Objectives
Alleviating tinnitus is a challenging project for professionals within audiology and related fields. Meeting a suffering patient can be challenging as it demands a special interest for the patient as a complex living system. One perspective that risks being placed in the background, is the experience of the patient – the inside perspective.
Focus of the present study was to describe tinnitus through the eyes of the sufferer reflecting two aspects: Why is tinnitus accompanied by a psychological suffering? Can the personal life history contribute in making the relationship between tinnitus and the experienced suffering more comprehensible?
Methods
The unique meaning structure of patients’ reflections on their life with tinnitus was explored by the use of the narrative psychological approach. Participants were women and men in the age between 40-60 years and for whom tinnitus was experienced as a major problem. Individual, tape-recorded, deep interviews (3 – 4 for each patient) took place over a period of 3 to 4 months. The ethical committee in the West region of Sweden approved the study.
Results
In resemblance with how people suffering from a severe illness construct their stories (Gergen & Gergen, 1983) the analysis of the study samples’ narratives emanated from three plot dimensions: stability, progression and regression. Patients who in their passed had been faced with several serious challenges seemed to have a particularly pessimistic undertone. This may reflect how the construction of life stories interacts with previous experiences and interpretations. Tinnitus may thus pose a particularly great challenge for individuals who have experienced accumulative trauma in their past.
Conclusion
By allowing different voices to be heard increased understanding can be gained about how tinnitus interacts with unique life histories.