Tinnitus Solutions for Writers

One of the most difficult things since having severe tinnitus and hyperacusis with my hearing loss, is my ability to concentrate for long periods of time. It can be very distracting having a constant cacophony of tones going on in one's head. I have gotten round this by stopping regularly while writing and finger knitting to clear my head with my tactile mantra ... but it is stopping the flow I am used to when writing. Then I came up with a plan.

I don't know why it didn't dawn on me before because I have collected likely 1000's of stories in my lifetime, editing recordings and digital films for community based projects. 

So, I decided to start recording my quiet pathway in the style of a children's story ... 

'In our village, just opposite the bus stop, behind a large trough of wild flowers that generously spill summer fragance for those passing by, there is a corner shop. It is not an ordinary corner shop for inside, sits and old woman who spends her days weaving wool and penning poems ... '

However, when I came to type up the story from my recorded spoken word, it was as if I had hit a block. Then another idea came to me.

A friend of a friend (who I won't mention just yet as I need to make sure she wouldn't mind being in my blog) came to visit me. She has increasingly struggled with her tinnitus. She has worked in primary education all her life. Like I did, she is finding is increasingly difficult to manage her tinnitus in this environment and is looking for new ways of working for the future. She had thought of editing because she has an English Degree and loves books.

I contacted her and asked if she would like us to help each other, where I would be her first editing job, to trial and see if it is something she could do as a alternative career.

Today, I sent her the first short story in a series entitled Quiet Space, recorded in my Quiet Space Studio.

I love that 2 women coming to terms with tinnitus and new ways of being, have come together with their strengths to find a solution.

And I share this with you to help you think about ways you might collaborate with others to become re-empowered should the wind have been knocked out of your sails, in the way that it has mine. But with no wind, it is time to sit still and enjoy the sun, to wonder at the depth of the ocean and make friends with a new type of lifestyle.