What is it like to be hearing?

SimplyMints said:
Does this help give any insight?
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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. :ty:
 
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.
 
LunaLarsen said:
Well think smell again. I have been told that most (if not all) things have a smell. It may not be strong, but it is there. Places have smells. You can move around and the smells change, but they never go away (am I right?) So how do you guys cope?
I am guessing that you do the exact same thing with background smells as hearing people do with sound, you filter out the background smells and only pay attention to changes in smell (a I right?)

Well I hope this helps some one :)

Luna
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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! :eek3:


(Sorry to completely hijack thread):topic:
 
Hermes said:
Down sides ? You can not shut it off. You can close your eyes but you cant shut off your ears if you want some quite. Unless you live in a remote place there usually is a background noise of appliances, traffic , people and so on.. Brain has a mechanism of filtering off some background noises after a while if you pay no attention to them but you cant just stop hearing the moment you need to leave the rest of the world outside.
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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
 
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.
 
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
 
Jolie77 said:
You know, from time to time, We would get questions from random strangers asking us what is it like to be a deaf person? Naturally, We would explain how we get by being as a deaf person. It's already hard enough to explain to someone when they have not exactly experienced it themselves.

This came to me and I wondered what is it really like to be hearing? As an hearing person, What are your likes and dislikes of being able to hear? How is it different in the atmosphere, environment, things that you've experienced and/or encountered with?

So, with that, It has piqued my curiosity.
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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
 
heariepaul said:
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
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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?
 
shel90 said:
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?
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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.
:wave:
 
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.
 
shel90 said:
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?
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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. :)
 
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! :)
 
SimplyMints said:
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! :)
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:laugh2: Believe it or not, the same thing happened to me back in my hearing aid days and I'm totally blind. Go figure! :giggle:
 
Hear Again said:
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.
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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?
:hmm:
 
AlleyCat said:
I have cats that I absolutely adore, and I hate that I can't hear them meow when I see them meowing. Can anyone explain what the meow sound is like? My sister once said that all cats meow differently, and that one of my cats' meow was more of a soft "rowr" and I can sort of get that. What else do meows sound like?
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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
 
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
 
SkullChick said:
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
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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.
 
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