Self Inflicted Deafness

I have tinnitus and am HoH and I'm patiently waiting as I go on a natural downward spiral into deafness. That's not to say I've not considered blowing the rest of my hearing out at times, but people who are inflicting it on themselves with no good medical reason to back it up are crazy! :eek3: It's like when I see other teens with their ipods up so loud you can hear it in China and I want to beat the crap out of them for ruining their perfectly good hearing. :mad2:
 
Well I know long time ago when I was younger I would wear those little headphones and blast my music thinking it was cool, well as a result I cause damage to my drums in which I did damage to my hearing, and before you ask yes I can still hear but when it comes to certain sounds I cant hear. I found that out after having a hearing test only cause my job required it.
 
Why would anyone want to cause themself deafness is beyond me. I know sometimes hearing people wish they were deaf so they wouldn't have to hear peoples mouths. If you want to know what its like to hear nothing but silence go lock yourself in a room with no music, tv, and no talking to yourself, and see whats its like. You are hearing then want to go deaf I bet you will go nuts. Stop taking what you have for granted.
 
Why would anyone want to cause themself deafness is beyond me. I know sometimes hearing people wish they were deaf so they wouldn't have to hear peoples mouths. If you want to know what its like to hear nothing but silence go lock yourself in a room with no music, tv, and no talking to yourself, and see whats its like. You are hearing then want to go deaf I bet you will go nuts. Stop taking what you have for granted.

Am I the only one offended by the experience of being deaf being compared to being isolated in a room cut off from objects and humans?
 
Why would anyone want to cause themself deafness is beyond me. I know sometimes hearing people wish they were deaf so they wouldn't have to hear peoples mouths. If you want to know what its like to hear nothing but silence go lock yourself in a room with no music, tv, and no talking to yourself, and see whats its like. You are hearing then want to go deaf I bet you will go nuts. Stop taking what you have for granted.

Being deaf isnt the end of the world. :roll:
 
This topic sparked my curiosity about why people frown upon self-inflicted deafness compared to restoring hearing from deafness via CI or HH. Both of these alterations to a person's hearing is a change in itself.

I just wonder why self-inflicted deafness is a worser change than the other.
 
I used to fantasise about complete deafness, much moreso last year than any other time in my life. It was a warped form of thinking that didn't really arise until I was in severe depression and was looking to blame anything on everything.

At the time, my logic was that the closer you are to being like an average person who can hear, the more likely people think you are mentally slow instead of having a hearing loss. However it didn't occur to me, at the time, that people treated me as such because of the way I act.

People understand deafness and the barrier it posses, however what people don't understand is the "gap," because they hear a person talking, think they are normal until a deaf person run into trouble with hearing certain sounds. By large, most people, are used to that absence in elderly people, but not with young or middle-aged people. So, they would infer that the person they are talking to is slow. However if you tell them that you are deaf, use sign language or write, then there is a different set of behaviour. Some of the "oh, you're deaf" behaviour is quite rude, but it is far better than getting the "what's wrong with you" stare and then having people act out.

In my case, most people don't understand that I miss out on the upper part of the speech banana (f/ph, s, sh, ch and so on) and that I don't have very good sense of directional hearing. On top of that, I am overly sensitive to sound and vibrations, so people think it's weird that I respond to some more readily than most and and completely be oblivious to other sounds.

However if I use sign language, then people treat me "normally." If I don't, then people do treat me "normally" up until I run into a barrier, then people look at the person beside me for answers. Of course, this is providing that my sight loss is not obvious here, which is an entirely different set of prejudices, and not are misunderstandings, in itself.

So yeah, I used to fantasise about self-inflicted deafness just to erode the misunderstandings I had as someone who have a little bit of hearing left; I am considered having a severe to profound hearing loss before, and after, having that mindset. I probably will have to get another audiogram to see if my hearing is still degenerating.
 
I have heard of people with head trauma or those infected with lyme desease wishing to become deaf because the sound of a pin becaomes very agonizing to them. For them it's either become deaf or take their own life. I would rather become deaf.
 
Oh by no means did I want to make it sound like its the end of the world. What I meant is we who can hear are used to it,to want to look it on purpose is one of the stupidest things I ever heard. I know I have put myself in a empty room and with no sounds of any kind, and not to hear anything all that quiet to me was horrible, to know you can hear, listen and enjoy the noise around is a gift, to want to take it away on purpose is just plain stupid.
 
My comment was not to offend anyone, but if you took offense to that well I don't know what to tell you.
 
Apology fail!

An example of an apology: I'm sorry that I hurt your feelings.

If you aren't sorry that you hurt someone's feelings, it's best to say nothing.
 
I have tinnitus and am HoH and I'm patiently waiting as I go on a natural downward spiral into deafness. That's not to say I've not considered blowing the rest of my hearing out at times, :mad2:

I HATE the fact I can still hear. And I can pass a audiogram but cant hear more than 1sound at a time as I audio processing disorder. I am unable to get sign support (because I can pass an audiogram) and because of this I will never get an education or have a job. And in nz cued speech isnt here. I will(my family go deaf but slooooooooooooooooooowly) go deaf but at 60 its too late to have a life. Its heartbreaking. nz has a two handed sign lauage and as i have cerebral and cant use two hands.
 
Am I the only one offended by the experience of being deaf being compared to being isolated in a room cut off from objects and humans?

I'm not exactly offended, but the person obviously doesn't get it. I think going profoundly deaf was nothing like that experience. Even when I am completely deafblind, it's nothing like that experience either. It just since hearing and sight are not the only senses.
 
This topic sparked my curiosity about why people frown upon self-inflicted deafness compared to restoring hearing from deafness via CI or HH. Both of these alterations to a person's hearing is a change in itself.

I just wonder why self-inflicted deafness is a worser change than the other.

Exactly, I wonder this too. I was born HOH but when I lost my hearing entirely I was glad.
 
I just don't think most of you get it and i am sickened by some the ignorance shown in this topic! Especially the ones with the snide so called funny remarks.You expect "hearies" to understand you and not to have assumptions towards you due to your deafness well why not have some kind of respect towards others who may have done this.Such as myself.I suffer from Schizophrenia and due to this one of my things is sensory psychosis in which i damage my senses.Yes there are people out there who have completely damaged their hearing or sight.I myself am profoundly deaf in left and severe to profound in right.I am also blind in my right eye due to self-infliction.No i did NOT do this so that i could feel special or seek sympathy (for whatever reason) or even get out of fighting in a war.Such complete stupidity to assume people who do such drastic things such as this does it for silly reasons as some of you brought up.Most who suffer from mental illness are very reclusive,shy and fearful of others which i am and to say i may have done this because i was looking for some kind of pity from others is so far from the truth.I'm sorry if i sound defensive about this topic but its just **(*^% that because some here do not understand that they find it easy to judge and or mock.Remember not long ago others use to judge deaf people as being retarded or slow because they didn't understand deafness and frankly found it easier to poke fun of then to actually try and understand.I also have this funny feeling that i may have been that person whom the other poster spoke of.Years ago when i was going through a very deep and nightmarish psychosis i searched online for ways in which to become deaf and i went to that sight "Deafwannabies".I wrote a long plea for help.I discovered that most on that sight were just as mentally and emotionally ill.It was like shinning a mirror on myself and was very sad to see there were others like me.People who were simply trying to reach out the best way they could and yes there were some who were simply looking for attention but for them it was all talk.I suppose my main point in all this is that even though I've been a lurker here for a long time too afraid to post or participate,i have always wanted to at least feel like part of this community,i read many posts and laugh,cry and smile.But now I'm fearful that i may not even be welcomed because i'm "not really deaf" that i'm just "crazy" as if my deafness isn't as real or true as yours because i did something drastic and awful to cause my deafness.My deafness/blindness isn't secondary to my other illnesses,its a part of my whole.I hope i didn't offend anyone.I'm not to good at writing and really wanted to try and enlighten and to say we are all - ALL of us are disabled in one way or another and we should never judge or laugh at others.
Stillwaiting if you are still interested i could explain more in detail about myself.Let me know where i can write you or how ever you may want to talk.
 
I wanted to say also that i meant no offence to most in this topic as i did find alot of comments good and interesting.
 
I just don't think most of you get it and i am sickened by some the ignorance shown in this topic! Especially the ones with the snide so called funny remarks.You expect "hearies" to understand you and not to have assumptions towards you due to your deafness well why not have some kind of respect towards others who may have done this.Such as myself.I suffer from Schizophrenia and due to this one of my things is sensory psychosis in which i damage my senses.Yes there are people out there who have completely damaged their hearing or sight.I myself am profoundly deaf in left and severe to profound in right.I am also blind in my right eye due to self-infliction.No i did NOT do this so that i could feel special or seek sympathy (for whatever reason) or even get out of fighting in a war.Such complete stupidity to assume people who do such drastic things such as this does it for silly reasons as some of you brought up.Most who suffer from mental illness are very reclusive,shy and fearful of others which i am and to say i may have done this because i was looking for some kind of pity from others is so far from the truth.I'm sorry if i sound defensive about this topic but its just **(*^% that because some here do not understand that they find it easy to judge and or mock.Remember not long ago others use to judge deaf people as being retarded or slow because they didn't understand deafness and frankly found it easier to poke fun of then to actually try and understand.I also have this funny feeling that i may have been that person whom the other poster spoke of.Years ago when i was going through a very deep and nightmarish psychosis i searched online for ways in which to become deaf and i went to that sight "Deafwannabies".I wrote a long plea for help.I discovered that most on that sight were just as mentally and emotionally ill.It was like shinning a mirror on myself and was very sad to see there were others like me.People who were simply trying to reach out the best way they could and yes there were some who were simply looking for attention but for them it was all talk.I suppose my main point in all this is that even though I've been a lurker here for a long time too afraid to post or participate,i have always wanted to at least feel like part of this community,i read many posts and laugh,cry and smile.But now I'm fearful that i may not even be welcomed because i'm "not really deaf" that i'm just "crazy" as if my deafness isn't as real or true as yours because i did something drastic and awful to cause my deafness.My deafness/blindness isn't secondary to my other illnesses,its a part of my whole.I hope i didn't offend anyone.I'm not to good at writing and really wanted to try and enlighten and to say we are all - ALL of us are disabled in one way or another and we should never judge or laugh at others.
Stillwaiting if you are still interested i could explain more in detail about myself.Let me know where i can write you or how ever you may want to talk.

The fact that you have schizophrenia, and have injured yourself while in a psychotic state is a very different situation from one who does not have a diagnosed psychotic illness, and simply wants to be deaf for the sake of being deaf.

I certainly empathize with your situation, and do not intend to minimize it at all. I am just pointing out the differences. Schizophrenia is a devasting illness to live with, and I have a great deal of admiration for anyone that deals with its effects on a daily basis.
 
I wanted to say also that i meant no offence to most in this topic as i did find alot of comments good and interesting.

I just want to know if you are schizophrenic, and you believe this was the cause of your self harm, do you take appropriate medication and have regular psychiatric care?

This is not really a mental illness forum.
 
Perhaps i to mis-understand jillio as i assumed that anyone who would actually harm themselves would naturally be mentally ill or have some problems?I don't know perhaps not?
UGH! Did i not state that my deafness is NOT secondary to my Schizophrenia!I'm well aware this is not a mental illness forum.The OP asked about self harm to become deaf and as i am deaf I'm responding on a deaf forum but to you i suppose i should wander off and find a mental illness forum.And not that its your biz but yes i do have Schizophrenia and am well managing it now thank you.Ugh posts like the last one is what I'm talking about!Sorry to be defensive yet again but ignorance baffles me.
 
Opps on reading that last post questioning my illness perhaps i read it wrong and took offense.Sorry i do tend to fly off the handle sometimes. To answer your question yes i did harm myself due to the schiz's stuff.Very hard to explain but i had very specific beliefs as to why i needed to do things which i do whether it is wrong or whatever.I'm much better now that I'm taking medication for all this but i do still struggle with life being deaf and half blind which is why i come hear to listen to others stories which i am truely thankful for.
 
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