Perfect Hearing, but I have trouble hearing

Post Reply New Topic

^^ This stuff happens sometimes for me too. Unfortunately I can be holding forth at length and then stop entirely to think, leaving someone to jump in (usually at a tangent because folks seem to have a hard time following commonsense) and then when I try to resume they react as if to say, "How DARE you talk, when I'm interrupting!"

^^^ yep: I get that a lot too, it’s almost as if their brains code & store information differently!
Do you also get the one where you start vocalising to make a response, but they carry on without break down an endless network of tangents that makes your head hurt?

^^I can't say it makes my head hurt, K, but it is rather bothersome. It's easy though. I just say that their brains work differently than mine & accept that because it's not a sin or evil or anything, it's just the way some NTs like to think.

Believe you me, Aspies can be jerks too in conversations! I have been That Guy too often & had to change the way I talk.

^ aye, I know
Meant head hurt as in physically: I’ve accepted that it’s enthusiasm coupled with a different internal way of ‘mapping’ knowledge, memories and so forth.

And I’ve definitely been That Guy... I still end up regretting on occasion attempts at humour: I can cut deep without realising I’m doing it, although it seems to be lessening as I get older

^^ I know what you're talking about with "my head hurts." Overstimulation seems to, um...overheat the CPU.

What you got to say makes sense--and I like the positive note about maturing with time & getting where your humor is not so pointed! That's awesome--gives me something to shoot for. We CAN too learn social skills!

This was in a ASD memoir I read last month. The author couldn't "hear" her husband so went to the doctor and found out she has very superior hearing. I also can't hear my husband and was thinking to get my hearing checked. Now I won't. Instead I've been experimenting...

At a store the other day I could not hear him. He was four feet in front of me. I took a second and realized I could hear a fan, clicking, and most loudly: water running - from behind me. These were distracting me. He was facing these noise sources and couldn't hear them. We got up to investigate together --- sure enough the fan was 40 feet at the back of the store, something was clicking 20 feet away, but we couldn't see any running water: the sink was off. I insisted there was (loud!) water. A cashier came up and feeling crazy, I asked about running water. The cashier indicated the running water under the counter that had been only 10 feet behind me. So there!

My ASD report has the following recommendation: "She may benefit from a more secluded work environment and fewer distractions." Apparently that goes for any environment.

P.S. It related to that whole ASD brain tends to take in ALL INFORMATION (or absolutely NONE), rather than "prioritizing" information.

Which reminds me that once my vision is corrected (with contacts or glasses), doctors have repeatedly commented and seemed surprised that it's superior. Which I haven't understood until now. So similarly, I can see very well and TAKE IN EVERYTHING, but can't see the carrot in front of my face.

Same! Checked my hearing recently, officially - because of pain in the ear, but onofficially thought it would explain why I don't seem to understand speech as well as other people. (Un?)fortunately, my hearing was perfect.

So it IS processing rather than hearing problem. Also made much worse by the fact that english isn't my native language. People could be talking in English right next to me and I will not hear anything unless I make effort to listen.

Online meetings have made work a bit easier. I record important meetings, later listen to recordings and pick up on everything that I have missed. It helps my understanding when I am not an active participant!

I have difficulty separating speech from noise. That's a neurological aspect of autism as far as I know. Or if multiple people are talking in the same room I can't separate them out. That's one of the reasons why I find spending time in crowded places so tiring.

Similar to some other people here, I have trouble separating "foreground" from "background" sounds. I can't have a conversation in a crowded place, or answer the phone on the bus. My hearing is very acute. Loud noises are physically painful, and when it's quiet I can hear tiny noises most people would miss. I'm a pretty decent musician, but I learned the hard way that being in a band is like sticking my head in a cement mixer for fun.

Yes, this seems pretty common. I'm the same way. Anywhere with background noise of any sort, it's almost impossible to understand speech without really concentrating, but I hear everything, all the time. Even though I have noticeable tinnitus, I still hear things "through" or maybe "around" the whistle-hiss. I'm usually the first to hear a noise unless my daughter is closer to it (she's 6, so her ears are still factory-spec.) Many times, we're the only two people in the house who hear very quiet sounds. We'll be searching for "what's making that weird noise" and my wife and mother-in-law will be totally confused, they won't hear what's making the two of us crazy. I think it's the same for her, hearing everything in the entire environment all the time.