16/04/2025
How Stress Impacts Tinnitus:
1. Heightened Awareness of Sound
o When you're stressed, your brain is on high alert. This means you're more likely to notice and focus on internal sounds, like ringing or buzzing, that you might otherwise ignore.
2. Fight-or-Flight Response
o Stress activates the sympathetic nervous system, releasing hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.
o This response increases sensitivity to stimuli, including tinnitus, making the sound seem louder or more intrusive.
3. Lowered Tolerance
o Stress and anxiety can lower your emotional tolerance, so even mild tinnitus may feel unbearable when you're already overwhelmed.
4. Sleep Disruption
o Stress often interferes with sleep, and poor sleep makes tinnitus worse. It's a two-way street: bad sleep = worse tinnitus, and worse tinnitus = more stress.
5. Cognitive Load
o Your brain under stress has fewer resources to filter out unimportant information. Normally, the brain might tune out tinnitus as background noise — but stress interferes with this natural filtering.
6. Negative Emotional Association
o If you associate your tinnitus with fear, anxiety, or frustration, stress strengthens these associations. This can turn tinnitus into a bigger emotional burden, creating a self-sustaining loop.
