Reality TV regular Jamie Laing has spoken about his issues with tinnitus to raise awareness of the condition…
Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, earlier this week (Wednesday, February 7th) the Made In Chelsea star Jamie Laing opened up to hosts Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley about his struggle with tinnitus and how it has caused him anxiety for eight years.
Discussing the ringing in his ears to Susanna, who also suffers with the condition, he said:
“One in seven people in the world have tinnitus, or some form of tinnitus, so they’re hearing some sort of ringing. Mine started eight years ago and you have to learn to accept it, which is a really hard thing to do. When you first get tinnitus they say that ‘this is forever, there is no cure and you’re going to have to live with it.'”
Talking about how he discovered he had the condition, Jamie said: “I woke up one morning and thought ‘what’s that ringing noise?’ and I was looking around the flat for the ringing noise before suddenly realising it was coming from inside my head and I was like ‘oh my god’. But, you have to treat it like an air-con in your bedroom, or a fan, or if you go on a summer holiday and you can hear the crickets and suddenly when they stop at night you go ‘Ahh there were the crickets’. You just have to tune out of it and realise it is not harmful.
“You have to try and sort of forget about it. But it is incredibly debilitating and it causes anxiety. Anxiety then makes it worse so it’s a vicious cycle which makes it very hard to sleep and people have to deal with it around the world and no one talks about it. “
Continuing on how anxious it makes him feel, he added: “Oh my god. I mean when it first started and you realise it’s never going to go I was so 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 to me [at one point] it was that bad.”
Susanna revealed that talking about it with Jamie had now triggered the ringing noise in her ears as Jamie described the ringing as his “annoying best friend”. He said: “I now use it as a sign, as an alarm. I say it’s my annoying best friend. So when it is high and I can hear it all the time I think well I must be tired, I must be stressed, I must be anxious, I must be worried about something and so I use that as a signal to have some rest and think I need to relax.”
Opening up about how he and his wife, Sophie Habboo have attended couples therapy since being married, he then revealed that they are taking their podcast ‘Newlyweds’ on tour in April.
Good Morning Britain weekdays from 6am on ITV1 & ITVX
