Eva Mª Beteta: "Tinnitus is frequent in the anxiogenic personality".

We interviewed Eva Mª Beteta, psychologist expert in the treatment of tinnitus.

Tinnitus is one of those experiences that, although we have all experienced it at some point, it has probably not even occurred to us that there is a word for it. In this case we are talking about the whistling sounds that often follow our ears wherever we go and that do not come from outside, but have their origin in our head (something that sometimes takes us several minutes to realize).

Normally, tinnitus appears for a while and then goes away, but some people have trouble getting rid of it. That said, there are useful forms of treatment to make tinnitus go away, and in this interview we will talk to a professional expert in this subject: Eva María Beteta..

Interview with Eva María Beteta: the psychological treatment of tinnitus.

Eva María Beteta Marco is a psychologist with extensive experience in the care of adults and adolescents, and one of the main focuses of her work in her practice located in Palma is the treatment of tinnitus with psychological roots. In this interview she explains how she approaches these cases.

What are tinnitus?

Tinnitus is what we commonly define as "ringing in the ears". When they appear we believe that they are noises from outside, external to us. A common thing to do is, for example, to check if household appliances are making noise. When the "ringing" follows us wherever we go we realize that they come from inside us and, it is then when we go to the medical specialist, in this case the Otorhinolaryngologist.

What are the most common causes of tinnitus?

Tinnitus can develop from physiological and/or psychological causes. In my case, I focus on those that are caused by psychological causes, such as, for example, those that appear after a season of high stress due to causes such as family, economic or any other kind of problems. They are also frequent in people with an anxiogenic personality type.

Beyond the medical aspect, how does the psychological aspect influence tinnitus?

Most people who suffer from tinnitus experience this problem with profound discomfort. It affects them in all areas of their lives since, on many occasions, they cannot even get a rest or restorative sleep because of the annoying ringing. In addition, tinnitus often generates more anxiety than many of them already suffer from.

On the other hand, this pathology increases the stress level of people, who do not know how to get rid of tinnitus and focus their lives on whether they hear it or not, how loud and frequent it is and how to look for and try multiple possible solutions. Sometimes it is highly disabling because tinnitus does not let us hear well, does not allow us to rest well and affects our mood and our social, work and family life.

Is it possible that people "attract to their mind" those intrusive sounds without realizing it? Or even that they sometimes feel them as real even though they are imagined.

A phrase that doctors often say about this problem is that "it is not those who want to have tinnitus, but those who can". Due to the large number of cases that respond to an anxiogenic personality, not all people who have suffered a season of maximum stress develop tinnitus, but those who present this type of personality are more exposed to suffer them at some point in their lives.

In reality, the tinnitus is not invented, it is real for the patient, and the patient suffers it as such. The problem we encounter is that the ear "has memory", that is to say, it reverberates this whistle due to this memory effect, hence it seems that we believe it, because it comes from inside us.

As a psychologist, how do you intervene in problems like this?

First of all, we must rule out that it is due to physiological problems, and it is only when the Otolaryngologist excludes them that the psychological work begins. That is to say, my work begins when it is certain that the tinnitus is based exclusively on psycho-emotional components. In this step, I give the patient a series of questionnaires that help me to define his personality and the stressful events he has faced and that have acted as precipitating factors for the onset of tinnitus.

Based on the results obtained, and in collaboration with the Otolaryngologist (who will take care of the orthomolecular nutrition of the ear and will advise the patient regarding medications or otototoxic drugs), I use anxiety reduction and relaxation techniques, control of intrusive thoughts, cognitive-behavioral therapy, vagal stimulation therapy and laser therapy focused on the ear. All this forms a joint action that manages to break the "memory effect" that underlies tinnitus and we can achieve an improvement and / or remission of it.

How does the improvement process take place? Does it take a long time?

The highly proven treatment that is carried out is based on ten sessions that usually last approximately one hour each. Generally, people begin to notice the effects of the treatment after the fourth session, although there are patients who have seen improvement more quickly. The patient must be constant and finish the treatment.