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I'm on here because this forum is a great place to read about the latest treatment options. Where else do posters regularly discuss and actually have been to some of the top doctors and clinics in the world for tinnitus? Also, a good number of posters are involved w/ trials and/ or have tried numerous treatments (TRT, neuromonics, notched music therapy, etc.), and self-report in good detail about their experiences. I have also learned a lot about various pharmaceuticals people have tried and their experiences with these, both good and the bad. And someone is always quick to post or link to the latest research journal articles. In short, this is a great clearinghouse for all kinds of information about tinnitus.

It also often involves lively debate on a number of topics, which is usually healthy and often useful, too. And before I continue, let me stress that I'm very hopeful about one's ability to habituate and I definitely believe one's attitude and state of mind and outlook can greatly affect one's path towards habituation and health outcomes in general. It has been well demonstrated that stress alone accounts for so much disease and sickness and lost productivity in the world. But Scott, since I believe this post/ thread refers back to your other one about self-healing, I would like to re-iterate that I do not believe that humans with chronic tinnitus have the innate power, through whatever means, to "cure" or stop the ringing so that silence returns, and I do not believe my stance on this is negative... I'd tag it as realistic.

As for standard medicine, tinnitus has really opened my eyes to the fact that the medical profession is still so very much in the early stages of knowledge and understanding, particularly when it comes to brain-related disorders and conditions. Anything brain-related is clearly not low-hanging fruit on the medicine tree because of its complexity and the many barriers researchers have and continue to encounter trying to study and understand it. That said, I'm not willing to throw standard medicine under the bus. There are many investigators working very diligently to understand tinnitus and develop treatments, and I'm both heartened and grateful for this. And while some practitioners are not the greatest in expressing compassion or empathy for the struggles tinnitus sufferers face -- there have been numerous instances of posters here expressing his or her less-than-ideal doctor visit -- as a whole they are pretty much doing the best they can do, referring patients to an audiologist or clinic that offers TRT/ neuromonics/ similar program (which some would classify as effective treatments; others, not) and/ or to a psychiatrist or psychologist.

Individuals ultimately have the right to characterize posters on here anyway way they desire. But if you do find my ideas and my posts negative, my response to this would be that you are equating realism with negativity. In fact, one could even argue that someone who espouses a self-healing ideology might actually be in a denial phase. One could easily make the case that to convince oneself that one can self-heal is a pretty effective way to stave off the very necessary realization on the path towards habituation that this will probably be a condition one has to live with for the rest of one's life. That does not mean one cannot be hopeful about new treatments down the road, but acceptance of the present reality is important in my opinion. I believe only after this realization is made can one proceed to the next step in the process of habituation or recovery.  I believe dealing with tinnitus for some individuals is a grieving-like process (of which denial is a part of according to the Kuebler-Ross 'Five Stages of Grief' model), particularly for those who, for whatever reason, take their tinnitus particularly hard. These people grieve or mourn for the loss of silence, and for whatever other ailments or conditions they may face related to their tinnitus (e.g. hearing loss). While not everyone grieves the same way or on the same timeline, facing the reality of one's condition is probably a necessary step in this process of recovery. I'm not suggesting you in particular are necessarily in some sort of denial-like state, but it seems probable that some individuals who readily buy into a self-healing belief with regard to the actual tinnitus (the ringing phenomenon), as opposed to habituation to it, are in fact prime candidates for being in some sort of denial-like phase.