Page 1 of 1 [ 11 posts ] 

ASPartOfMe
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,240
Location: Long Island, New York

15 Sep 2017, 3:54 pm

I just got them last week. An attack of ear shingles(Ramsey Hunt Syndrome) in my right ear damaged my hearing a lot. The hearing test showed some hearing loss in my left ear also. All that loud "Classic Rock" in my youth I guess.

My fine motor coordination issues made it hard to take them in and out but I think I am getting the hang of it.

I am getting startled often. Even the creaking of the floor when I walk on it seems annoying. I do not know if the hearing aids are programmed too loudly or sensory sensitivities are coming to the fore with "normal" hearing. The audiologist did say it takes a few weeks to get used to and I often take longer to get used to things than most people.


_________________
Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity

“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman


C2V
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 7 Apr 2015
Posts: 2,666

16 Sep 2017, 5:50 am

I know someone with "re-sound" hearing aids who complains of similar issues. Arthritis in fingers makes it hard to get them in and out, so the audiologist added a little "bunny ear" thing, which is essentially a little stalk of soft plastic with a knob on the end, that the person can more easily grip onto, especially to get them out. Maybe that'd help?
Also with the sound sensitively thing - this was a complaint too. The audiologist said the same thing - you're accustomed to your hearing being negligible, and the way the world actually sounds to hearing peoples is a bit of an adjustment. They said this person would desensitize again over time, but you do have to persist. It's like new glasses - if you took them off the moment you felt dizzy / boggle / steps coming up to meet you, and then only wore them for five minutes a day before you took them off again, your brain would never adapt. But you put up with it for a week, you're fine.
What made you go for hearing aids, instead of other approaches? I am very much interested in deaf culture recently, and I know of some deaf advocates who reject the idea of wearing hearing aids, believing it's about changing them to suit the hearing world instead of accepting them as deaf people. They instead use sign and look at communication with the hearing world more as a collaboration of differences, instead of them as disabled people who need to be fixed to be normal.
Just interested.


_________________
Alexithymia - 147 points.
Low-Verbal.


Trueno
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Jul 2017
Age: 68
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,788
Location: UK

16 Sep 2017, 6:02 am

Your ear canal goes upwards and backwards, so you have to sort of hook the hearing aid in... move it up and back as it goes in. I don't have a hearing aid but I recently got some custom made ear plugs which I suspect are similar... except they cut sound out rather than augment it.


_________________
Steve J

Unkind tongue, right ill hast thou me rendered
For such desert to do me wreak and shame


ASPartOfMe
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,240
Location: Long Island, New York

16 Sep 2017, 11:37 am

C2V wrote:
What made you go for hearing aids, instead of other approaches? I am very much interested in deaf culture recently, and I know of some deaf advocates who reject the idea of wearing hearing aids, believing it's about changing them to suit the hearing world instead of accepting them as deaf people. They instead use sign and look at communication with the hearing world more as a collaboration of differences, instead of them as disabled people who need to be fixed to be normal.
Just interested.


I am aware of deaf culture and that many people in that community choose to not be "corrected". I have negatively compared the accomplishments of the autistic rights movement with the deaf rights movement. I chose to have my hearing corrected because I was not born this way, my hearing impairment was caused by physical damage, not brain wiring. Most of my hearing loss came about suddenly a few months ago. I am turning 60 and am used to more typical hearing.


_________________
Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity

“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman


Raleigh
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 7 Jul 2014
Age: 124
Gender: Non-binary
Posts: 34,178
Location: Out of my mind

16 Sep 2017, 2:36 pm

You will find those types of sounds will flatten out after a while as your brain adjusts.
Clicking things still drive me mad though, like the keyboards clicks on a phone. :x
Are they in the ear type aids or behind the ear?
If they're behind the ear you can get open moulds which give a more natural sound - less like you're in a tunnel, if you know what I mean.


_________________
It's like I'm sleepwalking


ASPartOfMe
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,240
Location: Long Island, New York

16 Sep 2017, 4:30 pm

Raleigh wrote:
You will find those types of sounds will flatten out after a while as your brain adjusts.
Clicking things still drive me mad though, like the keyboards clicks on a phone. :x
Are they in the ear type aids or behind the ear?
If they're behind the ear you can get open moulds which give a more natural sound - less like you're in a tunnel, if you know what I mean.


In the ear


_________________
Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity

“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman


C2V
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 7 Apr 2015
Posts: 2,666

16 Sep 2017, 11:53 pm

Quote:
I have negatively compared the accomplishments of the autistic rights movement with the deaf rights movement.

How's that?
Quote:
I chose to have my hearing corrected because I was not born this way, my hearing impairment was caused by physical damage, not brain wiring. Most of my hearing loss came about suddenly a few months ago. I am turning 60 and am used to more typical hearing.

That makes sense as a reason to opt for hearing aids. Everyone has to do what's best for them personally and this suits you, good a reason as any. I'm just curious about people's perspectives around this as it's a bit of a special interest for me at the moment. :)


_________________
Alexithymia - 147 points.
Low-Verbal.


ASPartOfMe
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,240
Location: Long Island, New York

17 Sep 2017, 1:58 am

C2V wrote:
Quote:
I have negatively compared the accomplishments of the autistic rights movement with the deaf rights movement.

How's that?)


The deaf rights movement seems more unified in its goals. That is understandable as it has been around longer and it there is not the level of fundamental disagreement to what it is that we have about autism. The Autistic rights movement seems to have convinced a lot of people it is elitist.


_________________
Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity

“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman


C2V
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 7 Apr 2015
Posts: 2,666

22 Sep 2017, 8:59 am

ASPartOfMe wrote:
C2V wrote:
Quote:
I have negatively compared the accomplishments of the autistic rights movement with the deaf rights movement.

How's that?)


The deaf rights movement seems more unified in its goals. That is understandable as it has been around longer and it there is not the level of fundamental disagreement to what it is that we have about autism. The Autistic rights movement seems to have convinced a lot of people it is elitist.

That's a really interesting way to put it, "elitist." Because it definitely can be - the whole Not-Autistic-Enough thing, where people seem constantly bent on excluding people whose difficulties may be different or milder than their own, or people who have found a way to cope. I have even found this can make you ashamed of whatever abilities you do have in a way, if you let this nonsense into your head - like a real autistic wouldn't be able to do this, so your strengths invalidate your identification with being an autistic person. It's ridiculous and divisive.
And if you think about it, the deaf community could have easily done this with their hard-of-hearing component - unless you were born deaf, are profoundly and culturally deaf, first-language sign user, went to a deaf school etc, then you're "not deaf enough," but they don't as far as I can tell. They incorporate hard-of-hearing people into the community. Even people like you who are older and didn't experience hearing loss until later, maybe just have a little bit of hearing loss but nothing fundamental, and choose to correct it as much as possible with hearing aids rather than go the cultural route. They don't seem so interested in being exclusive - and exclusivity is the definition of being elitist.


_________________
Alexithymia - 147 points.
Low-Verbal.


ASPartOfMe
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,240
Location: Long Island, New York

22 Sep 2017, 10:35 am

C2V wrote:
ASPartOfMe wrote:
C2V wrote:
Quote:
I have negatively compared the accomplishments of the autistic rights movement with the deaf rights movement.

How's that?)


The deaf rights movement seems more unified in its goals. That is understandable as it has been around longer and it there is not the level of fundamental disagreement to what it is that we have about autism. The Autistic rights movement seems to have convinced a lot of people it is elitist.

That's a really interesting way to put it, "elitist." Because it definitely can be - the whole Not-Autistic-Enough thing, where people seem constantly bent on excluding people whose difficulties may be different or milder than their own, or people who have found a way to cope. I have even found this can make you ashamed of whatever abilities you do have in a way, if you let this nonsense into your head - like a real autistic wouldn't be able to do this, so your strengths invalidate your identification with being an autistic person. It's ridiculous and divisive.
And if you think about it, the deaf community could have easily done this with their hard-of-hearing component - unless you were born deaf, are profoundly and culturally deaf, first-language sign user, went to a deaf school etc, then you're "not deaf enough," but they don't as far as I can tell. They incorporate hard-of-hearing people into the community. Even people like you who are older and didn't experience hearing loss until later, maybe just have a little bit of hearing loss but nothing fundamental, and choose to correct it as much as possible with hearing aids rather than go the cultural route. They don't seem so interested in being exclusive - and exclusivity is the definition of being elitist.


Most of the criticism of the ND movement I have seen is the opposite, critics view them as Aspie/HFA thus not people who have or understand “real autism” where there are little or no strengths, only impairments. The ND movements anti cure stance is seen getting in the way of helping “real autistics” because they are so mild they are clueless and thus elitist.


_________________
Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity

“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman


C2V
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 7 Apr 2015
Posts: 2,666

22 Sep 2017, 11:19 pm

ASPartOfMe wrote:
Most of the criticism of the ND movement I have seen is the opposite, critics view them as Aspie/HFA thus not people who have or understand “real autism” where there are little or no strengths, only impairments. The ND movements anti cure stance is seen getting in the way of helping “real autistics” because they are so mild they are clueless and thus elitist.

Ugh, seems it can go both ways. Maybe one day people will realize that a whole blanket can't be applied to everyone? That someone with Asperger's Syndrome who supports neurodiversity and does not believe in curing autism for themselves, and someone with severe classic autism who wants it cured for themselves can still be part of the same community? Just because they have different perspectives about autism for themselves needn't stop them from supporting other people's different perspectives, for that person's wellbeing?
I don't understand the "sides" mentality, that just because someone thinks differently, you have to be divided.


_________________
Alexithymia - 147 points.
Low-Verbal.