lostandtryingmybest
New Member
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2023
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haha You can call me that, anyways. 
So... After a lot of struggling to keep up with people and the world in general, I went to an audiologist for the first time... and you know what they found?
.......Nothing!!! My hearing is supposedly in normal range!!! (Can't hear below 10 db and I have a little dip lower than that in my mid-highs, but right now it's not enough to be called a loss.)
The problem is, obviously I don't feel like I function as a "normal-range hearing person", or I wouldn't have gone and gotten tested, and I wouldn't be here right now typing a post up. I don't know what's going on with me, the audiologist just kind of said "Wellll there's nothing I can do," and I'm frustrated. So I came here because, I guess, I hope maybe I can find people who will understand a bit?
I misidentify sounds, fairly often. Like the sound of someone (especially myself) eating food could be footsteps, or an alarm could be just a particularly bad violin player. I rely on context a lot to figure out what sounds mean, but in situations with "similar" sounds that gets harder. I have trouble with placing sounds, too, as in I sometimes can't tell the difference between the heater turning on inside and the wind blowing outside, or whether a person talking is in the room to my right or my left.
And I don't understand the things people are saying, really often - any extra noise makes it next to impossible, but even in the best of conditions I still struggle. At my best, speech sounds like "Prisencolinensinainciusol" (a song made of English-sounding nonsense words) and I need to ask for repeats - at worst it just gets lost in "static" and I might not even know they're talking to begin with. That leads to people assuming I'm ignoring them, especially because sometimes I DO hear them... just NOT ALWAYS!
I end up spending a lot of time alone listening to videos and music through headphones because then at least I can control for things like volume and captions, or just click away if I'm struggling too much, and talking with text instead of things like voice or video calls. I get very tired and agitated trying to have conversations with people - 10 minutes and I'm already antsy, an hour and I feel dead! Even music gets stressful in the same way, I can't listen to music with lyrics for that long - instrumental or I will tear my hair out after a half hour.
So yeah, I don't know "what" I am, because my ears physically seem to hear and pick up sound just fine... I know the average hearing person probably struggles with these things every once in a while too, but it doesn't seem to be anywhere near the extent I do, or else I would imagine people would be more patient and kind with me. There are a lot of times when I wish I could just shut my ears, the same way I can shut my eyes, and not have to hear anything for a little while.
I don't know where to look for answers at this point - I know no one here can give me those, I just figured if there's people who might understand, they would be here.
Thanks for reading, and I hope I'm not too disruptive
So... After a lot of struggling to keep up with people and the world in general, I went to an audiologist for the first time... and you know what they found?
.......Nothing!!! My hearing is supposedly in normal range!!! (Can't hear below 10 db and I have a little dip lower than that in my mid-highs, but right now it's not enough to be called a loss.)
The problem is, obviously I don't feel like I function as a "normal-range hearing person", or I wouldn't have gone and gotten tested, and I wouldn't be here right now typing a post up. I don't know what's going on with me, the audiologist just kind of said "Wellll there's nothing I can do," and I'm frustrated. So I came here because, I guess, I hope maybe I can find people who will understand a bit?
I misidentify sounds, fairly often. Like the sound of someone (especially myself) eating food could be footsteps, or an alarm could be just a particularly bad violin player. I rely on context a lot to figure out what sounds mean, but in situations with "similar" sounds that gets harder. I have trouble with placing sounds, too, as in I sometimes can't tell the difference between the heater turning on inside and the wind blowing outside, or whether a person talking is in the room to my right or my left.
And I don't understand the things people are saying, really often - any extra noise makes it next to impossible, but even in the best of conditions I still struggle. At my best, speech sounds like "Prisencolinensinainciusol" (a song made of English-sounding nonsense words) and I need to ask for repeats - at worst it just gets lost in "static" and I might not even know they're talking to begin with. That leads to people assuming I'm ignoring them, especially because sometimes I DO hear them... just NOT ALWAYS!
I end up spending a lot of time alone listening to videos and music through headphones because then at least I can control for things like volume and captions, or just click away if I'm struggling too much, and talking with text instead of things like voice or video calls. I get very tired and agitated trying to have conversations with people - 10 minutes and I'm already antsy, an hour and I feel dead! Even music gets stressful in the same way, I can't listen to music with lyrics for that long - instrumental or I will tear my hair out after a half hour.
So yeah, I don't know "what" I am, because my ears physically seem to hear and pick up sound just fine... I know the average hearing person probably struggles with these things every once in a while too, but it doesn't seem to be anywhere near the extent I do, or else I would imagine people would be more patient and kind with me. There are a lot of times when I wish I could just shut my ears, the same way I can shut my eyes, and not have to hear anything for a little while.
I don't know where to look for answers at this point - I know no one here can give me those, I just figured if there's people who might understand, they would be here.
Thanks for reading, and I hope I'm not too disruptive
That obviously doesn't help any of the actual problems I'm dealing with, and it makes me almost wish I hadn't gone just to get what feels like a non-answer.