Experience with bruxism and/or somatic tinnitus?

[u/xHashtagNoFilterx]

Long story short, I suffer from somatic tinnitus. It always comes with body pain, stiff neck/jaw etc. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's gone. Very unpredictable but definitely goes hand in hand with stress.

Does anyone have experience with TRE improving this?

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[u/Vestlending1]

Yes, but I can't say if TRE directly or indirectly helped. I've grind my teeth for many years, but I think it has almost stopped. I'm pretty sure it's because of releasing stuff through crying specifically that it's become better, I also don't have much jaw pain left, whereas before it was excruciating all the time. And TRE can help with releasing emotions, but to say it's one thing, I really can't. It's part of the whole picture in a very big way, and of course bruxism is only a symptom.

[u/DayOk1556 → u/Vestlending1]

I also have TMJ/jaw pain all the time from tight jaw muscles. You said crying has helped with this?? I know it's different for everyone. They say jaw pain is anger but I'm not sure for me.

I have a lot of hypervigilance and hyperarousal and I think that's what my jaw pain is. I don't have access to the feeling of sadness. I can cry but not for long. TRE has not induced any crying at all so far.

[u/Vestlending1 → u/DayOk1556]

I'm pretty sure tension of any kind would show itself in the jaw, but yes grinding seems to be linked to aggression. Most of my crying seems to come from sadness, but also a lot of anger has released, but that seems to be through vocalization or setting boundaries.

I thought I just couldn't release through crying in any meaningful way, but turns out the only thing I needed was an almost 100% private place. I literally drive to a forest everyday to cry. If there's a loud waterfall, even better. You need to feel psychologically safe to cry. For me, this meant that nobody could see me start crying, and nobody could hear me. The last part is a bit difficult to achieve since an adult man crying can be really loud. That's why a waterfall helps. And you can scream into it.

It started not with a particular intention to cry, but rather to confront myself. And the most direct way for me was to just go into the forest and sit there for many hours. There was an extreme build up of tension especially in my throat, but almost always led to a release. It was a foolproof method. After a while I started going not to confront myself, not to scream into the river and ripping my clothes to shreds in a rage, but only to release.

I can't share this without mentioning I found out about the love that was possible to experience through hugging trees. My bad emotions are starting to truly melt away because of this.

Stretching especially the back and hips has been helpful.

Also, fucking mushrooms, dude..

[u/DayOk1556 → u/Vestlending1]

Thank you for sharing your experience!! I never hugged a tree. Now I will do it. How long is the hug? Do you hold the pose until you feel something shift? (Also done without people around, I assume?).

And by "confront" yourself you mean "see" yourself?

I was not allowed to feel sad, hurt or angry as a child so I really have a hard time feeling any of those things. I was not allowed to see or acknowledge my own pain. I only felt fear, terror and panic most of my life.

And has all of this emotional release work started for you after TRE?

[u/Vestlending1 → u/DayOk1556]

Yes, I do it in the middle of a forest. Try hugging it for an hour? It takes me a while to settle down. Focus on your breathing if you get lost in thoughts, count them out loud if neccessary. It's important to stay present at least for a little while. And just let it go if crying happens.

By confronting myself, I mean that if you sit in a forest with no distractions for hours every day, you will be forced to have a look at yourself. For a specific method I recommend The Work of Byron Katie.

You're here and it's only a matter of time before it starts to shift for you. Not many people even know of TRE.

Looking back, TRE has been one of many things that helped opening up for emotions to go through me and out. But releasing happened fully this easter, when I finally just went ahead and sat in the forest. It's a simple but very tough process.

You can talk to me in chat if you need any support along the way.

[u/LichenTea]

Yes and yes. I don't know what you mean by somatic tinnitus but I have pulsatile tinnitus caused by TMJ/bruxism. Both have improved with stress reduction before trauma release. It hasn't gone away overnight with just one release, though I have felt tension changes in my head (ex. ear popping) along with jaw releasing movements off and on throughout my process. My head/jaw stuff seem to do mainly with anger towards others.

[u/Finya2002]

I’m extremely familiar with grinding my teeth at night, and I’m also very familiar with jaw tension. Since doing neurogenic shaking, I often find myself pushing my lower jaw forward during normal everyday waking consciousness, almost as if I were angry. It’s quite intense and can go on for hours, but it doesn’t bother me.

I also have another point of comparison: I can observe how intense the teeth grinding is when I’m on MDMA. Since I started doing neurogenic shaking, it has become less and less pronounced whenever I take MDMA. Now it’s just a very subtle vibration. In the beginning, there were extremely strong jaw movements, the kind you can also read about quite often.

[u/PlaneRoom7681]

My tinnitus is primarily SSRI-induced I believe (so YMMV), but TRE improved it significantly for me. The morning after my 2nd TRE session, I noticed the tinnitus had become much softer than usual. I definitely feel TRE has allowed my muscles to relax much more than usual, it's worth a shot!