I have some questions about being deaf.

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warrengoff

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Hi...

Yesterday morning I awoke with blaring tinnitus in my right ear and it won't stop. I find myself craving silence. I seem to have no hearing loss although tinnitus is often associated with hearing loss. Tinnitus is a complex problem which they say can be habituated using brain plasticity. Some say that it arises in the brain itself and not in the inner ear.

My question is, what is it like being deaf? I realize that deafness is a complicated state as well and that there must be a huge spectrum of experience. Therefore I suspect there must be deafness characterized by extreme noise and even poisoned by external sound (Hyperacousis). Is there also deafness associated with absolute silence. The analogy of different types of blindness comes to mind.

I am particularly interested in those of you born deaf. Is there total silence in your head or would you even know what silence is or what is the difference?

Thanks
 
What is it like to be deaf? Such a simple but yet a good question to ask. I once asked the same question in an opposite way -- "What is it like to be hearing?" and needless to say, there were so many answers that opened my mind about it.

Anyway, To answer your question - I've been deaf since birth. It varies from a person to another person. It is like what you said, about the analogy of the different types of blindness. Some of us are able to hear just a little, some of us can hear more, some of us absolutely cannot hear one thing at all.

Coming back to this, For me, Since I've been deaf all my life - Is there total silence in my head? Yes and No. It is total silence at most because at times, I don't hear anything but if you were to picture it mentally, there are some distinguishing voices that rummages in the head. I wouldn't exactly say it is voices but it is more like when you "think" you are hearing it but in fact, there isn't one that goes on.

Let's think of it this way - It's like if when you turn the television or radio off, it goes silent but yet, there's still some remaining disillusion that goes on to make you think it is there. If you were to actually experience it, you'd be able to see how it is on so many different levels. I'm saying that when there's total silence, it means for me, there's not more out there that runs in my head.

How do I know the difference? It is because when there's total silence in my head, I don't feel it rummaging through. When there's one, I would know by checking it out to see if there's any commotion that goes on in the atmosphere.

I hope this will help you out. :)

By the way, Welcome to AllDeaf!
 
:welcome: to Alldeaf, warrengoff. :)

I'm HOH and when I was really little I had a huge problem with tinnitus. I've learned to ignore it over the years.
 
wg, you might check some posts by ron jaxon, he has some great posts on your questions as do many other ad'ers.

Welcome
 
I actually still get tinnitus.

I remember when I was a child I thought it was a ghost screaming in my mind. It would keep me up, I wouldn't be able to sleep until three or four in the morning, this is when I was just a kid, not even a teenager...

Always woke up late those days :roll:
 
I don't remember that and never gave a thought about noises until I had my first hearing aid at the age of 9 years old. The audiologist tried at first with my right ear but I shuned the hearing aid because it feel funny and no sound. I did not like the vibration. Then he tried to put the hearing aid on my left ear and I could hear sounds, mostly environment sounds like talking. Then I went outside of the audiologist's office where there were many traffic noises and lots of noises going on all over the place that I did not like this but my mom keep making me keep my hearing aid on. That was the first time I heard noises. I would rather be in a silence world better than in the noisy world.

Anyway, :welcome: to AllDeaf forum. I hope you enjoy reading and posting all the many threads we have here. See you around. :wave:
 
I am on the top edge of profound deafness. I like my hearing aids and like to hear as much as I can.

Of course I can experience pretty complete silence by removing hearing aids. I don't really have too much problem with tinnitus.
 
Is there total silence in your head or would you even know what silence is or what is the difference?
Yes and no. I'm sitting on my bed writing this and I have no Choclear Implant on, so I am completely deaf. Yes it is complete silence, if someone calls for me, I will simply not hear them. No, because I feel the clicking of the keyboard, the beating of my heart. This feeling almost replaces my hearing. I was just eating a bowl of cereal, when the spoon hits against the side of the bowl, I feel the clinks and my mind 'hears' that. To me feeling is hearing.
 
I was deafened shortly after birth. My head is complete silence, I do not think in sound. Without my cochlear implant and HA I am totally deaf, I cannot hear a thing. I rarely have tinnitus.
 
I'm HoH and I don't hear a damn thing with my left ear, I even tried with an ipod and nothing, but when I put my finger in my right ear to shut up the noise (don't know if you get what I say) I only hear my steps and my own voice, which is very weird!
 
I was born profoundly deaf in both ears but my parents didnt know until I was 7 months old. I was fitted with hearing aids so I grew up being trained to "hear" although I do very well with environmental sounds but poorly with recognizing speech. I do hear voices and sometimes I will catch a word or two without lipreading but that is very rare for me. However, since I rely on my hearing aids a lot when I venture out especially knowing that I will be around hearing people who do not sign, I do hear sounds in my head even with my hearing aids off. It depends on my mood.

I have experienced titannus but very rarely. It seems like it is a very common thing among deaf/hoh people so I guess I am the lucky few who isnt affected by it.
 
Welcome to AD, warrengoff!

nostalgic said:
Is there total silence in your head or would you even know what silence is or what is the difference?
Yes and no. I'm sitting on my bed writing this and I have no Choclear Implant on, so I am completely deaf. Yes it is complete silence, if someone calls for me, I will simply not hear them. No, because I feel the clicking of the keyboard, the beating of my heart. This feeling almost replaces my hearing. I was just eating a bowl of cereal, when the spoon hits against the side of the bowl, I feel the clinks and my mind 'hears' that. To me feeling is hearing.
Click to expand...

You know it's interesting you say this cause I get the same thing with Braille. Even though I'm feeling the Braille, I can sort of "see" it in my head so lots of times for me feeling is "seeing."

I get intermittent tinnitus but it's not too loud so I can usually just get through it till it goes away again. Luckily it hasn't been a problem for me and hope it never is.
 
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