much. Since tinnitus can be exacerbated by stress too, you can also learn to use self-hypnosis to strengthen yourself to deal more calmly with stress.