Shift attention, change the order of priority of perceptions and reduce the emotional component. These are some of the approaches suggested by Aldo Messina, head of the “Regina Margherita” otonoeurological center in Palermo to manage tinnitus, the perception of a noise, usually a buzzing or whistling felt in the ears or head in the absence of an external acoustic stimulus.
The words of Aldo Messina
“If we intend to cure tinnitus, in the sense of removing this sound from our body, this is probably not possible because we don’t really know why this happens. We know for sure that even when the auditory nerve is surgically sectioned, tinnitus persists – explains the audiology specialist and scientific director of the first WSA Summit, organized today in Rome by Anthea Group and supported by Widex Italia, Sivantos and Acufenia -. What we can do is reduce the emotional component of this sound, that is, transform it into one of the many sounds in our life.
It is not the sound that is important, but the emotional component that it transmits. If I am reading a book – he continues – and in the other room there are family members who are discussing how to knock down the wall of my room, I probably stop and listen to my family members. If, however, I’m reading the same book and listening to Beethoven, I probably don’t even notice and continue reading. Unfortunately, tinnitus is accompanied by a negative emotional component of unsolvable things, of things that don’t make you sleep, which lead to depression. Here we must transform, with rehabilitative therapies that are now commonplace, this sound into one of the many sounds of our life and change the order of priority that we give to our attentional processes”
A new approach
Sound is precisely the protagonist of the Widex Zen Therapy approach. “Although there is no cure, many therapeutic options are available that can help manage the symptoms and improve the quality of life – explains Sandro Lombardi CEO Widex Italia – From sound therapy solutions, such as Zen and SoundRelax, to hearing aids, to cognitive-behavioral therapy. Widex Zen Therapy, in particular, is a unique approach to sound therapy that uses fractal sounds, such as randomly generated, relaxing and customizable bell tolling sounds to help distract the brain from the perception of tinnitus and can be used with Widex hearing aids or as a stand-alone application,” he concludes.
