Part of what makes tinnitus so difficult to live with is the issues that often occur with tinnitus or are triggered by ongoing tinnitus. These issues are called comorbid conditions, which means that there are two chronic diseases that are impacting one person.
Because tinnitus can be complicated by comorbidity, experienced hearing health professionals will take a full medical history to help either rule out comorbid conditions or account for problems that can impact your tinnitus management and treatment plan.
Hyperacusis Can Exacerbate Tinnitus
A painful comorbid condition that can occur with tinnitus is hyperacusis. For those who have hyperacusis, they have an abnormal, extra-heightened sensitivity to noises. These noises can be simple environmental sounds like birds chirping and refrigerators humming.
When combined with tinnitus, hyperacusis can be incredibly painful, as the tinnitus is amplified by the hyperacusis. Treatment often requires sound tolerance building as well as any applicable tinnitus treatment.
Hearing Loss And Tinnitus Commonly Occur Together
A highly common issue that occurs with tinnitus is hearing loss. In fact, part of a tinnitus evaluation is to have a diagnostic hearing evaluation, as these two hearing conditions are so commonly found together. Also, when hearing loss is present, tinnitus can become more severe, as there is less outside sound input to distract from your tinnitus.
If you have tinnitus along with hearing loss, you can address both issues with the use of hearing aids that come with tinnitus management tools. The increase in hearing, as well as the soothing sounds you can play through your hearing aids, can significantly help with your tinnitus symptoms.
Anxiety And Depression Can Contribute To Tinnitus
According to data gathered by the American Tinnitus Association, anxiety and depression have a common overlap with tinnitus. Usually, these issues show up in those individuals who have moderate-to-severe tinnitus.
From the data ATA collected, 13% of tinnitus sufferers also have anxiety, and for 7% of the surveyed individuals, they suffer from ongoing depression as well as tinnitus. In these cases, cognitive behavioral therapy, as well as tinnitus treatment, may be needed to help manage tinnitus symptoms effectively.
Misophonia Negatively Enhances Tinnitus Feelings
Another form of sound sensitivity, misophonia, causes an unusually negative emotional reaction triggered by specific sounds. When these specific sounds include the way a person’s tinnitus manifests, the person with misophonia will feel disgusted, fearful, or extreme levels of anger.
For those who struggle with tinnitus and misophonia, undergoing cognitive behavioral therapy, tinnitus retraining therapy, and forms of noise exposure, can be effective in addressing both issues.
Ménière’s Disease And Other Vestibular Disease Impact Tinnitus
Your vestibular system manages your spatial orientation and balance. This system is closely interlinked with your auditory system—so, they can impact each other. Having an issue with your hearing? You may also start to struggle with balance issues and vice versa.
This impact also extends to triggering tinnitus. Some vestibular issues, such as Ménière’s Disease, are often associated with tinnitus, as these disorders are so strongly linked to hearing and balance problems. The vestibular disorder will need to be treated alongside the tinnitus for the tinnitus treatment to have an impact.
Find Effective Tinnitus Treatments In Las Vegas, NV
Here at Hearing Associates of Las Vegas, we understand the difficulty of living with tinnitus and the struggle to find treatment. In many cases, our patients have searched extensively and tried a variety of treatments before working with us. Some of the tinnitus treatment options we offer in our Las Vegas hearing clinics are:
When you are ready to work with tinnitus specialists who will listen to your needs, feel free to contact us by phone or our online form to set up your appointment today. We look forward to helping you find relief from your tinnitus symptoms.
info@hearingassociateslv.com
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