lindtoholic

I just felt I should introduce myself before I start making threads. I should have signed up to this forum (or another) a long time ago, but truth be told I always shied away from doing so. I have been deaf ever since I was born, but due to picking up lipreading skills very early on (and somehow managing to hear my grandmother speak Swahili to me due to the difference in frequency) I managed to make do with these skills until I was 4. Eventually my parents were able to convince specialists to see that I was not progressing well.

I've struggled a lot with my hearing loss - I'm severely deaf in one ear, moderately deaf in the other, and so wear digital hearing aids on a constant basis except when sleeping. I was bullied throughout my childhood and into high school, and it was only when I got to university that people took me more seriously. I'm now studying Psychology at one of the top 10 universities for the subject in the UK - Royal Holloway - and have passed through to my third and final year despite all of the problems I faced with being deaf/being bullied.

My reason for coming here? Well, long story short I just arrived back from what was meant to be a great weekend at a festival (Download 2012). Only problem? It was so muddy that my balance issues (caused by being deaf) meant I couldn't get around anywhere unaccompanied, and I was constantly in need of someone to support me. I was with friends, and my boyfriend, but the latter was the main person "assigned" to helping me - mostly by the others and not me. It's safe to say getting to see bands was very difficult for the both of us, and I've now realised how disabled I can sometimes be in these worst-case situations.

I thought I was coming to terms with my deafness, what with no bullying going on and my academic progress being beyond what others had anticipated. But now I'm in a rut about it again, and I could do with the support/advice of others in a similar situation.

Deafness

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Sarfarigirl2011

welcome to Alldeaf, some of us may have been here. and I do have moderate-severe which is pretty borderline to severe LOL

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18 yr old girl with a moderate/severe in the right and severe on the left.
currently wearing purple Oticon Safari P 600s

Smithtr

welcome to alldeaf

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rockin'robin

lindtoholic

Thanks for the welcomes, guys!

Sarfarigirl2011

you're welcome

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18 yr old girl with a moderate/severe in the right and severe on the left.
currently wearing purple Oticon Safari P 600s

AJWSmith

Hello lindtoholic from a fellow UK deafie and chocoholic and welcome to AllDeaf (AD).

Is your hearing loss stable or progressive?

If it is stable, then my advice would be to prepare in advance for these worst case scenarios. When you know you've prepare thoroughly and covered all your bases, then you can relax much more when you're in it. And give yourself plenty of time and space to recover emotionally afterwards.

If your hearing loss is progressive, then you will need to find ways of accepting the consequences of this - communication problems, hearing people not accommodating themselves, struggle to socialise and so on. This doesn't have to be a death sentence as many people find new friends who are D/deaf or are understanding of deafness. This has been my experience.

I suspect that if you were bullied about your deafness in childhood (as I was), then you may feel a lot of shame about your deafness. You probably know from your Psychology studies that people can internalise bullying and believe that it's their deafness that's the source of their misery rather than the cruel behaviour of hearing bullies.

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Born deaf. Profound hearing loss in both ears (90-105dB). Wears Oticon Spirit Zest C SP (Chili)
You can also find me on twitter as @AJWSmith and on Google+ as AJW Smith

lindtoholic

Hi there, and thanks!

I have a stable hearing loss, so I should be largely okay once I am able to get the right preparations made. Have to admit though, the conditions I faced during the one weekend definitely was out of my planning range (I had planned for everything else) so I guess that was an eye-opener! However, have since been given medication to help with the dizziness and nausea that I get from being out of balance, which should significantly help.

And yeah, you hit it on the head. Bullying did make an impact, but I'm slowly starting to come out of it now.

Sarfarigirl2011

same here, I'm stable but I'm still fighting against my thresholds and the cat's eye did the the trick (except for the muffled with wax-YUCK!)

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18 yr old girl with a moderate/severe in the right and severe on the left.
currently wearing purple Oticon Safari P 600s

Lissa

welcome!!

Outsider

Just want to say welcome to AllDeaf and you have an interesting introduction. I noticed you have posted or made a statement on AllDeaf almost 60 times, it was almost like you have been here for a while. Another thing I've learned from you, you have said that you were born with hearing loss and I was wondering if you did lose your hearing when you were born?

The reason why I asked, I used to say I was born with a hearing loss but now... I realize and consider to say that I was born with a low hearing because I never lost my hearing from such accident or illness.

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OutSider believe LOVE is the way to enternal LIFE

lindtoholic

I posted this quite some time ago, and then made other threads elsewhere and discussed my issue(s) more thoroughly on there, hence why I have so many posts. But, I figured it was best to get more integrated on the community than to stand around in the backgrounds that way at least I don't fall into the category of someone who pops in to tell their tale, and then leave soon after. All too often on the forums I have been on with that attitude it has been considered a sign of someone seeking attention, and generally not really interested in the community as a whole.

With the hearing loss subject, though I was born with it, my hearing has actually declined with age so I consider it a term which, in some ways, is perhaps correct whilst with others it is not. Generally speaking I go by HoH though, but I usually term it hearing loss as that is what has happened to me as well.