What Is Life Worth without Hearing Normally?

@jdjd09

You may find that your brain regains the ability to do some of these things in time. I would suggest getting a hearing aid, not for your ears necessarily but for your brain. It will help your brain maintain the ability to process sound. Do you know what is wrong with your ears? It's not normal to have ringing. I would be concerned about possibility losing more hearing. When did this happen? If it was recently Prednisone might help you regain some of your hearing.

I'm with you on wanting a cure. I hope it's within my lifetime.

 

1. Based on your numbers you're far from needing a hearing aid. And you shouldn't even noticed it that much. I bet that in a year or two, you won't see the difference from normal. In terms of enjoying music there aren't that many instruments that have frequency higher than 4k in any case.
I have much worse audiogram and even in speaking range and I don't need hearing aid as well. You're generally fine.
In my case, It took about a year that my brain compensated for unbalanced hearing loss. It has become my new normal and I generally don't even think about it through the day any more.

2.
Laser treatment didn't helped at all. More or less waste of time and money in my case. (Accustic trauma)
The biggest thing that helped me was distractions and getting busy. Laser was actually harmful in that case since treatment takes time ( 30 mins - 1 hour ) per day, and it keeps reminding you that you're damaged. Better just to live the life.

 

I don't know if that is the case with me. I'm having to say what a lot to people. Girl I am (or was depending on if they have gotten sick of me saying what at this point) regularly has to repeat herself even when we are near each other. On the radio, I don't really understand the words being said in the songs as much anymore and highely doubt songs just randomly changed. Like the higher pitched voices are not understood.

Frankly I almost jumped out a window on vacation this weekend, but once again didn't do it. It would have been in a very large city in USA and would have been seen so at least I would have been found pretty quickly.

I literally see zero point in continuing anymore. It goes beyond the hearing loss, although the hearing loss I think was the final straw. It comes from all the moving around as a kid every two years while living in a horrible household that never taught me anything about getting along socially others or anything basic that most learned from life. Now I can't hold conversations as easily, which is needed to learn how to socialize . I can't sit by myself anymore cause of the noise. I have to try to protect my hearing all the time. And on top of the already digestive issue that requires expensive meds. Nevermind the other issues I haven't named.

I'm sorry, but I literally think that this is definition of evolution at work. I feel I'm just meant to die off and its been a long time coming. I think many don't want to admit this because it sounds cold and mean. But, people and the world can be cold and mean. Political correctness doesn't change this.

I'll just get accussed of whining in this post. Pretty sure most have or will eventually give up on me. I think I'm just meant to die off :/. I never wanted this life as far as I can tell. I know I'm thinking this too because when the plane was hitting turbulence on my way back to my city, I secretly hoped inside it would crash. I literally felt some peace thinking that.

I never waslike this before the hearing loss, but something is going on. I dont know how to take this anymore. I wasnt happy before this, but things were livable.

Honestly I'm sick of me, or even more so, than some of you on here are of me if you want to know too. It's why ant to leave, I'm done with the health problems and issues that have made this existence miserable and made me a miserable person.

And I'm tired of wasting people's time on here and other places seeking help like this. I'm wasting everyone's time and it's useless. People spend time trying to write hell to me and then think I'm just ignoring them. I'm not I just truly think I'm unsellable in making my life anything at this point.

 

@jdjd09 - You are speaking from within the depths of depression, which places black glasses over your eyes and prevents you from seeing things clearly. I'm not going to write my usual longish response, only because I don't want this message to get lost in my many words. You are in a depression. It keeps you from seeing and feeling clearly. That is the chief source of your words and feelings above. I'm not discounting the feelings you've expressed, because they ARE your feelings, but I am saying that there is a better and brighter light for you, and you can't see it with the blackened glasses of depression on you. I know you've said that your experience with therapists hasn't given you good results. YET. Please keep trying. You don't have to magically wake up and feel like tap dancing tomorrow. You DO need to keep living, and keep trying, till something clicks.

You are like a miner in one of those caves that collapses, and you have enough food to survive but are at the bottom of a dark hole, and even though rescue efforts are occurring right above your head (or, in this case, hope and eventual triumph over your problems is a good probability), because you can't SEE the rescuers/rescue possibilities, you don't BELIEVE that they're there.

But they ARE. And if you hang in and keep on living, one day that dark hole will not be as deep and dark.

As to the natural selection thing, balderdash! Bah! No one is meant to die off. If, like, Steven Hawking had said this, he would've folded up and never thought out his genius theories. You think the universe just said, hey, let's give this genius some ALS and cripple him so he'll think he's meant to die? No. Lots of stuff, good and bad, happens to people RANDOMLY. And to you too.

I suspect you never had any family pulling for you, particularly, or showering you with support. But that's on THEM. Now you have to be YOUR OWN supporter.

I am not tired of you. I am willing to keep writing to you! But I DO know that you need real person-to-person contact in the real world to best work through your problems.

 

Just because they're older, doesn't mean it's any easier to deal with. I do feel bad for people who get this in their younger years, but I'm also tired of reading posts that kind of express that if you're older it's somehow not as devastating since, basically, we don't have much more time to live

 

Good point! I think that, but haven't ever said it.

Life, at ANY point, is valuable. The best way to live each day is AS "each" day. All we have is NOW.

Even though it is common practice, it is not right to frame "life" and "number of years" as something that we "have" for a certain period of time.

I know people who have died very young (children). I know people who have lived till they're very old but never really had the courage to take a bite out of life.

The only thing guaranteed is this moment.

And life is valuable at ANY age - our "age" being a mathematical numeral and nothing more.

Let's put it THIS way: What IF the "cure" for tinnitus is going to come from a researcher who is the "old" age of 75 (gasp!) BUT ... he/she gets tinnitus at 75 and it makes it impossible for him/her to conduct the necessary thinking/research due to the difficulties concentrating, etc. So ... cure lost forever.

Still think "75 and tinnitus" isn't as dreadful to THAT person as it is to a younger person???

EVERYONE counts! At EVERY age! Playing comparison games is a waste of thinking time.

Please don't think I am not COMPLETELY empathetic/sympathetic to a younger struggling person with tinnitus. I care about EVERYONE on this site, I really really really do.

Just wanted to give my input on the value of life and being healthy and comfortable at EVERY stage. All our days count, however they're "numbered."

 

I have hearing loss, T and H. I had perfect hearing back in January, and overnight, hell started. I was the lucky winner of the otosclerosis lottery (even though nobody in my family seems to have it).

T has impaired my cognitive abilities, for sure, but I don't want to give up. So I'm going on a plan to regain my abilities slowly.
I'm doing tasks from simpler to more complicated. I've started with some unix (linux/OpenBSD) admin, scripting... etc... and it's been a bit of a challenge to focus, but I'm trying over and over, until I get it, because I want my mind to focus so bad to get T de-prioritized by my brain.

I haven't done any hardcore C/C++/Java/Swift/Python/lua/other coding since "the day", but I'm planning to tackle it soon.

Get on a plan and execute, until you get it. Start simple, and increase complexity. The more you will manage to achieve, the more confident you will get, and the more you'll be able to cope with this nasty predicament.

Good luck.

 

@Path Maker thank you for being so eloquent about it! You expressed my thoughts completely!!

 

@TeresaD , thanks for bringing it up!

 

A few years ago, I had the great fun and fortune to have a six-month correspondence with a gifted writer/newspaper columnist who I grew up reading. He left the local paper (they forced buyouts - their loss!), then began to write for a small weekly. His column was wildly popular and exquisitely original. Loved it!

All of a sudden, the columns stopped. I was so enmeshed in life that I sort of noticed but didn't track down the reason why.

Well, about two years later, he appeared again. The first column back explained that he'd suffered a MASSIVE STROKE. Probably should've killed him, but didn't.

In the interim, he'd been COMPLETELY out of it, in a nursing facility, no control of bodily functions, no speech, right side fully paralyzed, etc.

In about a year and some months, he was able to go home, with assistance. Still couldn't talk. Still couldn't walk.

Or ... write. WRITE. The activity that was his shining brilliance, the core of his being, his soul.

And you know what that man did?

Sat himself at a computer and with his left index finger, began to try to write again.

He described his first attempt as trying to write one word and forty minutes later, typing a completely different word.

He persevered.

Months later, he had woken up these well-worn pathways in his brain, and was on his shining track again.

The columns came again, weekly, still full of the fire and grace of his truly gifted writing. Every column was typed letter by letter, word by word, with his left index finger. (This old-time newspaperman, who formerly had Olympic touchtyping skills. But hey - he found a way!).

I was so moved, I wrote to him about it, and he wrote back, and we kept that up for six months. All the while, he could type and write but not talk or walk. He was getting therapies for this.

It was SO worthwhile that after he got knocked down, he came back. There was SO much he had left to give.

THIS is what LIFE is REALLY all about. We really don't get to pick our lives like we book a trip from a travel brochure. Stuff happens. We DO get to find our ways, and to define our response to the journey.

Hey - just wanted to tell you about this.

 

Life is what you make of it...hearing normally is a gift and so is life. I can't hear normal at all and ask people (especially children) to repeat themselves and i have no shame doing that.

 

nc

@luka , can I ask you how you get on with life with the hearing loss at our age? I'm 28 as well. Are you able to work and concentrate? Do you do engineering or computer science or anything like that? Also, would you say you can hear your t over everything and it doesn't bother you at all?

I'm really curious is all.

To everyone else who responded I do appreciate it and will respond back...just low energy right now.

 

So that's how you support folks here?

 

I'm not going to watch because I can see what kind of point you're attempting to make. However, does someone else's horrid situation make you any less devastated about lesser problems? Just because other people have things a whole lot worse doesn't mean I'd be any less upset over a hearing loss. Sorry, I guess I'm just not in the right mood today.

 

To me, moderate hearing loss at a young age is like any other minor physical problem. If you have asthma or a dodgy ankle, is it annoying sometimes? Sure. Does it make a day out in the sunshine any less beautiful? F*ck no

 

@Path Maker , what hope is there though in his situation? I can never really get a clear answer that hearing loss will ever be cured soon by anyone. Sure, I'm down, but I'm down for a reason. I lost one of my senses to experience the world and there is no sign of doctors actually curing it soon.

Seriously, I could care less if they cure the ringing necessarily, I just want my hearing back to a normal range, so that I can hear everything as before.

I have attempted in person help before this situation and after this situation with people. Unfortunately, I literally don't have the time to seek out anymore help from a therapist. To find a therapist that works requires me to take off work. I burned all my days from taking off work. I can't work out of the office and they track all your movement while in the office. If I hit job, I losey insurance and cant afford to go see a therapist then either.

The therapist thing is going to be near impossible. I'm seeking help from those who know when a cure will come around and learning from those who have my issue. Most therapist s can't do either of those things.

I don't say that to argue with you by the way, I just say that to give my reasons.

Anyways, if I could know people were actually going to cure hearing loss soon, I would be happy.

 

@fishbone , may I ask how long you had your hearing loss for and how bad it is on an audiogram? Also, how are you able to enjoy music and get through life with conversing and making friends with the less hearing?

You seem ok with life. That is why I ask. Also, have you dealt with any family issues at a young age and any other serious health issues without a cure at a young age too?

 

I do not know my exact numbers, but my ears are bad. I cannot pick up people's talk patterns that are in low tones. Soft tones and soft voices are also hard. I have dealt with issues from day 1 when I arrived on this earth, I faced challenges from day 1. That's why my skin is much tougher than many. That's life, I had no other choice but to grow a tougher skin or else i'd not survive.

I enjoy music mostly through my iphone now, it's like my walk-man of the 80s I play my music at low to mid volume and never over it. I used to have it blasted at max volume as a teen, but no one educated me on the hell I could be facing in the future .

You know even with all of life struggles and hardships, i still smile daily and I try to help people live a better life. Just because I have some issues, does not mean that people should not be helped. When i was hooked and addicted on benzos (because of a lame Dr's BS diagnosis) and beat that drug, later I would just go to the forums and support and help people get off those nasty devil pills.

I am like that, I like to help people, it gives me gratification. That's why I am here and I enjoy this forum. This forum will not make my hearing comeback and it will not cure my tinnitus, but I have had tinnitus (no severe) from a very young age and I know this forum can benefit from someone who has been there almost 30 years...so I come and help.

I help the homeless and always feed them and help them as well....I could just be bitter with all my issues and not smile and not help..many do.....but that's not how i live my life and many others should also smile and move on and live their lives no matter if they got tinnitus or hearing loss....

Be well

 

So, I never been the one to sue anyone or consider it ever. But, I still remember when I walked into that am101 trial, asking what could done and being told nothing else. I clearly had hearing loss and no one ever offering me prednisone until a month later after I sought out a second opinion.

I'm just disgusted that I will have to potentially be in this position that was preventable all because of a doctor more interested in pushing a trial than helping a human being. I regret daily reading about that stupid trial.

All I needed was a competent ent to give me prednisone and steriods to potentially save some of my hearing so I woildnt even need to be on these boards.

 

What i know, is that Auris had another medical trial a few years ago a called am-111
http://www.aurismedical.com/product-candidates/am-111
for the treatment of acute inner ear hear loss....
they had a positive outcome, i dont understand why they are not already using this!!!!
lets hope am-102 can help chronic conditions...

 

Okay.
You want to make yourself out to be the victim? As far as can tell your tinnitus and hearing loss was not caused by someone else. There are a handful of us here where it was 100% caused by someone else's actions. You want to take a guess what percentage has had a successful lawsuit? Zero!

And the Prednisone most likely would not made any difference whatsoever.

 

AM-111 is for recent onset issues I have heard. AM-102 will do nothing for hearing loss I have heard as well.

 

I'm trying to get on with my life somehow. I'm not sure what you want me to say.

 

So am I. I'm not trying to be harsh but I'm pissed off at my life situation at the moment. My loud high pitched tinnitus was caused by someone else. I was swept under the rug after it happened. It's a point of constant frustration, but there is nothing I can do about it. There was another member here who also had her tinnitus caused by a co-worker who blasted her ear. She tried and so far has been unsuccessful in suing.

Your injury was not caused by someone else but you want someone to blame for it?

I could have been prescribed prednisone the day after my acoustic trauma before the loud tinnitus set in, but the doctor didn't prescribe it. I started prednisone 6 days after the acoustic trauma and it did absolutely nothing for me. Honestly, unless you get it within 24-48 hours, the likelihood of it helping is pretty slim. Even if you do get it right away it's a hit and miss.

When you were asking your doctor what else could be done, how long after your hearing loss was this?

 

It was about a week or two. I asks a gp and a specialist at trial. Neither offered prednisone. Both were within the 2 to 4 week window recommended for steriods.

Did you have hesring loss as well? I had tinnitus before all this, and could have cared less about it then. It with the hearing loss now it's crazy.

All I want to know from someone is when it's likely a cure will come out. There are researchers doing stuff behind the scenes. Those organization and companies wan timeframes to do proper budgeting for research. Someone knows something about the time frame of when a hearing loss cure is most likely going to come out.

 

Well if you could have cared less about tinnitus then it is probably mild. My ultra high frequency hearing was damaged causing this loud intrusive tinnitus that will never go away. It cuts through everything. So, yes, I have hearing loss where the tinnitus is, just not in the normal range where you hear most everyday sounds, but that just makes it harder to deal with because nothing masks it.

The window really isn't 2 to 4 weeks in all the studies I've read. I believe it's much shorter than that in most cases, and even then it's a 'Hail Mary' treatment meaning that it's worth a shot but far from a guarantee that it will even help.

 

No, I'm stating I want my hearing back. I don want to talk about the t too much because I want to attempt to move on. So you dont have any hearing loss in the 8khz or less range then?

Anyways, I dont care if it was a "hail Mary". It's one I will never get to find our if it would have worked or not. The fact that I was never given the chance to take it isn't helpful at all. At least then I could have known everything that could have been done was done. On the t, I'm not going to get into a competition as to who has ot worse. It's pointless.

At this point, I just want to know a best estimated timeframe when a hearing loss curr is coming out. That is all I care about at this point.

 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hide-and-seek/201206/depressive-realism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depressive_realism

People who are not depressed are widely known to wear rose colored glasses when looking at their situation, far overestimating their abilities and good qualities and not realizing just how bad their situation may be. "Depressed" people, on the other hand, are often more down-to-earth and see suffering clearly. It is realistic to feel depressed about the loss of a sense as important to human emotion as hearing loss and/or tinnitus.

 

@jdjd09

I think I know what's going on here. I wouldn't say you're depressed per se, rather you are clinging to the life you used to have and finding it troublesome to keep living knowing that nothing can be done to revert your body back to your old self. We have all experienced this insofar as we would like to "roll back" our bodies to the days before T, H, hearing loss, or whatever ailment. Unfortunately our bodies aren't able to be rebooted in such a way.

Other than that I don't know what to tell you other than that there are researchers out there attempting to essentially reboot our systems in such a way that is complimentary to normal human function.

 

I think this is the answer that you are looking for. There are people right now who are trying to cure hearing loss. No one really knows exactly when that will happen. If you keep at your coding job, you could save enough $ to get yourself a stem cell transplant. It could possibly improve your hearing. So, you can see there is hope.