If there was a magic pill that cure deafness...

Silentwolfdog said:
Hmm, I guess acceptance and fear does make a difference in people decide whether to take it or not.

Since billions of people have to get used to hear, I am sure we can. We might don't have advantage like the baby do of not being able to remember when we were overwhelmed with all stimulation that went on. But I believe that we are capable of adapting to most of what environment got to offer.

What about pro and con of taking a pill? Seem like to me the pro overweight the con.

Here's a tough question, if you had a baby who are deaf, would you give it to the baby? Do the baby have a right to be able to hear and gain advantages like hearing baby do, or you would deny a pill to the baby?

And let's supposed that you guys refuse to take a pill, okay? If something happened and society for some reason refused to provide you something you need because of your deafness, such as an interpreter or captioning service. Their excuse is, "Well, you could have taken a pill and so it's your problem, not ours. Why should we provide you with something that cost our money and time, knowing that you could have communicate with us if you took a pill."

What would you do about it?

I bet that the day that pill came, the deaf society would be split up and confused.
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heh, if the attitude will be like that then I will take the pill and just grin and bear with it. LOL! Who kows, maybe I will love being a hearing person. Just so hard to imagine myself as a hearing person so that concept is so foreign to me right now. LOL!
 
shel90 said:
heh, if the attitude will be like that then I will take the pill and just grin and bear with it. LOL! Who kows, maybe I will love being a hearing person. Just so hard to imagine myself as a hearing person so that concept is so foreign to me right now. LOL!
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Lol, yeah. That concept is also foreign to me, but I would like to think of it a bit like an adventure. Isn't life all about adventure anyway? :)
 
Hear Again said:
If you would have asked me this question in 1995, I would have said yes.

Losing my hearing was one of the most difficult experiences of my life (given how blindness impacts hearing loss and vice-versa) and I can't count the number of times I wished my hearing would come back.

Once I learned how to use alternative communication and mobility techniques for the deafblind, I learned to accept my deafblindness.

Given where I am today, I would probably take the pill if only to find out what "normal" hearing is like. :)
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I know you are deafblind... but I admire you for doing the best you can do in this life... i have few friends who are deafblind. i spent few months with them...it was amazing.... this lady can cook... clean the house... i went to the grocery stores with her. i did not even help her.. she knew her way around.. the cashiers knew her... she can lead the life almost normal.. but she is very lonely.. not many friends would be bothered to come and visit with her... they dont want to have to fingerspell or signs under her hands...I still help her once every month with writing checks on ultitiles.... and she would cook me a good dinner....
 
SxyPorkie said:
I know you are deafblind... but I admire you for doing the best you can do in this life... i have few friends who are deafblind. i spent few months with them...it was amazing.... this lady can cook... clean the house... i went to the grocery stores with her. i did not even help her.. she knew her way around.. the cashiers knew her... she can lead the life almost normal.. but she is very lonely.. not many friends would be bothered to come and visit with her... they dont want to have to fingerspell or signs under her hands...I still help her once every month with writing checks on ultitiles.... and she would cook me a good dinner....
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What a wonderful relationship you have with her.
 
Hey, this is true! I have met one of famous person, and had blast time with this person with other bikers, she owns a motorcycle and rides motorcycle and guess what? Her vision was 20/300! She uses contact lens to correct her blindness. She said even with contact len, she is legally blind. She refused to accept "legal blind" even though there is MONEY there. Reason? She can't quit riding motorcycle! If she declare legal blind, she stand to lose motorcycle license!

shel90 said:
In addition, no two people with identical visual acuity see the same. For example, a person with 20/400 vision may be able to read print and travel without a cane while another person may not.[/[/B]QUOTE]

So true!! Same thing with deafness...
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SxyPorkie said:
I know you are deafblind... but I admire you for doing the best you can do in this life... i have few friends who are deafblind. i spent few months with them...it was amazing.... this lady can cook... clean the house... i went to the grocery stores with her. i did not even help her.. she knew her way around.. the cashiers knew her... she can lead the life almost normal.. but she is very lonely.. not many friends would be bothered to come and visit with her... they dont want to have to fingerspell or signs under her hands...I still help her once every month with writing checks on ultitiles.... and she would cook me a good dinner....
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Yea, I agree with Silentwolfdog...what a wonderful relationship u have with her! U are a blessing! I had a wonderful working relationship with my deafblind boss at Gallaudet. He is soooooo AWESOME and sooo sweet. No anger in him..I could take a few lessons from him about being less bitter. :giggle:
 
shel90 said:
Just playing devil's advocate here..what if u got it and it was like how that blind character in that movie "At First Sight" and u couldnt handle all the stimulations going thru your ears and u cant turn it off like u do with your CIs..would u go for it? That's the part I would be wary of..I like having the option of turning my HAs off if I dont want to hear sounds but once a person becomes hearing..no device to turn it off. :giggle:
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Yep, it's something that we would have a difficult time adjusting to.

If I became hearing from that pill, I would have a difficult time turning off specific sounds since I never grew up using selective hearing.
 
diehardbiker said:
Hey, this is true! I have met one of famous person, and had blast time with this person with other bikers, she owns a motorcycle and rides motorcycle and guess what? Her vision was 20/300! She uses contact lens to correct her blindness. She said even with contact len, she is legally blind. She refused to accept "legal blind" even though there is MONEY there. Reason? She can't quit riding motorcycle! If she declare legal blind, she stand to lose motorcycle license!
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She ride it on regular road or she just does it on private track?
 
but "born blind" doesn't mean "born with no light preception". Someone with 20/800 vision might not have any useful vision, but they're not totally blind, just legally so
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Yes I know. One of my best friends is legally blind, but he can read large print. Most blind and low vision folks have some degree of useful vision.
I know Hear Again and she's repeatly stated that she has no residual vision, which is why I was confused.
 
diehardbiker said:
Hey, this is true! I have met one of famous person, and had blast time with this person with other bikers, she owns a motorcycle and rides motorcycle and guess what? Her vision was 20/300! She uses contact lens to correct her blindness. She said even with contact len, she is legally blind. She refused to accept "legal blind" even though there is MONEY there. Reason? She can't quit riding motorcycle! If she declare legal blind, she stand to lose motorcycle license!
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That's not "making the most out of life". That's being an idiot. If your vision is not 20/60 or better with the aide of bioptics (little telescopes that mount on ones normal glasses), you should NOT drive. She is legally blind, if she says it or not, and thus is a danger to all around her. There is NO way to compensate for a vision impairment beyond that on the road- even at 20/60, drivers have a "daytime restricted" licence around here- you need to test at 20/40 through the bioptics to get a full license.
 
Silentwolfdog said:
Would you take it? I know it's not reality and probably will not be for a long time. But I am asking "IF" it exists and that the pill will restore all of it. Will you take it or not? Why or why not?


Ah and of course the pill is without any side effects.
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Well, if it exists...then, I would prefer to see any deaf person who will go for it and show me first if, it works for this person before I could consider it. Of course, I will NOT go for it immediately until several months later after this person's hearin' really works. What if, the pill lasts a few/or several months and then, return to deaf ? Maybe, it will give a deaf person to taste what it is like to be hearin' ? :hmm: ...ahhh now this person will get the idea what a hearin' person can hear is like ... ?

I don't want a short term " hearin' " pill. LOL
 
RDC_girl said:
Is there a pill that will make me deaf? Sometimes I think that would make my life so much easier!

Let me explain - i have tinnitus and no one really knows what I go through. My mom yells at me because she thinks I am ignoring her when really I just didnt hear her. People think I am lying when I say I cant hear them and it annoys me
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I can very much understand this as I also suffer from Tinitus as well as sound phobia.
 
Aleser said:
Heh, I suppose I'm on the other end here. My vision was (nearly) normal at birth and since then has had periods of severe drops and then stable times. I see just enough to -remember- what some things used to look like, and it's frustrating at times. Partly, it makes me wish my vision would decline further, forcing me to stop using my last bits of it as a crutch. I know there's alot of people who do it to a much greater extent than I do, but it's still frustrating to catch myself when I do.
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My sight fluctuates too. I do have useful sight and wouldn't want to lose it although I dare say I'd soon find alternatives if I did.

However there are times when not seeing is easier. It's hayfever season now. When I'm going about outdoors I have taken to covering my eyes which makes me totally blind but I can use my sight when I want to. It doesn't get all gunged up with pollen so my eye lids are glued down which has happened in former years.

I definately know what you are saying about people depending on sight too much. I'm starting to find more non visual alternatives so my life can be fuller that way. I can travel at night for example, and not have to depend on good lighting conditions.

When I used to rely rather exclosively on my residual vision after some of it came back I think I was definately limiting my options.
 
Hear Again said:
That's where I'm "lucky." When you tell someone you're totally blind, people understand what that means. When you tell them you're legally blind, it's a bit more difficult to explain since that can mean so many different things and can be impacted by the environment (sunny/cloudy, color contrast/size of objects, lack of depth perception, etc.).
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Yes, people can understand total blindness much easier although you can sometimes have the reverse problem of people helping wheras no help is really needed or even wanted. To give a good example I got a bit lost the other day. I tried and tried to explain to the people around that once they took me back to the pelicon crossing between sheldon country park and the other cycle path, I would know where I was but they insisted on calling the police and I ended up going back home in a police car. How humiliating is that!

On the other hand fluctuating vision, functional blindness and partial sight can be harder for people to understand. My ex flat mates just never could understand my functional blindness and kept accusing me of faking it. Functional blindness (or what they used to term hysterical conversion) is NOT the same as faking it.

There is also seems bad feeling among certain blind people towards those with more sight. When I was training with Jilli there was a woman with a lot of useful vision but problem with severe light sensitivity. She was good with her dog and the guide dog association considered her 'blind' enough to need a dog so that was good enough for me, but you would be amazed at the backstabbing that was going on about her. It really bothered me that did and wondered what they were saying behind my back.
 
I would take this wonder pill, sure, cuz I hear/comprehend well enough to know what I'm missing and it wouldn't be all that much of an adjustment for me, of that I am confident.

Having said that, let me assure you that I don't sit around and whine about my deafness. I'm not glad for it; I'm not torn asunder by it. IT JUST IS and life goes on.
 
Assumption is a MISTAKE! I don't see her having problem riding though average of 45MPH in snake like road up in the mountains! I didn't know she was legally blind until she lost one of contact len. I was like whoa! you ride motorcycle no problem??? She explained to me that she could declare legally blind, but she refused because she do not want to give up riding bikes.

Endangering others? She does not seem like that.

Silentwolfdog said:
On road filled with other people? Isn't that like she's endangering the lives of others?
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