Sound Enrichment Therapy

Lots of people today feel anxiety from disturbances of their hearing mechanisms.These conditions include tinnitus and hyperacusis. they mistakenly believe that silence will help relieve their anxiety. The truth is that silence only makes their anxiety worse. What they actually need is to add proper types of sound into their environment.

To clarify, the term tinnitus means ringing in the ears. The sound heard does not exist outside of the person who hears it. Hyperacusis means that the ears are overly sensitive to sound. Safe levels of sound are perceived as painfully loud. Another condition called d misophonia means that certain sounds annoy a person and cause them anxiety. These may be ordinary sounds such as chewing, burping, or even breathing.

The hearing system is meant to receive external sound. As long as it does, all is well. However, if outside sound is eliminated for any reason, the hearing cells become overly sensitive, and literally search for any sound. They may become so sensitive that they begin to hear internal sounds from normal energy transfer mechanisms between normal cells in the brain.

People with hyperacusis may use earplugs to block out loud sounds. They do so to avoid the painful sensations from sounds perceived as being too loud. Such sounds may include noisy restaurants, night clubs, a concert, shouted conversation, etc. Any sound below 80 to 85 decibels (db) is considered safe for human ears. In truth, blocking safe levels of sound makes the hearing cells more sensitive, worsening their condition rather than improving it.

Individuals with misophonia typically experience anxiety from specific sounds associated with unpleasant memories. Introducing pleasing sounds to mask the offending sounds often prevents or relieves the anxiety that results. Energy psychology methods such as Anxiety relief Techniques(R) are highly effective for long term relief.

Enriching one’s environment with certain types of sound can be quite therapeutic for each of these troublesome conditions. This means having continual low levels of pleasing sound around you 24 hrs per day-especially when sleeping at night. You must avoid silence at all costs. To decide what might be best for you, think about what sounds please you. What sounds come to mind when you imagine yourself relaxed and at peace? Surround yourself with those sounds as much as possible.

As our brains developed over millions of years, people learned that to be alone was to be in danger. It was impossible to survive on our own the harsh elements, attacks from wild animals, etc. So we banded together into groups in order to survive. And groups make noise when things are going well. Sudden silence often men the approach of a major threat. This causes anxiety–fear of an impending danger.

Some types of favorable sounds include the sounds of nature. These may be gently splashing water from a bubbling brook or a mechanical fountain. Commercial electronic sound generators often mimic the sounds of ocean waves, falling rain, crickets, birds, wind chimes, etc. These sounds not only distract our conscious minds from our anxiety feeling, they actually reduce the sensitivity of unstimulated hearing cells and improve the underlying condition.

Go to ringing in the ears CONTROL to learn about ringing in the ears causes and ringing in the ears effective therapies , including sound enrichment therapy.