
No longer deaf people of Reddit: which noises surprised you? - camtarn
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/9wdvtk/no_longer_deaf_people_of_reddit_whats_something/
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sdrothrock
I had progressive hearing loss from the age of 3, had severe hearing loss by
6, and profound hearing loss shortly thereafter. I got a cochlear implant at
16.

So I wasn't Deaf, but I was certainly deaf. I'd lost my hearing at an advanced
enough age to be verbal, but early enough to not really remember what I was
"supposed" to be hearing.

After I got my cochlear implant, the thing that surprised me (and continues to
surprise me to this day) is that there was just so much noise I couldn't even
have begun to imagine. "people hearing something I couldn't" was just an
abstract concept, like being taller than me.

If every sound were given a loudness on a scale from 1 to 10, I could only
hear the 9s and 10s... but after the cochlear implant, I could hear everything
from four to 10. The variety of sounds out there were just ridiculous -- I
remember being startled at the sound of my mother cutting vegetables because
I'd never heard a knife on a cutting board before.

Even today, about 17 years later, I still find that there are lots of things I
can hear but not categorize. I thought my coworker sighed in frustration
earlier, but when I asked him what was wrong, he said he hadn't sighed -- we
figured out that I'd actually heard someone sneezing a few offices away.

I wonder how long it'll take me to build a filter to categorize and ignore
that kind of thing. I know that the cochlear implant processors can filter out
noise, but I really don't want them to -- it's skill I'd rather have for my
own so I can enjoy hearing sounds and making my own judgments.

\--------

If anyone wants to ask anything, I'm certainly up for answering. If it's a
private question (say, if you're trying to decide about a cochlear implant),
then please feel free to e-mail me (my address is in my profile).

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camtarn
I particularly enjoyed this comment:

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stopstaringatmeswan4

Born severely hearing impaired, got my first hearing aids at 12 years old.

Honestly, just about every noise surprised me. I was not prepared for how
obnoxiously loud the whole world is. My hearing aids practically turned me
into a librarian, just walking around shushing everything and everyone.

The audiologist gave me my hearing aids for the first time and wrote something
down then put her pen on the desk. I just about jumped a mile, sounded like
she slammed it as hard as she could, but she just placed it down.

I got up to walk out and thought I ripped my pants because of the noise, but
it was just my windbreaker rubbing on itself.

The laughing child in the waiting room caused me actual physical pain from the
strength of the noise.

I closed the car door and waited for dad to yell at me for slamming it because
it was so loud it sounded like what I imagined a gunshot would sound like. I
didn't actually slam the door.

Dad started the car and I thought there was something wrong with the engine.
How could a car sound so loud and NOT have anything wrong with it? The car was
fine.

The radio came blaring on and I finally understood why my parents were always
telling me to turn that damn volume down. People actually listen to this
painful shit for fun!?!

I was almost in tears by the end of dinner. The cutlery scraping against the
plates made me want to tear my hearing aids out and stomp them to pieces.

I thought mom was angry when she was cleaning up after dinner and slamming
everything around. She wasn't angry.

After dinner, 3 hours after I got my hearing aids, I was thoroughly
overwhelmed and decided to go to my room, take my hearing aids out and get
some peace and quiet. I closed the door to my room and heard a quiet, almost
peaceful sound. It was the first sound I heard that I didn't hate. I spent a
long time searching for the source of the noise before I realized it was
coming from outside. It was the sound of the rain.

It never even occurred to me that rain would make noise. I mean those tiny
little drops are practically weightless, how could they possibly make
noise?!?! I just sat there and listened to the rain for hours.

If it had not been raining that day, there's a good chance I would have never
worn those hearing aids again.

It has been 30 years since then and I have grown more accustomed to how loud
everything is, but I still get overwhelmed in noisy situations sometimes... I
love coming home after a long day, taking my hearing aids out and just basking
in the peace.

~~~
newsbinator
> I was almost in tears by the end of dinner. The cutlery scraping against the
> plates made me want to tear my hearing aids out and stomp them to pieces.

I have never been deaf, but this bothers me too. I guess it's mild Misophonia.

When someone is eating something in the other room, the scrape of the cutlery
on their dish means I can't work until they're done. Often with the door
closed too.

I live with someone who seems to take 10 minutes to crunch around a chocolate
bar wrapper before/while eating it. This raises my adrenaline for no reason I
can discern.

