Meditation: Mindfulness helps with tinnitus

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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It seems paradoxical: if you want to live better with your tinnitus, it is best to listen properly. In fact, mindfulness exercises bring more relief from the sometimes agonizing phantom sounds than the often recommended relaxation exercises.

Mindfulness exercises such as those used in Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) are now also receiving a lot of attention in medicine. Among other things, the training should help against stress, depression and addictions - and now also in dealing with tinnitus. Mindfulness meditation, which is effective in behavioral therapy, focuses on the ability to perceive physical and mental sensations, thoughts, sensory impressions and sensitivities as precisely, openly and with curiosity as possible. But above all without evaluating them.

"The study shows that mindfulness offers a significant additional benefit to the existing therapies," says Dr. Elizabeth Marks from the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital in London in conversation with

Mindfulness beats relaxation

The researcher and her colleagues had 75 patients who suffered severely from their tinnitus perform mindfulness exercises under guidance or a relaxation procedure once a week.

In addition, participants should also practice at home daily. At the beginning and end of the eight-week study period, the researchers used Hallam's much-used Tinnitus Questionaire to determine how severely the participants were affected by their tinnitus. This questionnaire covers topics such as sleep disorders, subjectively perceived volume of the noises in the ears and emotional stress due to tinnitus.

Improved quality of life

The stress in both intervention groups had improved. In the mindfulness group, the stress score fell from an average of 50 points to 31.4. In the relaxation group, on the other hand, it fell from an average of 50 points to 38.2 - 7.2 points less. The effects of mindfulness training continued until the end of the six-month observation period.

Overall, the quality of life of the patients had increased significantly. A change could also be seen in their behavior: those affected rarely tried to avoid situations that were either particularly loud or particularly quiet. Both of these appear threatening to tinnitus patients: the former because they fear that noise could amplify the noises in the ears, the latter because the humming, hissing or whistling is particularly present in the silence.

It's a matter of attitude

On closer inspection, it is obvious that mindfulness works particularly well with tinnitus. The extent to which tinnitus burdens life depends not only on the perceived volume or frequency, but above all on how it is assessed by the person affected - as threatening or irrelevant, for example.

Mindfulness training gradually resolves the negative assessment of the noises in the ears. The tinnitus is then no longer a threat, it is simply a companion. Mindfulness has a two-fold relief: The tinnitus patients learn to accept the noises in the ears. And that helps them grow their avoidance behavior as well.

Mindfulness as a trend

Mindfulness-based procedures are now a recognized approach in behavior therapy. The value-free acceptance of what is there in the present moment enables a more relaxed handling of problems. These can be negative thoughts, fears, grief or pain or the desire for an addictive substance.

Mindfulness also illustrates the connection between negative thoughts and negative feelings. And this increases the feeling of so-called self-efficacy - a central pillar of mental health: thoughts - whether consciously or initially unconsciously - are the origin of feelings. Those who change their thoughts also change how they feel.

Bodyscan and raisin exercise

Mindfulness is trained using various exercises from mindfulness meditation - the body scan, for example, in which one lets one's attention wander through the entire body from the toes to the crown of the head. Or also with walking meditation, in which the practitioner feels inside himself with every step. Another classic: the famous raisin exercise, in which you first look at a raisin extensively, feel it and sniff it before you then - very carefully - consume it.

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