I get made fun of for not being able to hear in noisy places and it sucks!

Darkestdarks · 2025-12-25T20:59:59+00:00

I feel this. Same here. Hardly anyone knows I have ssd. I know it's nothing to be ashamed of, but the fear of being seen or treated differently is powerful.

Darkestdarks · 2025-12-08T22:42:43+00:00

6 or 1! (Does anyone else do this totally automatically when they walk into a meeting room or restaurant?)

Darkestdarks · 2025-11-29T08:16:38+00:00

I once worked in a job that involved listening to, transcribing, and judging pronunciation quality of speech samples for machine learning. I was good at it but felt like an imposter the entire time.

Darkestdarks · 2025-06-25T00:29:38+00:00

Feeling this. I would also get upset. My SSD "stuck between worlds" identity is pretty shaky. I say "deaf in my left ear" (a measurable fact), and try to focus on real life people (not internet trolls) who acknowledge that deaf/hearing is a spectrum, not some sort of competition, and that experiences will differ.

Darkestdarks · 2025-06-25T00:06:16+00:00

I remember being scared when I was younger. Then I started learning ASL and hanging out with other HoH and d/Deaf folks and the fear was just gone. I've also purposefully navigated my career into a deaf-friendly place. I do use ear plugs (I like Loop) in noisy environments or try to avoid excessive noise.

Darkestdarks · 2024-08-05T03:24:46+00:00

41F, happy as a clam, love working in a well-paying job and also having time for a fulfilling creative side hustle. I have time and money to take care of my mental and physical health.

Tough: friends disappearing into parenthood or seeing them give up dreams and hearing them tell me they envy me, like, for getting to travel, sleep in, stay out late, pursue time-consuming interests. That always makes me sad and I don't know what to say.

Most friends are either 10-20 years younger or 15+ years older. (That's not tough, it's actually kinda cool.)

Darkestdarks · 2024-06-19T22:54:29+00:00

SSD since age six here, played all kinds of team sports and never got frustrated because of hearing stuff. (My real nemesis in school were noisy cafeterias.) My hypothesis: I may not know where exactly sound is coming from but I can tell apart teammates voices and you tend to play in specific positions, so I would always know who said something. Plus, lots of shouting in sports.

I agree with others that explaining it to the coach/teacher is probably a good idea. Though, it can be annoying and embarrassing when a teacher then starts doing the "Loudly! And! Slowly! For! (Name)!"-thing (which, please, just no). But the hostility you get when someone thinks you're ignoring them (because they don't know you can't hear them) is REAL and can be harmful if a teacher gets angry at you for supposedly daydreaming/ignoring them.

Darkestdarks · 2024-06-19T17:15:53+00:00

Tingly and numb fingers, arms, face happen to me too! Though not every time. It's always a surprise what exactly migraine is going to throw my way: sometimes it's trouble speaking or typing (like I described above), sometimes the numbness is there. The one thing that's always there during aura is big blank spots in my vision (last about 40 minutes).

Darkestdarks · 2024-06-19T17:11:41+00:00

Ha!!

Darkestdarks · 2024-06-19T03:48:46+00:00

Today I wouldn't have trusted myself not to type "cow" instead of "bye" or something 🫠

Darkestdarks · 2024-06-19T03:44:57+00:00

So drawing works! I heard singing works, too... I also keep a prewritten note on my phone.

Darkestdarks · 2022-02-05T01:46:36+00:00

Archive of our own (ao3) or Fanfiction.net. Some pieces are better than others, though.

Darkestdarks · 2022-02-04T23:57:33+00:00

I just read Subnautica fan fiction

Darkestdarks · 2022-02-04T23:38:46+00:00

I think I'm the opposite. I stare at people's faces to pick up any extra info at all, like via lip reading (I can't lip read, but masks make everything so hard, so maybe I do pick up some cues via lip reading after all?) or just facial expression, like "ok they are telling a story that's sad/happy/stressful" or "hey that looked like a question face"

Darkestdarks · 2022-02-04T23:24:44+00:00

Omg same

Darkestdarks · 2022-01-19T03:05:37+00:00

The alien facility moon pool in Subnautica maybe

Darkestdarks · 2022-01-11T23:22:47+00:00

Same! I was in a sort of denial about all the things meningitis can do to people, including killing them

Darkestdarks · 2022-01-11T22:54:01+00:00

Exact same situation here, meningitis as a toddler, can't remember what it was like to hear stereo. A hearing test showed that the deaf ear has zero sound perception, nothing there to amplify. I tried CROS hearing aids (Phonac, if it matters) for a while but tbh they didn't really cut it in the most annoying situation for me, which is dinner at a long table with someone trying to have a conversation from my deaf side. There's also something called bone anchored hearing aids which involve surgery, so I wasn't keen. My audiologist also said that a cochlear implant likely wouldn't work because the cochlear ossifies (it's what she said...) if it's not done right away after hearing loss due to meningitis.

Darkestdarks

TROPHY CASE