Possibly tricked into supposed hearing impairment

One aspect of my childhood that I don't usually remember are my hearing aids. I was taken for a hearing test when I was 5 after I didn't respond to my parents' calls while absorbed in a TV show. Then I was promptly put onto hearing aids, which I hated and was forced to wear every day. They made everything much too loud, and my ears are already sensitive.

These days, I don't wear them. I hold my hand behind my right ear when talking to someone, but it's more of a crutch to help me understand them. (Their volume is fine, you see.) I've recently begun to wonder.... what if my ears have been perfectly normal all this time? Certainly everything would sound quieter after taking off those wretched miniature amplifiers, which made me think my hearing was worse than it really was. Who knows how much better I could be at listening to subtler sounds right now if I'd only been allowed to work with what I had.

reply to post by EllaMarina


Get some hearing tests and see how much actual damage is present. Maybe the initial diagnosis back when you were 5 was in error. Possibly you may have hearing losses in specific frequencies only or some other weird problem.

Get it checked out.

reply to post by ntech

I too have a 15% loss in the mid-range frequencies where the human voice is. Being a musician too..I was worried about mixing levels in the studio and also my ability to correctly tune instruments.

Fortunately, it did not hinder me at all, and if anything? I boost the mid-range of audio I listen to by just a bit.

I'm indeed lacking in the human voice range. From looking at the fuss everyone made about me, though, you'd think it was all across the board.

My father-in-law is the opposite of you. He touts a thirteen year old hearing test as his proof that his hearing is fine. What he fails to realize is that he can't filter the sounds correctly. Having a conversation with him is frustrating, as he will always loudly ask, 'What?' He does this to everyone, and my poor mother-in-law has been trying to convince him he needs a hearing aid for years, but he'll have none of it. He gets irritated if he even gets a whiff that we've been saying he needs a hearing aid.