I turned deaf when i was 37.

The Joker

The Joker

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I wore an hearing aid since birth. i did very well with hearing aids. i have 5% hearing left and hearing aids won't work on me now. When people try to communicate i try to hide my deafness. And when they speak to me i say i don't know. I still feel embarrassed being deaf when i still can speak. its been over 10 years since i turned deaf. How can i adjust to the hearing world being deaf?
 
My own remaining hearing is also slowly declining, and I'm not 31 yet, but will be before long. Ten years ago, I had hearing at about 51%, but today it's under 45%, and slowly dropping. I expect that by the time I reach 35 I won't have much of it left, but it's not known.

As for adjusting to the world being deaf, I can say that it took me time getting used to it, but the reason for that is not the same as yours, though. I quit wearing hearing aides in 2008 due to sensitivity to loud noises and frequent headaches, and once I made that decision to do so, I found that my quality of life improved considerably. I'm not trying to influence you, but for me, being without hearing aides works better. It depends on the individual, really.

And you should tell people you are deaf. You never know, you just may run into someone who happens to know a little bit of sign language. That's what happened yesterday.
 
The Joker said:
I wore an hearing aid since birth. i did very well with hearing aids. i have 5% hearing left and hearing aids won't work on me now. When people try to communicate i try to hide my deafness. And when they speak to me i say i don't know. I still feel embarrassed being deaf when i still can speak. its been over 10 years since i turned deaf. How can i adjust to the hearing world being deaf?
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You should not feel embarrassed being deaf , it will give people the wrong impression about who you're. You should be sure to have the person stand right in front of you and try to move to spot where there is not a lot background sounds if possible . When I go out to eat with my family we tried to find a table that next a wall and I will take that seat and void having people talking behind me.
 
The Joker said:
I wore an hearing aid since birth. i did very well with hearing aids. i have 5% hearing left and hearing aids won't work on me now. When people try to communicate i try to hide my deafness. And when they speak to me i say i don't know. I still feel embarrassed being deaf when i still can speak. its been over 10 years since i turned deaf. How can i adjust to the hearing world being deaf?
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Im 46 and struggling with being Deaf as well. Sometimes you feel embarrassed, shy or left out. It causes confusion as well as anger issues trying to cope with it so late in life. Ive been HOH since birth, had a HA in second grade (age 7?) but didnt help and struggled through mainstream schools ( both private and public) didnt get new HA until 2008 after being in my career 15 years... but my hearing continued to degrade to nothing. Now I am shooting for CI's... first visit will be on the 29th.
 
I don't know why you are ashamed of being deaf or hard of hearing. There is no reason to be ashamed of being deaf at all. You have to go on the deaf journey to experience being in the Deaf World like Deaf Culture, even you had gone through with it for 10 years. Being in hearing world is very difficult to deal with. That is why we need accommodations for us to understand what everyone said.

I was never aware of hearing people trying to speak to me when I was growing up, even when I was in mainstream elementary school. I had enjoyed being deaf (I was happy all the time) without hearing aid until I was almost 9 years old. But then, when I went to mainstream high school, I was struggling trying to get good grades and lipreading is the worst thing in my life. I know about ASL and knowing that I need to learn ASL and then get ASL interpreters but the high school would not allowed me and other deaf students to learn and get ASL interpreters. We were all frustrated and unhappy. That is the reason why we never got accommodations like showing video with subtitles/close captioned or having no notetakers including ASL interpreters. We were not in Deaf program, only special education program (I hate it) in mainstream schools.

So you have to let the hearing people know that you are deaf and that you are having difficult trying to understand what they said. Just use paper and pen for communication or if you prefer to use text on your smartphone or IPad. You just have to face up to your deafness because there is nothing you can do to make yourself hear again. Be confident and proud of your deafness even if you are late deafened.
 
I've felt embarrassed and ashamed of my learning disability, but never my hearing loss. It wasn't my fault and it was just something I always had so why hide it? I should have had that same attitude towards my learning disability but I didn't. Somehow I always felt I was responsible because I wasn't trying hard enough to study or understand. If anyone should feel embarrassed or ashamed, it should be those that treat you differently or judge you because of it.

Laura
 
Lau2046 said:
I've felt embarrassed and ashamed of my learning disability, but never my hearing loss. It wasn't my fault and it was just something I always had so why hide it? I should have had that same attitude towards my learning disability but I didn't. Somehow I always felt I was responsible because I wasn't trying hard enough to study or understand. If anyone should feel embarrassed or ashamed, it should be those that treat you differently or judge you because of it.

Laura
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LIKE! I agree with you ,I have LD too and was made to feel very stupid b/c of this and I end not trying as hard as I should had in public school . I did go a small private school in Boston and did better there. I agree very strongly with " If anyone should feel embarrassed or ashamed, it should be those that treat you differently or judge you because of it."
 
I don't know any sign. But i can lipread to some words. but i have to guess what you're saying in some words. When you don't know what someone says you have to guess. Being deaf is kinda like being blind. If i had a choice i rather be blind than deaf cause i miss music.
 
The Joker said:
I don't know any sign. But i can lipread to some words. but i have to guess what you're saying in some words. When you don't know what someone says you have to guess. Being deaf is kinda like being blind. If i had a choice i rather be blind than deaf cause i miss music.
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Hellen Keller said she would rather had been blind than deaf too.
 
Helen Keller said blindness cuts us off from things, but deafness cuts us off from people.

That made me realize how true that is. No wonder why some people choose blindness over deafness if you had a choice.
 
MangaReader said:
Helen Keller said blindness cuts us off from things, but deafness cuts us off from people.

That made me realize how true that is. No wonder why some people choose blindness over deafness if you had a choice.
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I would rather be deaf than blind, Hearing is the least thing to worry about... Seeing, there is so much more to see than hear.... Just blindfold yourself for a day, you will appreciate your vision more than anything else. Take my voice, take my hearing but please let me keep my vision.

Being deaf, you can drive and do lots of other things.
Being blind, you have so many more restrictions....
 
sonocativo said:
I would rather be deaf than blind, Hearing is the least thing to worry about... Seeing, there is so much more to see than hear.... Just blindfold yourself for a day, you will appreciate your vision more than anything else. Take my voice, take my hearing but please let me keep my vision.

Being deaf, you can drive and do lots of other things.
Being blind, you have so many more restrictions....
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I agree!

In spite of all that, still, there are people that prefer to be blind over being deaf mainly due to music. Music is that powerful and meaningful to people that they rather not live if they can't hear music. Literally. I've seen it in other forums or online chat where people are quoted saying, "I'd rather die if I can't hear music". Of course this offends me but I understand their perspective. Still for me, I prefer to be deaf too.
 
MangaReader said:
I agree!

In spite of all that, still, there are people that prefer to be blind over being deaf mainly due to music. Music is that powerful and meaningful to people that they rather not live if they can't hear music. Literally. I've seen it in other forums or online chat where people are quoted saying, "I'd rather die if I can't hear music". Of course this offends me but I understand their perspective. Still for me, I prefer to be deaf too.
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Yes I miss music, i am very musically inclined.... almost makes me want to go insane, but I just hum a tune here and there. I really hope the CI's will help fairly close to hearing music again.
 
sonocativo said:
she was blind.......
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I know she was blind and deaf and was saying hearing more importance to her and if could have one back it would be her hearing. I would rather be deaf than blind , I am use to not hearing good but I have very good eyesight it's still 20/20 . It use to 20/15 so how I have 20/20 like most people have when they're younger.
 
whatdidyousay! said:
I know she was blind and deaf and was saying hearing more importance to her and if could have one back it would be her hearing. I would rather be deaf than blind , I am use to not hearing good but I have very good eyesight it's still 20/20 . It use to 20/15 so how I have 20/20 like most people have when they're younger.
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How do you improve your eyesight? I had 20/20 all my life until I reached 40, needed reading glasses. Would love to get my 20/20 back.
 
recently I noticed I cant read small print up close... guess too much computer time...lol
 
MangaReader said:
How do you improve your eyesight? I had 20/20 all my life until I reached 40, needed reading glasses. Would love to get my 20/20 back.
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I did not have to do anything, 20/15 eye vision is better than 20/20 , as I got older I lost some vision which is normal but b/c I had better than average vision it got to where is average . I had head start. I can't hear for shit but I could see damn good.



http://www.ask.com/question/is-20-15-vision-good
 
supposed to be a 20/20/20 rule. Every 20 minutes on the computer, supposed to look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
 
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