Tinnitus & “Checking Behaviors”: The Hidden Cost of the Tinnitus Journal

By Dr. Jennifer Gans 

When tinnitus appears, many people instinctively try to understand it. They track it. Measure it. Monitor changes. Write it down.

This urge is understandable—and well-intended—but for most people with bothersome tinnitus, checking behaviors are one of the biggest obstacles to recovery.

One of the most common examples is the tinnitus journal.

While self-monitoring can be helpful in some medical conditions, tinnitus is different. In tinnitus, attention is the problem, not the solution.

 
What Are “Checking Behaviors”?

Checking behaviors are actions intended to reassure or gain control but that unintentionally train the brain to stay focused on the symptom.

Common tinnitus checking behaviors include:

• Keeping a tinnitus journal
• Rating tinnitus loudness daily
• Frequently checking “Is it still there?”
• Comparing today’s sound to yesterday’s
• Tracking triggers obsessively
• Googling symptoms repeatedly

These behaviors feel proactive—but they keep tinnitus in the spotlight.

 
Why the Brain Misinterprets Checking as Danger

• The brain uses attention as a signal of importance.
• When you repeatedly check tinnitus, the brain learns:
• “This sound matters. Pay attention. Stay alert.”

This is the opposite of what we want.

Tinnitus is a benign internal signal. For it to fade into the background, the brain must classify it as irrelevant. Checking behaviors prevent that reclassification.

In other words:

What you monitor, you amplify
What you measure, you reinforce
 
The Tinnitus Journal: Why It Backfires

Tinnitus journals are often recommended with the idea that awareness leads to insight. But for tinnitus, this approach is usually counterproductive.

1. Journaling Strengthens the Attention Loop

Each time you write about tinnitus, you:

• Direct attention toward it
• Increase auditory monitoring
• Reinforce neural pathways associated with the sound

 

The brain does not distinguish between “neutral observation” and “threat monitoring.” Attention is attention.

 
2. Journals Create a False Sense of Control

Tracking tinnitus can create the illusion that:

• If you just analyze it enough, it will resolve
• You can “figure out” the sound

But tinnitus is not a puzzle to solve—it is a perception to de-prioritize.

The more you try to control it cognitively, the more your brain stays engaged with it.

 
3. Journaling Increases Anxiety Sensitivity

Many people notice that journaling leads to:

• Hyper-awareness of small fluctuations
• Increased worry when tinnitus changes
• Misinterpretation of normal variability as “worsening”

 

This fuels anxiety, which directly increases tinnitus salience.

 
4. Recovery Requires Less Monitoring, Not More

Habituation—the process by which tinnitus fades into the background—requires the brain to stop checking.

People often report improvement only after they stop:

• Tracking
• Rating
• Comparing
• Analyzing

Not because tinnitus disappeared—but because their brain stopped caring.

 
“But Isn’t Awareness a Mindfulness Practice?”

This is an important distinction.

Mindfulness is not monitoring.

Monitoring = checking, evaluating, judging, measuring
Mindfulness = allowing without engagement, curiosity without analysis

A tinnitus journal is not mindfulness. It is symptom surveillance.

True mindfulness teaches:

• Let the sound be present
• Do not analyze it
• Do not follow it
• Do not track it

Ironically, this lack of engagement is what allows the brain to disengage.

 
What to Do Instead of Checking

1. Shift From Monitoring to Redirecting

When tinnitus appears:

• Acknowledge it briefly (“There’s the sound”)
• Redirect attention to something external or meaningful
• Do not evaluate intensity or meaning

2. Use Sound Without Measuring

Background sound helps reduce contrast, not track progress.

• Use sound passively
• Avoid asking, “Did that make it better?”

 
3. Track Life, Not Tinnitus

If tracking helps your personality, track:

• Sleep quality
• Stress levels
• Time spent engaged in life

Not the sound itself.

4. Trust the Brain’s Filtering System

Your brain is exceptionally good at ignoring irrelevant information—when allowed to.

It ignores:

• Clothing on your skin
• The hum of a refrigerator
• The feeling of your tongue in your mouth

Tinnitus is no different—unless attention keeps pulling it back into focus.

 
The Paradox of Tinnitus Recovery

• The less you check, the less it matters.
• The less it matters, the less you hear it.
• The less you hear it, the safer your brain feels.

And safety—not analysis—is what quiets tinnitus.

Bottom Line

Keeping a tinnitus journal feels responsible—but it often teaches the brain to stay vigilant.

Tinnitus improves not through monitoring, but through disengagement.

If you want tinnitus to fade into the background, stop treating it like data—and start treating it like noise your brain no longer needs to hear.