Is hypnosis/hypnotherapy a good way to treat tinnitus?

Millions of people are affected by tinnitus.

The condition is often described as a ringing, hissing, clicking or buzzing sound in one or both ears. Some people, with mild forms of tinnitus, only notice the sounds occasionally. Others suffer from debilitating sounds that adversely affect their daily lives.

If you are seeking relief from tinnitus, always consult a hearing health professional. Your tinnitus could have a treatable underlying cause, and there are many treatments available for the condition.

Several different types of treatment are available for tinnitus, including counseling and sound therapy, drug therapy and brain stimulation. New technology is also available to treat the symptoms of tinnitus, according to the Hearing Health Foundation.

Hearing aids help about 25 percent of tinnitus sufferers and some hearing aids are even equipped with specific tinnitus features.

However, if no other treatments work, hypnosis/hypnotherapy is an alternative treatment. Although hypnosis is not a cure for tinnitus, it can help a tinnitus sufferer learn to tune out the annoying sounds, according to selfhypnosis.com. Using advanced hypnotherapy techniques and creative visualisation, hypnosis works to program the subconscious to automatically turn down the tinnitus noises. This can be done through a hypnotherapist, who can teach the patient self hypnosis, which involves relaxation and mental imagery,

Clinical trials using Ericksonian hypnosis in tinnitus therapy have proven “promising’ according to the US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.  During a 2007 study, patients were taught to modulate sound intensity and tinnitus intensity. They also learned self-hypnosis. The Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) score dropped for all participants and the global score improved significantly from 60:23 before the therapy to 16.9 when participants were discharged.

Each individual is unique, however, and results of hypnosis used to treat tinnitus vary from person to person.

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