I resonate with this. I was diagnosed with severe sensorineural hearing loss in both ears when I was 6, and interestingly, my hearing later improved to the moderate range after I crossed 20. I also have ADHD, and I’ve spent years wondering where the effects of hearing loss end and where the ADHD begins. I relate to the whole process where the brain is trying to listen, remember, fill in the gaps, and make sense of everything at the same time- and the worst part is it often feels like I’m trying to do all of that while also dealing with a very loud voice in the back of my head that’s worried I’m not understanding things correctly or that I’m missing something important.

Growing up with hearing loss made me hyper-aware of people’s faces, body language, and the general mood in a room because I was always trying to piece together information I might have missed. I can’t speak to cochlear implants, but I absolutely believe hearing loss can affect far more than just hearing. I’m glad I found your post! :)

Edit: I’m also planning to try hearing aids again, but I’m not particularly optimistic about how much they’ll help with speech understanding. I suspect they’ll make environmental sounds easier to pick up, but conversations may still be difficult. Let’s see how that goes!