Most people would probably find such a subject to be pretty mundane but the author of A Quiet World: Living with Hearing loss does a great job of writing in a way that’s not just entertaining but also provides a lot of great information.

Read the review from Publishers Weekly:

“Some 28 million Americans and 350 million people worldwide live with hearing loss,” psychologist Myers (The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty) explains in his compassionate and humorous new work; and he is one of them.

As he maintains, to be without hearing is to be socially isolated. And, even more important, since language is necessary for learning, without an equivalent for the spoken word, childhood development can lag behind.

In this 10-year journal of his experiences and observations, Myers charts the progression of his own hearing loss and compares it with that of his mother, who became profoundly deaf and, despite her family’s efforts, increasingly isolated in a silent world all her own.

As a loving observer, Myers’s wife shares her sadness and frustration with her husband’s growing problem and unwillingness, for many years, to do anything about it. In turn, he stresses that it is up to the affected individual to seek av (Read more…)

Sounds that register at a high frequency are more susceptible to loss than low ones, which may lead the victim of hearing loss to act as though they can hear sometimes and not at others.

This is simply because high sounds, for example consonants, are more difficult for them to hear.

However, depending on the severity of the loss, certain other sounds can still be heard, so it is unfair to say that the affected person is “just pretending” or practicing “selective hearing” for their own benefit.

High frequency hearing loss is a little-understood phenomenon that often precedes other types of hearing loss and, in some cases, comes simultaneously with them.

To the victim of high frequency hearing loss and other types of hearing disorders, everyday words may be missing little pieces. They hear the low inflections and vowels of each word, but not the rest of them, meaning that in some cases they will understand what is being said to them and respond, and in other cases they cannot hear well enough to function.

It may be useful for them to try and face the speaker whenever possible. Lip reading, a useful technique employed by those who are fully deaf, can also assist victims of any type of hearing loss.

Consulting with a doctor and determining the severity of normal or high frequency hearing loss can also be helpful, since in many cases hearing aids that are designed to restore high frequency sounds can be employed. In other situations, cochlear implants may be surgically added in order to provide a more permanent, long-term solution.

It is often difficult to tell the difference between high frequency hearing loss and mild to normal hearing loss. Especially with all of the background noise inherent in modern life, the only discernible symptom may be a slight problem with understanding words; at times, conversations may become a series of mumbles to the hearing-impaired listener and they may simply chalk it up to crosstalk or competing sounds.

The key distinction will be distortion of any kind. Music is an especially good indicator; victims of many types of hearing loss find that they cannot enjoy music as they formerly did because the sounds of many instruments have become warped.

That is the definition of sudden hearing loss: it occurs in less than three days and often attacks without warning.

The loss may occur all at once and leave you mostly deaf, or it may come on gradually and result in a very slight amount of deafness that you might think you are imagining.

But this disease is not as harmless as tinnitus (ringing of the ears). The symptoms and signs associated with your particular type of hearing loss may give you a clue as to what caused it, thus helping your doctor to identify and treat the problem quickly.

Here are some sudden hearing loss symptoms to check for:

• Sudden hearing loss can result from trauma or bad blood circulation
• Gradual onset can point to serious causes, such as tumors in the head or neck area
• If the hearing loss occurs in conjunction with vertigo or tinnitus, it may be a nerve issue
• Hearing loss in one ear is known as “unilateral,” while loss in both ears is “bilateral.” Unilateral hearing loss is most commonly associated with acoustic neuromas, conductive causes, and trauma.
• Ear infections may cause momentary loss but are usually fixable. They typically cause a fever and severe inner ear pain. Other causes of such pain may be from trauma or canal obstruction.

If these sudden hearing loss symptoms are severe or sustained, they may require the immediate attention of a doctor. Other issues that are sometimes associated with the possibility of sudden hearing loss include a foreign body in the ear canal, extreme pressure changes (such as with flying or diving), severe head and neck trauma, blood or excessive fluid leaking from the ear, and a fever that does not respond to anti-inflammatory drugs such as Tylenol.

If you are manifesting these signs it is imperative that you seek medical attention immediately. The doctor will employ a number of techniques to ascertain the causes and severity of your symptoms, from testing your hearing with a tuning fork to running a CT brain scan if necessary.

These investigative measures can be key in early diagnosis and/or preventing loss of hearing.

So be sure to know and analyze any sudden hearing loss symptoms you may be exhibiting so that your sudden hearing loss, if and when it comes, doesn’t have to be permanent.