Yahoo News Jamie Laing reveals 'debilitating' health condition sparked his anxiety
Susanna Reid sympathised as she detailed her own battle with tinnitus
Watch Jamie Laing reveals 'debilitating' health condition sparked his anxiety
What did you miss?
Jamie Laing has said tinnitus left him feeling "incredibly anxious", unable to sleep and at times unable to hear because the ringing is so loud.
People have tinnitus if they are hearing noises that do not come from an outside source, according to the NHS, and that it's usually not a sign of anything serious, plus it could get better by itself.
During his latest Good Morning Britain appearance, the Made In Chelsea star spoke about his initial "debilitating" experience with tinnitus. He said: "Oh my god when it first started, I was incredibly anxious. I thought I was never going to sleep again. I thought I was never going to hear again. It was so loud I couldn’t hear people talking at one point. It got that bad."
What, how and why?
Laing explained how it becomes a "vicious circle" with the anxiety making the tinnitus even "worse". Sharing the moment he first got tinnitus, he said: "Yeah I woke up thinking, 'What’s that ringing noise?' I was looking around the flat for the ringing noise and then suddenly realised it was coming from inside my head."
He added: "I was like, 'Oh my god'. You have to treat it like aircon in the bedroom or a fan. If you go on a summer holiday and you can hear the crickets and suddenly they stop at night. Oh there were crickets.
"You have tune out of it. You have to realise it’s not harmful. You need to try and forget about it. It’s incredibly ‘debilitating’. It causes anxiety. Anxiety makes it worse. It’s this vicious cycle – makes it harder to sleep. People live with it all around the world and no one talks about it."
Laing said he has been suffering with tinnitus for eight years. He explained: "You have to learn to accept it which is a really hard thing to do. When you first get tinnitus, they say to you this is forever there is no cure you have to live with it. Never goes. It’s forever."
The reality star quoted that one in seven people have tinnitus or some form of tinnitus where they are hearing some kind of ringing.
What else happened on Good Morning Britain?
TV host Susanna Reid had plenty of sympathy and shared her own personal experiences with tinnitus too. "My advice I was saying earlier to the viewers is to tune out of it," she explained.
The breakfast TV star said her tinnitus didn't make her incredibly anxious because she didn't wait to seek medical advice. She explained: "No it didn’t because I went quickly to the doctor who said there is no cure. But you can talk yourself out of it. I know that doesn’t apply to everybody."
Admittedly she said her ears were ringing at the moment because it had been triggered by a sound in the ITV studios. She said: "It’s really interesting, the ringing sound we ran just now has triggered it. Now in my ears. Now I can hear it again."
Reid shared how she tackles tinnitus by not allowing herself to fret over it. She added: "You have to make a conscious effort to tune it out. It’s fine, I just think I’m not going to worry about it. I’ll end up tuning it out again."
