Being Single Sided Deaf.... so nor in the deaf not in the hearies

Giulia

Giulia

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I am between two seats, as we say in French. I am neither a heary, nor a deaf or a hoh, since my deafness is unilateral. So what is the word to qualify that kind of people ? Hearing impaired ? Humm....:ty:
 
Medically speaking, "hearing impaired" describes your hearing as being impaired, regardless of what level (deaf or hard of hearing.) And, most of us deaf people don't care for the term "hearing impaired" because it implies negativity (at least the "impaired" part does.) I'm not sure I quite understand why you say you are neither hearing nor deaf if you do have some form of hearing loss. Bottom line, call yourself whatever YOU are comfortable with.
 
I consider myself hard of hearing. I have no hearing in my left ear and borderline severe in my right.

adam
 
I too have unilateral deafness and here in the United States I could be considered medically deaf. However I grew up orally and fully integrated in mainstream public schools with very few proper accommodations given my loss (of course, how do you lose something you never had to begin with?)

I have always struggled with this from childhood on when I realized I was different. Even my dad told me that I would never make friends because I was 'different'. However, the irony was that whenever I made friends, my parents kept me from hanging out with them. So I was a hermit at best in my high school years. My only 'friend' during that time was the computer monitor and a 56K internet dial-up connection that gave me access to chatrooms. Then my parents berated me for spending so much time on the computer. Go figure.

But since having found Alldeaf, Ive come to terms with my 'difference' and although I'm not completely comfortable in my own skin, at least I know I'm not the only one that struggles with this.

I call myself deaf.
 
Giulia said:
:wave:
I am between two seats, as we say in French. I am neither a heary, nor a deaf or a hoh, since my deafness is unilateral. So what is the word to qualify that kind of people ? Hearing impaired ? Humm....:ty:
Click to expand...

I would call a person with unilateral loss hard of hearing. Of course, as AlleyCat said, it is up to the individual as to what he or she wishes to call themselves. If you prefer to call yourself deaf, that is your choice.
 
While my daughter has a bilateral loss, right now she is only aiding one ear(one good digital aid, one broken digital aid, two rejected analog aids). In other words, she is currently living her life as if she had single-sided deafness--she hears pretty well with the digital aid in one ear and the other ear is unaided. Of course, that is still not the same as having one ear with perfect hearing--but right now she is basically listening mono versus stereo, and she seems fine with it. For those who have loss in only one ear, I am wondering if you prefer to use a hearing aid in that ear or not? Also, for those who get benefit from hearing aids fairly equally in both ears, do any of you prefer to wear only one? Right now, we could only afford to repair one digital aid--in the future we plan to buy two new digital aids for my daughter--she does not want to wear her old analog aids even though they work--so right now she prefers to just aid one ear with the digital aid and keep the other one unaided. She seems to do just fine this way, so I am not really concerned. I was just wondering if anyone else prefers hearing "mono" versus "stereo"(if you have the choice to aid or not aid just one ear)?
 
Personally I much prefer to hear with both ears. I have had a bilateral hearing loss since childhood. I used an analogue in just my right ear for many years, but last July I got digitals for both ears and the difference is amazing. I could manage with one aid but it was no where near as good as two. I would never go back to using only one HA.
 
djchur said:
Personally I much prefer to hear with both ears. I have had a bilateral hearing loss since childhood. I used an analogue in just my right ear for many years, but last July I got digitals for both ears and the difference is amazing. I could manage with one aid but it was no where near as good as two. I would never go back to using only one HA.
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Thanks for your input! Yeah--I think the difference for my daughter seems to be that she likes the way the digital aids sound and doesn't like the way the analog aids sound--now that she only has one working digital aid, she seems to feel that she has no choice but to wear one. She tried the analog aid on the other ear, but complained that it sounded "squeaky" and "scratchy"(they seem to be working fine so this is her personal perception about the sound). I hope we can afford to buy her a new pair of digital aids soon--she will probably want to wear two and hear in "stereo" as soon as possible. But the time she is spending hearing in only one ear doesn't seem to be making her suffer too badly--I think she'll be ok as long as her one digital aid keeps working. It's when she is totally without digital aids that she seems the most miserable--and even then she found a way to improvise for a few days while one was being repaired. So I think she would prefer to hear with both ears, but only with good digital aids--if not, then she chooses one until she can have two digital aids. Sure hope we can find a way to replace them soon!
 
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