@shreddAr87 How's it going? I have indeed had many tests done for my hearing. 3 audiograms, an ABR, a DPOAE, a CT Scan, and a MRI. All coming back as "normal". Now it's great to trust medical personals with the answers they give you because of the high tech equipment and years of work they've put into obtaining their degree in whatever specific medical field, but there is something going on with my hearing. My hearing, being the sense that I've always been so accustomed to, is the one thing that I know I'm absolutely correct with what's wrong with it. I can agree with medical professionals on any other diagnosis they give me but for this one time and this time it being my hearing, I have to say they are incorrect.
I can agree with my audiogram results because I just listened to a frequency range test today and can hear from 20 hz to 20,000 khz. This shows that I still have my hair cells intact and healthy but I can't be to excited because of the next part. I know for a fact that I've severely damaged all my auditory nerve fibers (maybe there's still a few left here and there) but I literally get no sensation out of hearing things now. Sure I can hear but I have no threshold to my hearing anymore and that's where the nerves have a role in. The more nerves you have connected to a hair cell, the more that hair cell can pick up it's certain frequency and therefore the sound can be processed much clearer in the brain. I used headphones way to much these past few years and overtime I was silently damaging those nerve fibers. I know how music sounded before my hearing really started to change this past summer. Music is just not in my head anymore like it was before. Sure I can hear sounds but it's almost like these sounds have nothing to them. I'm picking up frequencies since I still have my hair cells intact but something has happened to my nerve fibers to where it's almost like I have new hearing that doesn't affect my mood/emotions at all.
When I talk about emotions and feelings from hearing, you gotta look at this shit scientifically. The ear has neurotransmitters involved in it's wonderful process. If you don't know what neurotransmitters are, look them up. They play a big role in our moods, actions, thought processes, memories. But anyway, here is a little list of the neurotransmitters involved in hearing: Acetylcholine, Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), Dopamine, Enkephalin, and Dynorphin. I mean, no wonder listening to music feels so good at times. Thinking back now, I would literally feel like I was on a drug every time I would listen to music in the past through headphones, even last year and a little bit over the summer. But I started to notice a change in my hearing starting around May of this year. It was like I was losing something but I really couldn't my finger on it and also I just never really thought to much about it because I still felt good from listening to music and my hearing still seemed fine to me.
I had Tinnitus this past summer and a huge amount about 4 months ago but I've been introduced to a few more loud noises these past months and the ringing has become a permanent empty background noise in my brain. From what I've been reading, the brain actually changes its plasticity (your frontal lobe becomes much more activated) to where you don't hear Tinnitus in your head as much so who knows if the ringing is actually going away for people. Maybe the Brain has just adjusted itself, you think the noise is gone but nope it's still there.
This article is my main concern for how my hearing is as of now and I truly believe it's what is going on with my hearing. The best I can explain it is that I'm really just hearing sounds but not getting anything from those sounds. No emotions, no connections..... noise-induced damage increases age-related hearing loss big time, just pointing that out there.
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news...y_new_contributor_to_age_related_hearing_loss
I don't mean to type out so much, I just want to get my point across as to why I know I have a very terrible hidden hearing loss problem. I really can't function from what has happened either. I'm in a severe depression from it, constant fatigue, memory issues, cognitive issues, loss of focus, loss of motivation, headaches all the time. These problems have actually gotten worse as my hearing has gotten worse these past months. I never had one of these issues until my hearing really started to go 4 months ago.
So a quick summary of my symptoms are:
- I can hear sounds, but I don't have any emotional feelings from them. (Neurotransmitter problem) (I would get emotional feelings from music and from life in general all the time last year, in the summer, and even up to the incidents I had 4 months ago)
- Sounds are not in my head like before
- Very difficult for me to process words when any type of noise is going on in the background
- Music is completely dull/bare to me, no timbre
- Empty low noise in background of head all the time almost like I have no hearing at all
- Sounds are annoying now, I have no threshold to noises so any kind of noise is somewhat loud in my ears.
- I can barely remember conversations I have now with people, would be able to all the time before
- All the symptoms I talked about above - Depression, constant fatigue, etc......
If you need anymore explanation I can do so. I've been having to scientifically get involved with my issue more and more lately. There are many articles that clearly relate to my problems that I can link you to also.
Hope this kind of explained my scenario.
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