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Experimenting on My Hearing Loss

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Re: Experimenting on My Hearing Loss

#31

Post by andrelaszlo »

dschuetz wrote: post #30

It's very interesting to read that you actually need to wear your hearing aids all the time. Because, I have the exact same condition with almost exactly the same loss curve (except at 8kHz where it's ~10dB above yours), but I only need to wear my aids in conferences or lectures (school was particularly hard). I refused to wear them and still do, because they wear me out in 1-2 hours. Now, I have more severe problems…

I was told that the more you wear them the more your brain adjusts, normally. Eventually you might be more tired without them.

Re: Experimenting on My Hearing Loss

#32

Post by dschuetz »

andrelaszlo wrote: post #31
dschuetz wrote: post #30

It's very interesting to read that you actually need to wear your hearing aids all the time. Because, I have the exact same condition with almost exactly the same loss curve (except at 8kHz where it's ~10dB above yours), but I only need to wear my aids in conferences or lectures (school was particularly hard). I refused to wear them and still do, because they wear me out in 1-2 hours. Now, I have more severe problems…

I was told that the more you wear them the more your brain adjusts, normally. Eventually you might be more tired without them.

My experience is quite different: if I don't wear them I am in control when I get tired. I get tired when I need to focus too much on lipreading and actually following the conversation. If there is nothing worth listening to I don't get tired.

I'm used/adapted to go without them, so basically forcing myself to "re-adjust" my brain by wearing them all the time would make my hearing actually far worse than it feels. It's really weird, each doctor who examined my hearing was amazed how well I actually hear without any aids with my condition. So, I was good with wearing aids only when I really needed them, but with teleconferencing it doesn't work anymore and would be worse if I was used to wearing aids.

Re: Experimenting on My Hearing Loss

#33

Post by faeyanpiraat »

dschuetz wrote: post #30

It's very interesting to read that you actually need to wear your hearing aids all the time. Because, I have the exact same condition with almost exactly the same loss curve (except at 8kHz where it's ~10dB above yours), but I only need to wear my aids in conferences or lectures (school was particularly hard). I refused to wear them and still do, because they wear me out in 1-2 hours. Now, I have more severe problems…

You might have similar sound sensitivities in your ears, but your brain also needs to process the information coming in, maybe you differ in this regard, and an amplification may help some people.

My ears are fine, and I still sometimes dont understand what people are talking about in some situations.

Re: Experimenting on My Hearing Loss

#34

Post by amelius »

caeril wrote: post #9

Objectively, my hearing is just fine. I can hear frequency sweeps and tones perfectly well, but all my life I've been unable to pick out words in conversation if there's even moderate background noise. "What?" is likely my most commonly uttered phrase. This leads to people constantly telling me to get my "hearing checked", when it's not the ability to hear tones that's the problem. Rather irritating explaining this t…

Are you taller than most people around you?

Re: Experimenting on My Hearing Loss

#35

Post by kordlessagain »

phaedrus wrote: post #15
caeril wrote: post #9

Objectively, my hearing is just fine. I can hear frequency sweeps and tones perfectly well, but all my life I've been unable to pick out words in conversation if there's even moderate background noise. "What?" is likely my most commonly uttered phrase. This leads to people constantly telling me to get my "hearing checked", when it's not the ability to hear tones that's the problem. Rather irritating explaining this t…

I have the same issue. Worse, when I did get my hearing checked, the supposed test for difficulty picking up speech against background noise was terribly and obviously flawed. They used a very short (few seconds) clip that looped. My brain quickly learned the loop and subtracted it. What I can't do is filter out unpredictable background noise. Plus the lab is an idealized environment without distractions. Want to acc…

Do you have echoic recall?

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

Re: Experimenting on My Hearing Loss

#36

Post by kordlessagain »

amelius wrote: post #34
caeril wrote: post #9

Objectively, my hearing is just fine. I can hear frequency sweeps and tones perfectly well, but all my life I've been unable to pick out words in conversation if there's even moderate background noise. "What?" is likely my most commonly uttered phrase. This leads to people constantly telling me to get my "hearing checked", when it's not the ability to hear tones that's the problem. Rather irritating explaining this t…

Are you taller than most people around you?

What's the theory behind this question? If someone is taller, one could assume the sounds from other conversations are traveling further (across heads) to the ears of the tall person?

Re: Experimenting on My Hearing Loss

#37

Post by amelius »

kordlessagain wrote: post #36
amelius wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you taller than most people around you?

What's the theory behind this question? If someone is taller, one could assume the sounds from other conversations are traveling further (across heads) to the ears of the tall person?

If you're taller and standing in a group, it's more difficult to get visual cues (e.g. seeing people's lips move), and you are further away, and people generally don't make an effort to speak in your direction.

Re: Experimenting on My Hearing Loss

#38

Post by car »

dschuetz wrote: post #30

It's very interesting to read that you actually need to wear your hearing aids all the time. Because, I have the exact same condition with almost exactly the same loss curve (except at 8kHz where it's ~10dB above yours), but I only need to wear my aids in conferences or lectures (school was particularly hard). I refused to wear them and still do, because they wear me out in 1-2 hours. Now, I have more severe problems…

Not sure if this is a solution for you, since you describe neural processing fatigue. The Apple AirPods Pro have the ability to modify sound output based on an audiogram. The audiogram can be generated by other certified apps, that have been calibrated, on the regular AirPods for example. It is then stored in the Apple Health app. It is pretty amazing, wearing the AirPods in this mode is almost as good as hearing aids. But I am not sure if it can address your neural fatigue, for which you might want to get a second opinion.

Re: Experimenting on My Hearing Loss

#39

Post by geocrasher »

I have proven hearing loss in my right ear, and some in my left, but the right side is worst. The most difficult thing is that my frequency range is skewed toward the bass. I have trouble hearing high frequency sounds, but the low frequency sounds are extra loud to me. As a result, most sound is to "bass"y for me.

I've been using technology to adjust for this since I was a kid in the 1980's and 90's: Turn the treble up, the bass down on every radio I own.

I recently installed VoiceMeter Banana on my PC and I can use it to do the same thing. It really can help!

Re: Experimenting on My Hearing Loss

#40

Post by mtippett »

dschuetz wrote: post #30

It's very interesting to read that you actually need to wear your hearing aids all the time. Because, I have the exact same condition with almost exactly the same loss curve (except at 8kHz where it's ~10dB above yours), but I only need to wear my aids in conferences or lectures (school was particularly hard). I refused to wear them and still do, because they wear me out in 1-2 hours. Now, I have more severe problems…

I'm in a similar situation left ear is better than normal for my age (46M), but my right ear has profound loss (ie: nothing, falls to 80 dB) above 2kHz. Since it's profound amplifying hearing aids won't do a damn thing (apart from possibly damaging the hearing for the good part).

I've thought about looking at if there are frequency shifting hearing aids or even just earpieces to shift some of those higher frequencies into my hearing range of the right ear.

I haven't spent too much digging deeper into it - since I'm completely functional at normal levels, however whispering by anyone and low volume female voices on my right side are completely lost. I typically do that "speak to my good ear" contortion. Or just sit in the corner of the table or sit to the right in other conversations.

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