1monkeymissing
New Member
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- Mar 24, 2011
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Hello everyone,
I'm 26 and from the UK, and have been hearing impaired since I was three, they think. The loss was stable until the last few months, and the difference is now more noticeable. I am more frustrated more often, asking people to repeat more often, and feel myself relying on lipreading more. Don't know if I am going to continue to gradually lose my hearing or not.
A bit of background: I was raised in the hearing world and struggled to come to terms with my hearing impairments as a child. I knew no different so I didn't feel deaf. I felt different to others, but somehow I thought this was about me personally rather than directly because of my hearing. I coped better with lipreading, but if I couldn't see the person's mouth I really struggle(d). I felt left out at times when people was talking amongst themselves in groups, talking over each other etc. But I was so used to this that I don't think I ever really registered it in my head that my hearing was disadvantaging me. People thought I was rude because I could only ever focus on one person speaking to me at a time, or because I didn't hear them say hello when they walked past and I had no idea. My learning was delayed but I thought that was just because I was 'stupid'. I felt stupid. There was a learned helplessness in this way, I stopped bothering to try. But eventually I caught up with everyone else in secondary school and then realised that I am not stupid at all. It was just poorly explained to me as a child, and I rebelled against everybody trying to force me to wear hearing aids. Flat out refused. Whenever I tried to wear them, I found the extra sound input anxiety provoking. I preferred the quieter world and managing the familiar way that I was comfortable with.
In hindsight, I wish my hearing loss was better explained, and I wish that I was trained in ASL and given the opportunity to be a part of the deaf community. To have the choice. Perhaps the deaf community would have been a place where I could have felt the same as others, and where communication would not have been a problem. As I grew older I realised that my hearing was a problem more than I wanted to admit. I was 22 when I began wearing my hearing aids. They had to do it very gradually as it was hard for my brain to learn to adapt to them, and quite overwhelming. I still prefer the quieter world, they are off whenever I don't need to speak to people, but the aids are helpful when I need to hear.
It's great to be here and to finally be amongst others who have some real understanding!
Lisa
I'm 26 and from the UK, and have been hearing impaired since I was three, they think. The loss was stable until the last few months, and the difference is now more noticeable. I am more frustrated more often, asking people to repeat more often, and feel myself relying on lipreading more. Don't know if I am going to continue to gradually lose my hearing or not.
A bit of background: I was raised in the hearing world and struggled to come to terms with my hearing impairments as a child. I knew no different so I didn't feel deaf. I felt different to others, but somehow I thought this was about me personally rather than directly because of my hearing. I coped better with lipreading, but if I couldn't see the person's mouth I really struggle(d). I felt left out at times when people was talking amongst themselves in groups, talking over each other etc. But I was so used to this that I don't think I ever really registered it in my head that my hearing was disadvantaging me. People thought I was rude because I could only ever focus on one person speaking to me at a time, or because I didn't hear them say hello when they walked past and I had no idea. My learning was delayed but I thought that was just because I was 'stupid'. I felt stupid. There was a learned helplessness in this way, I stopped bothering to try. But eventually I caught up with everyone else in secondary school and then realised that I am not stupid at all. It was just poorly explained to me as a child, and I rebelled against everybody trying to force me to wear hearing aids. Flat out refused. Whenever I tried to wear them, I found the extra sound input anxiety provoking. I preferred the quieter world and managing the familiar way that I was comfortable with.
In hindsight, I wish my hearing loss was better explained, and I wish that I was trained in ASL and given the opportunity to be a part of the deaf community. To have the choice. Perhaps the deaf community would have been a place where I could have felt the same as others, and where communication would not have been a problem. As I grew older I realised that my hearing was a problem more than I wanted to admit. I was 22 when I began wearing my hearing aids. They had to do it very gradually as it was hard for my brain to learn to adapt to them, and quite overwhelming. I still prefer the quieter world, they are off whenever I don't need to speak to people, but the aids are helpful when I need to hear.
It's great to be here and to finally be amongst others who have some real understanding!
Lisa
to AllDeaf forum. If you live in Durham in United Kingdom, then you would have learn how to sign BSL instead of ASL. That way you would sign with the Deaf community in your area or in another big city like London where there probably are many Deaf people in the Deaf communities. 
