By Julian Cowan Hill R.C.S.T
What is tinnitus?
Most people get tinnitus if you put them into total silence! Heller and Bergman proved this back in 1953 when they found 93% of people taking part in a test reported hearing noises, even though they were in total silence.
Ears work all the time and only relax as long as they have latched onto a harmless background noise. So if you put people in silence, their ears will listen out harder and harder until they find something else to pick up. If there is nothing there, ie silence, most people’s sense of hearing will intensify until it becomes so sensitive, it starts picking up internal nervous information. That’s what tinnitus is- hypersensitive listening that detects the noises of the brain. Your ears have become too sensitive.
If you have tinnitus, the first message is to AVOID SILENCE. It activates a stress response in your system, and increases your internal auditory sensitivity.
So why are you listening constantly to your tinnitus when most of the population is blissfully unaware of it? Why has your hearing become too sensitive and latched onto the noises of your brain?
The answer is because, behind the scenes, your central nervous system is idling in a constant state of red-alert. For some reason your whole system has locked itself into a state of emergency, as if it senses that there is some threat or danger there all the time, even though you know mentally that things are OK. Adrenaline* is the hormone that keeps your system locked into this state. (NB I use the term adrenaline to refer to a group of hormones released by the adrenal glands, eg cortisol, adrenaline, noradrenaline, etc.)
Below I will explain how your system gets into this state in the first place and how to recognise this pattern in yourself. The key to understanding tinnitus is adrenaline. If you have high levels of adrenaline coursing through your body, this prepares you