Tinnitus

A Habituation Success Story (GUEST POST)


Hey everyone, Glenn here! As many of you know, for the last 8 years, I’ve worked 1-on-1 with tinnitus sufferers all over the world as a tinnitus coach.

My coaching program is a hands-on, highly personalized approach to habituation where I am able to adapt all of my strategies and techniques to the sound of a person’s tinnitus and the specific challenges they face. I’ve worked with nearly a thousand people all over the world and I have had a lot of success in helping people to restore their quality of life.

I’ve shared many of my client’s habituation success stories in the past, but today I have a great one to share that I know you will all find very inspiring and motivational!

I worked with John for several months, and like many of you, he was suffering greatly and in a very dark place when we first met. But he has made incredible progress and is well on his way to full habituation.

I asked John to write about his journey so that I could share it with the Rewiring Tinnitus community, and he graciously agreed. So today I present to you a success story by my former client, Mr. John Great!

Want to work with me 1-on-1? Click here to apply for tinnitus coaching and schedule a free 30 minute consultation call.

My Tinnitus Journey: A Habituation Success Story

by John Great

My tinnitus started on January 12, 2022, from a shotgun incident at a local shooting range by not having my hearing protection properly in place.

I was extremely hard on myself and racked with guilt that I had caused this myself. I had been shooting in competitions for years, and for this to happen with all my training was a nightmare. That one forgetful moment had caused so much anxiety, pain, and frustration!

In the beginning, I had hope that my tinnitus would just be temporary. However, after several months of not getting any better, the extremely loud high-pitched jet engine sound was with me 24/7 and I was getting desperate.

Downward spiral:

The more I searched on the internet, the more I was losing hope. The anxiety and mental health battle exhausted me to the point of staying in bed, crying, and just praying for the jet engine in my head to stop. My concentration was nonexistent.

I was in a quick spiral down into a dark rabbit hole, and I started to worry that it was going to stay this way for the rest of my life! I felt dead inside and knew I couldn’t live like this!

On a 1 to 10 tinnitus scale, I was at a constant 11 and starting to have suicidal thoughts. I was very sure the end was close, and I was starting to feel okay about that.

The worst part was dragging my wife Roberta through this whole ordeal that I had caused from my lack of being careful. I truly thought she would be the next loss to my life!

My wife was doing everything possible to help me and gave me unlimited support. She and others purchased many kinds of tinnitus magic pills, home remedies, herbs, and books, which didn’t help at all. Early on, I even tried steroids, PEMF (Pulsed electromagnetic field) therapy, and red-light therapy. The only thing that actually helped at all were hearing aid maskers. Many of my friends would tell me to just “Man up and ignore the tinnitus!”

Feeling Desperate:

Roberta was experiencing this with me, and she was desperately trying to find something to help. We found no help from several doctors, an ENT, audiologist, and naturopath. I started seeing a psychiatrist early on and was prescribed anxiety drugs which did help to ease the anxiety, but I also knew that at some point I would need to get off of them, if at all possible.

All of my doctors told me that there was no cure and offered absolutely no alternative options! They all pretty much said they were sorry and that I was just going to have to live with it. Getting this news over and over, I lost all hope.

The meds had calmed some of the anxiety and the panic attacks had slowed down, but I was still crying and balled up like a baby for hours each day. All the activities that I used to enjoy were now gone.

Most nights were sleepless and if I did get to sleep after taking enough sleeping drugs, the nightmare would start all over again as soon as I woke up! I came to the realization that my life was over. I was very seriously thinking about voluntarily admitting myself to the psychiatric hospital. I wanted to at least let my wife move on with her life and enjoy her retirement journey.

Removing the Drama:

Thankfully, my wife was stronger than me by miles and she was not giving up or going anywhere. She dug in and continued to devote countless hours into tinnitus research every day.

Eventually she found a paperback book called “Rewiring Tinnitus” by Glenn Schweitzer. She was desperately looking for anything new for me to try, knowing that I was just done and had given up. It was now late August of 2022 and had been more than 7 months of suffering endlessly.

I have to admit that I didn’t even look at the book for almost a week. I thought it was just another book like the others that would give false hope and pray on unfortunate tinnitus sufferers.

When I finally picked up the book, I only read the back cover. The first thing I saw was “There is so much HOPE!” in bold orange print. I read the next two paragraphs below these words and my B.S. meter was not going off. This guy might be for real!

I turned to the first chapter and started reading, and even though it was late in the evening, I found that I couldn’t put it down. I kept telling myself that this author had written down all my negative thoughts and put into words exactly I was going through all these months!

Road to Habituation:

Glenn’s words were in my head, and I decided needed to do a deep dive into this rewiring concept that he had described in the book. What he had written just made so much sense and for the first time I felt like there really was hope!

I read the whole book in one setting. Since my concentration was nil at best, I reread the book the next day and decided to order and downloaded Glenn’s Tinnitus Relief Project Audio Package as well, and began my journey.

The book is full of resources to help you begin the habituation process. I had happy tears several times while reading it. It expressed what I felt and thought, so clearly. It detailed everything I was going through. I was excitedly hopeful for the first time in a long time.

The word HOPE might just be real, and I told my wife I was going to put my last efforts into this thing called rewiring tinnitus and grab back…HOPE! My wife and I just both cried together.

Starting the coaching process:

I decided to get in touch with Glenn and we set up a first meeting right away. I was very excited, scared, and feeling so many mixed emotions.

In the first Zoom meeting Glenn needed a lot of information about me so that he could create a coaching strategy that would benefit me, specifically pertaining to my issues. We started with a deep dive into everything I had been through, from the beginning of how I got tinnitus, what doctors I had seen and their results, to what I had tried so far to deal with the tinnitus, mental state of mind, etc.

We covered many tinnitus coping strategies and techniques which included things like tracking for triggers, meditation, reaction techniques and many other coping tools.

After the first meeting, I had tears of HOPE, and my wife and I just cried and hugged each other. There was a future!

The process:

After every session, Glenn would send a recap of our call and a plan for me to follow, listing out everything that he wanted me to do before our next meeting.

As a coach, Glenn definitely understands tinnitus deeply and helped me to understand everything I was going through. It was three steps forward and two steps backward repeatedly. But I always found myself a little bit further along each day, each week, and each month.

Early on, we met weekly and then every other week, every third week and then monthly, spacing out the sessions as I improved.

In every session, Glenn listened to the progress I had made and how I was feeling, and then made personalized adjustments to the plan, adding new tools and strategies each time we met.

I have to say that Glenn was very tuned into my journey, keeping detailed notes on my progress, where I was at, what changes I needed to make, and where he wanted me to be by the next meeting.

I worked as hard as I could and followed Glenn’s direction religiously. I overdid it at times, but I had another goal which was to be free from the suffering of my tinnitus.

My results:

My last meeting with Glenn was in the middle of April of 2023 and it was bittersweet.

I feel confident to be on my own now, and I know that if I ever need him again, he’s just a text away and will be there for me.

I still have a little ways to go, but I have great confidence that I’ll make it to full habituation. But even if not, wherever I land on the habituation scale will definitely be enough. I’m in such a better place compared to where I was just six months ago, and that is awesome in my book!

I do still have occasional tough days and moments, but I can cope now and manage them so much better than before. Now it’s never more than just a nuisance and the difficult moments always pass quickly.

I have incorporated what I have learned into my daily routine, never forgetting where I’ve been, but always looking forward.

My wife has been my rock and stayed with me throughout this whole journey. We are both very thankful that Glenn took the time to write this book and made himself available as a tinnitus coach.

I can’t stress enough to those that have just recently developed tinnitus or have had it for some time and are ready to get their life back to contact Glenn and start as soon as possible.

HOPE…a wonderful thing!


Want to work with me 1-on-1? Click here to apply for tinnitus coaching and schedule a free 30 minute consultation call.





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