Browse content similar to British Tinnitus Association. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
Peace and quiet. | 0:00:14 | 0:00:15 | |
Something that everyone needs in their life from time to time. | 0:00:19 | 0:00:22 | |
But can you imagine never being able to experience silence again? | 0:00:24 | 0:00:29 | |
PIERCING WHISTLE | 0:00:29 | 0:00:31 | |
Never having quiet in your head, but instead, | 0:00:31 | 0:00:33 | |
being tormented by constant noise? | 0:00:33 | 0:00:35 | |
MECHANICAL WHIRRING | 0:00:36 | 0:00:38 | |
It's an experience that I know all about, because I have tinnitus. | 0:00:38 | 0:00:42 | |
Now, most people think it's just caused by too much noisy music, | 0:00:42 | 0:00:45 | |
but I got it as a result of malaria. | 0:00:45 | 0:00:48 | |
And tinnitus left me feeling extremely stressed, | 0:00:48 | 0:00:51 | |
because you can't escape it. | 0:00:51 | 0:00:52 | |
And I was told it would be with me for ever. | 0:00:52 | 0:00:56 | |
RADIO STATIC | 0:00:56 | 0:00:57 | |
And the soundtrack that tinnitus gave policy advisor Bev Reategui | 0:00:57 | 0:01:02 | |
wasn't exactly easy listening. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:04 | |
If you don't tune the radio in properly, | 0:01:04 | 0:01:07 | |
then you get all of this static. It feels like that. | 0:01:07 | 0:01:11 | |
It's a very bizarre thing to be happening. | 0:01:11 | 0:01:14 | |
People expect if you get really stressed, | 0:01:14 | 0:01:17 | |
or have a difficult time with your job, or your family, then, | 0:01:17 | 0:01:21 | |
"Oh, you'll have a heart attack, or you'll have a stroke." | 0:01:21 | 0:01:25 | |
They don't say, "Well, actually, you might end up with tinnitus." | 0:01:25 | 0:01:28 | |
Which is exactly what happened to me. | 0:01:28 | 0:01:31 | |
The stress of Bev's demanding job triggered constant tinnitus. | 0:01:31 | 0:01:36 | |
I just was terrified. | 0:01:36 | 0:01:39 | |
I thought, am I going mad? | 0:01:39 | 0:01:41 | |
Is my brain starting to make up all these noises? | 0:01:41 | 0:01:46 | |
They were getting louder, and louder, and louder. | 0:01:46 | 0:01:49 | |
And you can't turn it off. | 0:01:49 | 0:01:52 | |
And I was just so scared. | 0:01:52 | 0:01:55 | |
With no end in sight, Bev was signed off on long-term sick leave, | 0:01:55 | 0:02:00 | |
and her mood declined. | 0:02:00 | 0:02:02 | |
You can slide easily into depression. | 0:02:02 | 0:02:05 | |
And I'm sure that I was quite depressed. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:07 | |
Tinnitus is surprisingly commonplace. | 0:02:13 | 0:02:15 | |
One in 10 people will experience it at some point in their lives. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:19 | |
There is no medical cure for tinnitus, | 0:02:19 | 0:02:21 | |
so many of those affected are told to just learn to live with it. | 0:02:21 | 0:02:25 | |
This is where the British Tinnitus Association comes in, | 0:02:25 | 0:02:28 | |
because they don't think that's good enough. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:30 | |
Over the years, they have helped hundreds of thousands of people | 0:02:30 | 0:02:33 | |
learn how to manage their condition. | 0:02:33 | 0:02:35 | |
Years spent working on noisy building sites | 0:02:38 | 0:02:40 | |
gave Richard tinnitus that came and went. | 0:02:40 | 0:02:44 | |
But when tragedy struck his family, | 0:02:44 | 0:02:46 | |
Richard's tinnitus suddenly became a much more serious problem. | 0:02:46 | 0:02:50 | |
I noticed my tinnitus seemed to be constant | 0:02:51 | 0:02:55 | |
instead of being intermittent, | 0:02:55 | 0:02:57 | |
which really worried me. | 0:02:57 | 0:02:59 | |
No longer able to bear loud noise, | 0:03:01 | 0:03:03 | |
Richard had to give up the job he loved. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:05 | |
He went to his GP, hoping for a cure. | 0:03:05 | 0:03:09 | |
Basically he said to me, | 0:03:09 | 0:03:10 | |
"You've got to learn to live with it", which was hard to hear. | 0:03:10 | 0:03:15 | |
PIERCING WHISTLE | 0:03:15 | 0:03:17 | |
The thought of things not getting better | 0:03:17 | 0:03:20 | |
was something that dragged me down. | 0:03:20 | 0:03:22 | |
I felt like I was trapped in a cage. | 0:03:22 | 0:03:24 | |
And the more I thought it, the worse it became. | 0:03:24 | 0:03:28 | |
RADIO STATIC | 0:03:29 | 0:03:31 | |
To feel these emotions was completely alien to me, | 0:03:31 | 0:03:34 | |
and to feel this low. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:36 | |
I was desperate, very desperate at that time. | 0:03:36 | 0:03:40 | |
And I went for a walk down to the bay. | 0:03:42 | 0:03:46 | |
And it went through my mind, for a short while, about taking my life. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:52 | |
It's all too easy to feel isolated by tinnitus, | 0:03:57 | 0:04:01 | |
but the British Tinnitus Association | 0:04:01 | 0:04:03 | |
is dedicated to supporting people with the condition. | 0:04:03 | 0:04:06 | |
Their work is crucial | 0:04:06 | 0:04:08 | |
when you think almost half a million people have tinnitus | 0:04:08 | 0:04:10 | |
severe enough to have a major impact on the lives. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:15 | |
The BTA work tirelessly to provide support, | 0:04:15 | 0:04:17 | |
advice and management techniques for those affected, | 0:04:17 | 0:04:20 | |
but they're also at the forefront for commissioning research | 0:04:20 | 0:04:24 | |
into new ways of treating tinnitus. | 0:04:24 | 0:04:25 | |
Like the pioneering approach being | 0:04:28 | 0:04:30 | |
taken at University College Hospital in London. | 0:04:30 | 0:04:32 | |
Clinical psychologist Dr McKenna is teaching patients a technique | 0:04:32 | 0:04:37 | |
that has been known about for thousands of years in the East, | 0:04:37 | 0:04:40 | |
mindfulness meditation. | 0:04:40 | 0:04:42 | |
And it seems to have a radical effect when applied to tinnitus. | 0:04:42 | 0:04:45 | |
Mindfulness invites people to pay attention to all that going on, | 0:04:48 | 0:04:53 | |
including their tinnitus. | 0:04:53 | 0:04:55 | |
And contrary to what some people might think, | 0:04:56 | 0:05:00 | |
that can lead to a much less stressful experience, | 0:05:00 | 0:05:03 | |
and one that doesn't involve you going on, and on, and on | 0:05:03 | 0:05:07 | |
trying to distract yourself. | 0:05:07 | 0:05:09 | |
It's a skilled intervention | 0:05:10 | 0:05:12 | |
that has to be carried out over time by professionals. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:15 | |
And groups like this will soon be taking part | 0:05:15 | 0:05:17 | |
in a major clinical trial, supported by the BTA, which could enable | 0:05:17 | 0:05:21 | |
the treatment to become much more widely available. | 0:05:21 | 0:05:25 | |
If we want this approach to tinnitus management to go forward, | 0:05:26 | 0:05:30 | |
and many of our patients hope that it will, | 0:05:30 | 0:05:33 | |
then we need hard, scientific data. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:35 | |
That is what this trial is about. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:37 | |
It seems so simple, but when you have tinnitus, it is a real struggle | 0:05:39 | 0:05:42 | |
to train yourself to step outside of the condition. | 0:05:42 | 0:05:46 | |
Learning to meditate is a bit more complicated than taking a pill, | 0:05:46 | 0:05:49 | |
but it's by supporting new approaches to the problem | 0:05:49 | 0:05:53 | |
that the BTA is helping to transform the lives | 0:05:53 | 0:05:55 | |
of those living with tinnitus. | 0:05:55 | 0:05:57 | |
Richard was one of the first to take part | 0:06:01 | 0:06:02 | |
in Dr McKenna's mindfulness training, | 0:06:02 | 0:06:05 | |
and the effects have been startling. | 0:06:05 | 0:06:06 | |
We did the meditation for about 20 minutes, and I was aware that, | 0:06:08 | 0:06:12 | |
for 20 minutes of that meditation, | 0:06:12 | 0:06:15 | |
I had not been aware of my tinnitus. | 0:06:15 | 0:06:17 | |
So, it had a very massive impact, more or less straight away on me. | 0:06:20 | 0:06:25 | |
If you can come to acceptance, you've found a way through, | 0:06:27 | 0:06:31 | |
and you can learn to live with it then for the rest of your life. | 0:06:33 | 0:06:37 | |
And supporting new treatments is not all the BTA does, | 0:06:40 | 0:06:43 | |
it also enables people to help each other. | 0:06:43 | 0:06:45 | |
We had help from the BTA to set up | 0:06:47 | 0:06:50 | |
and run our own self-help group in Cardiff, and it's been | 0:06:50 | 0:06:54 | |
running for a couple of months, and going from strength to strength. | 0:06:54 | 0:06:58 | |
I accept what has happened to me now, I don't fight it, I accept it. | 0:07:00 | 0:07:04 | |
Here she comes! | 0:07:06 | 0:07:07 | |
By demonstrating the effectiveness of mindfulness | 0:07:07 | 0:07:10 | |
through Dr McKenna's trial, | 0:07:10 | 0:07:11 | |
others may get to experience a transformation like Richard's. | 0:07:11 | 0:07:15 | |
I didn't realise how powerful my mind was | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
until I discovered mindfulness can actually change the way you think. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:24 | |
I know without its help, I don't know if I would be here today. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:29 | |
Tinnitus is more common than you think. | 0:07:31 | 0:07:34 | |
If you don't have tinnitus yourself, | 0:07:34 | 0:07:35 | |
you're likely to know someone who does. | 0:07:35 | 0:07:37 | |
Yet research into the condition | 0:07:37 | 0:07:39 | |
is chronically underfunded by government. | 0:07:39 | 0:07:41 | |
The BTA is a major supporter of research, and with your help | 0:07:41 | 0:07:45 | |
it can fund more projects, transforming the lives of millions. | 0:07:45 | 0:07:50 | |
Please go to the website: | 0:07:50 | 0:07:53 | |
..and you can donate. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:55 | |
If you haven't got internet access, please call: | 0:07:55 | 0:07:59 | |
and if you can't get through the first time, | 0:07:59 | 0:08:02 | |
please, please keep trying. | 0:08:02 | 0:08:04 | |
You can also donate ?10 by texting: | 0:08:04 | 0:08:09 | |
Texts cost ?10, plus your standard network message charge, | 0:08:11 | 0:08:14 | |
and the whole ?10 goes to the BTA. | 0:08:14 | 0:08:17 | |
Full terms and conditions can be found at bbc.co.uk/lifeline. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:22 | |
Telephone calls are free from most landlines. | 0:08:22 | 0:08:25 | |
Some networks and mobile operators will charge for these calls. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:29 | |
If you would like to post a donation, | 0:08:29 | 0:08:31 | |
please make your cheque payable to the British Tinnitus Association, | 0:08:31 | 0:08:35 | |
and send it to FREEPOST BBC Lifeline Appeal, | 0:08:35 | 0:08:39 | |
writing BTA on the back of the envelope. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:42 | |
And if you want the charity to claim Gift Aid on your donation, | 0:08:42 | 0:08:45 | |
please include an e-mail or postal address, | 0:08:45 | 0:08:48 | |
so they can send you a Gift Aid form. | 0:08:48 | 0:08:51 | |
Thank you. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:54 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:08:58 | 0:09:00 |