Celticty

This was a very great description. It helps me understand what it is like to be Deaf slightly. That is so interesting. Thank you very much for this.

Deafness

__________________
This advertising will not be shown in this way to registered members.
Register your free account today and become a member on AllDeaf.com

SimplyMints

Haha, cool! I didn't even think of that =)

__________________
"A world that is not on the verge of annihilation can still be perfectly stimulating, and definitely not boring." - Andrea Berlinghoff

"Thanks to all my friends, I've learned that being different also makes me special. Besides, the only way to truly shine is to be yourself." - Lily Lightly

SimpleMan

Along with what others have already talked about, with being 'surrounded by sounds', if both ears are working you can tell which direction sounds are coming from. Music in stereo works on that basis to make some of the sounds come from the left and some come from the right or also to combine and sound like it's coming from all around you. That is more of how hearing people enjoy music. We still feel the vibrations from lower sounds, but not as well as deaf people.

Also, being able to hear from both ears, you can have a sense of how far a sound is coming from, in a similar way that if both of your eyes are working you can see how far an object is. If you can't see out of one of your eyes, it's much harder to judge distances that you're seeing, the same goes if one of your ears doesn't work, it's much harder to tell how far a sound is coming from.

My dad is deaf in one ear and while he has tried in the past to explain to me what it's like for him, all I really knew for sure was that if we're on the side of his bad ear, we always have to repeat what we tell him only louder. I knew he can't tell direction of sounds also, so whenever he misplaces his phone or is trying to figure out where a sound is coming from, he'd have to ask me to find it for him. A couple months ago I had my first ear infection, and for almost 2 weeks I couldn't hear from that ear at all, so I got to experience what it's like to be deaf in one ear like my dad is. I also 'felt' a constant ringing like tinitis in from that ear. I couldn't tell direction or distance of sounds, and just like my dad, I had to ask people to repeat what they told me. I also found that with only one ear working, many sounds would mix together which also made it more difficult to 'pick them out'. It very much was a learning experience for me.

I hope I helped add to what others have been saying about it so that you understand better.

jazzy

I forgot all what sounds are alike. Oh well.

__________________

lsfoster

This might sounds really dumb, but I'd never even heard of this. I've been thinking a lot lately about how it would be different if I couldn't hear anything, but the idea of not being able to smell hadn't even occurred to me. Yes, there are many (many) unpleasant smells that I would be glad to be rid of, but smell also contributes to so many other things. Do you taste differently? I mean, I'm sure you do, but do you know how it's different? Smell is such a huge factor in how we taste. It's also a major memory trigger. I know a lot of studies have shown that smell is the sense most closely tied to memory..... so many more things to think about!


(Sorry to completely hijack thread)

__________________
"Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux."

sam_dunbar

My lovely wife is hearing impaired since she was 3 years old. She gets frustrated that she cannot as easily hear what the kids are saying, especially when it two or more of them are talking at the same time. There are times when she would like to be able to hear normally without the assistance of a hearing aid. The hearing aid helps, but as others have mentioned doesn't make the sounds any clearer, simply louder with possibly some filtering, she wears an analog aid.

Being hearing impaired does have one big advantage, being able to 'turn off' the kids. For example in the car when the kids are being a bit rowdy and noisy, she can switch off the aid and doesn't hear them. I on the other hand, have to listen to them and try to get them to quite down.

Sam

KDM

There are good things and bad things. I think like living with any circumstance, there are positives and negatives. There are sounds that sooth me and things that cause me great stress. The reason I go scuba diving so much is to get away from stressful sounds (it is so peaceful under water) ; example; telephone ringing, tv, loud sirens, fighting, lies being told. Ignorant people say stupid and rude things. I have noticed that people who can not hear, tend to show feelings through physical affection ( I LOVE THAT!!!). loud noises hurt my ears.

I know that if I could not hear, I would miss music and the sound of my childrens voices. But off the top of my head. I can not think of anything else that I would miss. I understand that this is an easy thing for me to say while I have hearing. But sometimes I think I could do without.

__________________
Live, Love and Laugh.. then all will be good with the world

the_blah

Yes i do it....i am hearing impaired of about 2 years old doing speaking like this hearing, and i can ear so much not noise.
today i am hearing impaired of only 17 do tried to hard spoke

heariepaul

Hi, I'm new here.
I remember back when I was a boy in church, I'd get bored and invent ways to entertain myself. One of those ways was to play with that margin between staying awake (listening to my father preach) and nodding off to sleep. While I did that, I would sort of step back and forth between hearing and silence...I know this sounds weird. I discovered that the brain processes hearing and a fraction of a second before true sleep, the hearing ceases. So, I could manipulate that dreamy state and experience silence - my dad stopped preaching in effect.
You may be surprised at the number of hearing people that crave true solitude because, although certain sounds can be 'tuned out' the ears do actually stay on. The sensitivity varies from person to person. I do physically hard work, so I can fall asleep very easily - certainly within 5 minutes, and no noises wake me up unless they're REAL loud.
Paul

shel90

U know it is funny...on my Facebook account I put down "Just turned my hearing aids off cuz the dog's barking was driving me nuts."

That was in the morning and then in the evening when I went to check my FB, I got over 10 comments from my hearing friends saying that they wished they could do that and that I was so lucky. I used to be envious of them growing up! Ironic, isnt it?

__________________
Shel~

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." -George Santayana

heariepaul

Yes, that is ironic. It's also, I think, instructive. No matter what tools we're all given in this life, it's how effectively we use what we have that is what counts.

Hear Again

One thing I'm curious about in regards to those who are fully hearing is whether or not you experience recruitment. From what I understand, many d/Deaf and HoH people have this condition, but I'd like to know if hearies can have it too.

__________________
Left ear - Nucleus 24 Contour Advance with Freedom BTE
(Implanted: 12/22/04 | Activated: 1/18/05)
Right ear - Nucleus Freedom
(Implanted: 2/1/06 | Activated: 3/1/06)

Deafblind/Postlingual

Hear Again

Yes, very ironic.

I remember when my sign language instructor used to tell me how lucky I was to be able to turn my hearing aids off whenever I wanted (especially after a long day). I never really gave it much thought until then, but she was right.

I suffer from debilitating migraines, so that's another advantage of being able to turn my hearing aids (or now, CIs) off.

__________________
Left ear - Nucleus 24 Contour Advance with Freedom BTE
(Implanted: 12/22/04 | Activated: 1/18/05)
Right ear - Nucleus Freedom
(Implanted: 2/1/06 | Activated: 3/1/06)

Deafblind/Postlingual

SimplyMints

Oh yes, speaking of recruitment, that reminds me, until I started coming home with measurable hearing loss, military was constantly hounding me trying to get me to sign up!

__________________
"A world that is not on the verge of annihilation can still be perfectly stimulating, and definitely not boring." - Andrea Berlinghoff

"Thanks to all my friends, I've learned that being different also makes me special. Besides, the only way to truly shine is to be yourself." - Lily Lightly

Hear Again

Believe it or not, the same thing happened to me back in my hearing aid days and I'm totally blind. Go figure!

__________________
Left ear - Nucleus 24 Contour Advance with Freedom BTE
(Implanted: 12/22/04 | Activated: 1/18/05)
Right ear - Nucleus Freedom
(Implanted: 2/1/06 | Activated: 3/1/06)

Deafblind/Postlingual

SimplyMints

Haha, they are getting desperate these days! I'm glad they leave me alone now

__________________
"A world that is not on the verge of annihilation can still be perfectly stimulating, and definitely not boring." - Andrea Berlinghoff

"Thanks to all my friends, I've learned that being different also makes me special. Besides, the only way to truly shine is to be yourself." - Lily Lightly

heariepaul

Could you please clarify? Recruitment to what? I guess maybe since I don't know that means, then no, I don't have the "condition" you speak of.
All I can think of is that perhaps the government rewards companies to enlist the impaired for a tax advantage. Is that what you mean?

SkullChick

Yeah all cat sound different.
For example my I don't know maybe autistic or something cat (he's 10 or 11 now I think and he always been odd and can't understand connection of things until you push him or move him for him like if I open the door he don't understand to go outside until I push him to go outside literally lol because the seller told me when he was born he wasn't breathing for while but he rescued him and he always been slow so I adopted him when he was 9 weeks old because I knew he wouldn't survive without real help)
Anyways he don't know how to meow for so long and when he was about 7 years old I keep making meowing noise and having other cat so they meow and he finally tried to meow it sound so deep and funny no where near meowing noise it sound like rraar its funny. But I'm happy he can make noise now. And my other healthy cat one makes cute meow "rrrrrmewrrr" (mix of purring and meowing) or "peeew" lol
And one cat that's not mine it belong to my brother he dont really meow he growl instead lol.
And my current cat living with me (all other is in oregon) he meow normal and quieter than usual and he makes weird chattering noise if he saw bird or red dot from laser pointer like "me de de de de ew" haha

__________________
[Left Ear] Implanted 1/15/08 with Nucleus Freedom!
Activated 2/12/08 with Freedom BTE
Link for my Cochlear Implant
http://skullchick.blogspot.com
Link for my Blog unrelated to cochlear Implant
http://skullchickworld.blogspot.com

Jiro

I used to volunteer at a large animal shelter. I have walked across cat room. It was quite an orchestra LOL. Various of meow sounds -

1. "maaaaaaaaaaaaa-ow"
2. "mmmeeeeeeeeee-ooowww-uuuuuuuuuuuu"
3. meow-uuuu???? - i put ??? because it sounds like he/she was asking me a question LOL
4. RRRRRAAAAAAAAAA-OW - definitely pissy... maybe very hungry

uuummm.... don't remember anything else

imdeafsowhat

I once heard a cat saying, "I will eat you and spit you out like a hairball!"

But that was after 3 rips from the bong.

Hear Again

Recruitment is when a d/Deaf or HoH person experiences pain when hearing normal sounds. They may also perceive normal sounds as being too loud.

After checking the website below, I learned that people with normal hearing cannot have recruitment:

Recruitment from Hearing Loss

__________________
Left ear - Nucleus 24 Contour Advance with Freedom BTE
(Implanted: 12/22/04 | Activated: 1/18/05)
Right ear - Nucleus Freedom
(Implanted: 2/1/06 | Activated: 3/1/06)

Deafblind/Postlingual

heariepaul

Thank you very much. That was an interesting article. No, I don't have that condition, but I now am more sensitive to it and will take that into consideration in talking to someone with that condition.

aglaeca

This is a huge reason I moved out to the country. In an apartment you often hear all of your neighbors' conversations. I guess a good analogy would be to imagine that the people around you were running up to you without warning and signing right in your face. When I have to leave the woods I spend a lot of time with headphones on, just to drown out the ambient noise. I don't mind being hearing when I can have my solitude, and when silence is a choice, but in the city it can be a curse.

I have a friend who's a synesthete (experiences one sense as overlapping with another), and she sees swirls of color that move and change shape when she hears music. It's not like watching something on a screen; it's always in front of her when music is on. We hearies experience music no matter which direction we're facing, whether or not our eyes are open--someone mentioned smell further up the thread, and that's about right. Some music is particularly harsh, like a bright, grating color, or like a handful of chopped garlic, but even that can have its charm if it's done right. Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew" is a mess, but it's a wonderful mess.

I think a lot of the hearie perspective is colored by imagining what it'd be like to not hear music anymore. Me, I look at it as similar to my allergies. I'm allergic to chocolate (chances of that are about one in 500,000, by the way). I never ate chocolate growing up, because the last time I had a chocolate chip cookie (I was three) I ended up in ER. Now if I taste chocolate accidentally (which happens surprisingly often--I carry Benadryl) it tastes horrible to me. Even the smell is horrible. But every time someone finds out I can't eat it, their reaction is pity, which is annoying, and the whole culinary culture surrounding chocolate really just mystifies me.

Jolie77

You know, I find it interesting when you compared the "culture" thing because most of the time, deaf people go through the same thing as you do with the chocolate. We often get comments such as "Oh, I'm so sorry" so and on when we tell them that we are deaf.

It is mystifying, that is for sure. When you were saying about how the pities were given, That struck me and it opened my eyes because I love chocolate and I absolutely can't live without chocolate and now I'm thinking, in a sense I understand why hearing people values music and sounds; For both, chocolate and the sounds are - soothing, satisfying, bitter, sweet, pleasant, so and on.

__________________


“Tough girls come from New York. Sweet girls, they're from Georgia. But us Kentucky girls, we have fire and ice in our blood. We can ride horses, be a debutante, throw left hooks, and drink with the boys, all the while making sweet tea, darlin'. And if we have an opinion, you know you're gonna hear it.” - Ashley Judd

SimplyMints

I've long held to the truth that "You like what you eat." This means, if you cease to eat something that tastes delicious but is bad for you, and you begin to eat something that is good for you but tastes bad to you, you will eventually learn to like it if you give it enough time. If in all that time, you never eat what's bad for you, you can try it after your good-for-you food has begun to taste good to you, and certain flavours will come out in the foods you used to eat that are utterly repulsive. Even the smell might cause you to lose your appetite. Your correlation to this with "pity for the deaf" also brings to mind that not only do we pity people for not being able to experience the things that we enjoy, but we don't realise that the things that we enjoy when not experienced may actually be repulsive, even repugnant. I spent between 20 and 30 years of my life with some measure of hearing, and I was immersed in music. I couldn't imagine life without music. I spent tens of thousands of dollars during the last ten years of my hearing trying in vane to save it. When I finally lost my hearing, I was certain I would go completely mad without music. I was sure that within a week, I'd be in a padded cell searching desperately for something hard against which to pound my head. Here it is several months into being totally deaf, and I have yet to lose my sanity. About a week after picking up some usable sound from my hearing aids for the last time, I began a period during which I did miss music to the point where I did all sorts of crazy experiments to try to "hear" music, which ultimately failed. But I got over it! I came up with a perceivable way music could be written for late profoundly/totally deaf people, though such technology is never likely to be developed because it would take human creativity to manually adapt every piece of music that was ever written to this technology. But by that point, it didn't bother me that I couldn't hear the music.

Honestly, there is one piece of music in the whole world that might tempt me to undergo a procedure if its only result would be that I could hear that one, just that one piece of music written by Jeff Burak for an album called Change of Pace. I don't remember the name of the particular song, but it had some sounds of some animals making cute little sounds in the background at times. It was a really sad day for me when I discovered I could no longer hear those animal sounds. I remember the whole track in every detail in my head, but of course I can't write it out here. Somehow, I've been able to finally re-capture that feeling, though, by looking at pictures of small, cute, and baby wild animals in their natural habitats while recalling the music in my head. It's so cheesey, huh, rofl!

__________________
"A world that is not on the verge of annihilation can still be perfectly stimulating, and definitely not boring." - Andrea Berlinghoff

"Thanks to all my friends, I've learned that being different also makes me special. Besides, the only way to truly shine is to be yourself." - Lily Lightly

aglaeca

To be fair, I imagine deafness comes up a little more often There's no real cultural analogue to it, either; we don't have a "chocolate allergy culture" running parallel to mainstream culinary culture, other than maybe in our immediate families, in part because there are so few of us (I've never met anyone else with it) and in part because it comes up so infrequently in comparison. But I'm glad the similarity struck you, too. Anything that increases understanding...

If I suddenly found out I could eat chocolate, I can guarantee you I wouldn't run right out and start wolfing down M&Ms. This is why I would never wish hearing on someone who was deaf. It would be frightening, disorienting, nauseating... like an unexpected, repugnant flavor except that you can't turn it off. Losing my hearing would feel like death to me, but for a deaf person losing their deafness would no doubt feel just as horrible.

SimplyMints

Yes, I thought it would be as good as death to me too, hence the $30,000 I blew on trying to save it. Now, I wouldn't take back my hearing if it were offered to me freely. I know that's weird. Big turn around, but I love being deaf. I pity people who have lived to be my age in love with music and have recently lost their hearing, but I think they'll adjust, and most of them will come to enjoy being deaf, and if the entire world population were to be born deaf from this day forward, I don't think they would be missing anything. I think human creativity would adjust, and our entertainment (and survival) needs would be met easily. I'd love the $30k back! That would be awesome!

__________________
"A world that is not on the verge of annihilation can still be perfectly stimulating, and definitely not boring." - Andrea Berlinghoff

"Thanks to all my friends, I've learned that being different also makes me special. Besides, the only way to truly shine is to be yourself." - Lily Lightly

Hear Again

I grew up with progressive hearing loss and I felt the same way you do -- especially since I'm totally blind. Imagining what it would be like to be unable to see or hear really frightened me.

However, after I lost my hearing, I learned that it wasn't the end of the world. I learned how to cope using various communication methods and realized that being unable to hear wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. In fact, I found myself enjoying the silence.

I will never forget what a deafblind woman said to me during my training at my local deafblind center. She said that although you think you'll feel a certain way after acquiring a disability (in my case, deafblindness), you might be surprised to learn that you reacted completely differently than you expected. You might also be surprised to learn how well you adapt and accept your disability. She was exactly right. After I lost my hearing, I began to learn sign, use a Braille display for computer use and utilize alternative cooking techniques for the deafblind. I also attended a convention of the AADB (American Association of the Deaf-Blind) where I could meet other deafblind people like myself. Once I learned these skills and associated with other deafblind people, my world began to expand and I no longer felt limited by my deafblindness.

I've been asked by many sighted-hearing people whether or not losing my hearing changed who I am as a person. I always respond by telling them, "Yes. The experience made me a stronger person. Thanks to my deafblindness, I appreciate the small things in life and greatly value the relationships I have with others."

I wouldn't have told you this 10 years ago when I lost my hearing, but I'm glad things turned out the way they did. Long story short, I wouldn't be the person I am today if it weren't for my deafblindness.

__________________
Left ear - Nucleus 24 Contour Advance with Freedom BTE
(Implanted: 12/22/04 | Activated: 1/18/05)
Right ear - Nucleus Freedom
(Implanted: 2/1/06 | Activated: 3/1/06)

Deafblind/Postlingual

tikka

I tried not to read the replies to this thread yet, I was wanting to give my own account without knowingly repeat other people.


Times that I dislike being able to hear:

When my mother talks to me quietly, I try to lip read because she is almost inaudible sometimes, alongside background noise and my mind being elsewhere. Frustrates me because I have to use a lot of mental processing and entirely halt what I was doing in order to accomodate her chit-chat.

I hate that on the London underground, that through some sections of the system there are very loud and uncomfortable sounds. They are sharp, unpleasant and sometimes last a long time.

When I am trying to concentrate on something, people talking can really drive me nuts, I can't really listen to much music while I work either for similar reasons - Eventually I have enough.

I hate trying to sleep in when I can hear people in my house or neighbourhood, going about their day to day stuff, with no concern about those of us who enjoy a good sleep. Being able to hear every tiny sound, be it a door closing, footsteps, light switches, talking, moving stuff and dogs barking can almost be like a poke in the ribs (softer sounds are like being rocked with the intention to wake you - you know they are there but wish they would just go away).

Times when I find it useful to be able to hear:

When I an too lazy to check for traffic when crossing the road.

When I am on the wrong train and there is an announcement explaining that the train is taking an alternative route.

Watching / listening to lectures, I can continue doing other things such as talking in text on the internet while listening to a lecture.

Some of favourite hearing moments:

I love being wrapped in the sound of someone I love, maybe its their breathing as they sleep, the sound of them laugh, even the comfortable silences.. also certain other private moments I find to be enhanced by the sounds.

Some one singing, especially if its someone I care about singing, it blows me away sometimes and provokes so much emotion, can be too intense to even know what to do with those feelings.

When I create music on the computer, scratch on my turntables or make beats with my mouth.. There is a part of me that has a deep connection to what I perceive as being music.

Hearing an adorable sounding little girl say something so unbelievablly cute that your heart just melts and you want to have one of your very own someday.

Listening to someone doing hypnosis, even when I hear myself do it, I can find it to be such a comforting experience that I will sometimes give in entirely to the urge to space out and feel great for no reason at all.

Today I met 2 of my nephews for the first time and one of them called me Borris, which isn't quite right, lol, my name is Morris. I found it quite funny, it made me reflect on when I was a kid and couldn't stand anyone calling me more Borris.. or Dorris.. Grrrrrr! Kids could be soo mean haha.

tikka

off topic:

Oh and something that popped into my head was that, about.. 9 years ago I had spent so much time online using text to communicate, barely socializing with anyone vocally and avoiding family as much as possible.. I began to lose the ability so speak fluently, often seeking to find words and experiencing great difficulty while trying to pronounce newer words which I would type frequently because I hadn't yet tried to say them out loud.