As an editor and writer for Medical News Today, I am constantly exploring the causes and effects of a range of different diseases and conditions
ISLAMABABD (Pakistan Point News / Online - 22nd April, 2019) As an editor and writer for Medical news Today, I am constantly exploring the causes and effects of a range of different diseases and conditions.From time to time, I find that a particular article will pop up and alert me to my own health issues. And that is exactly what happened when I looked into deafness and hearing loss around a year ago.I was going through the questions a doctor might ask during diagnosis, and I was staggered to find that as few as 5 percent of them did not apply to my own ears.
Sure enough, I took these issues to a doctor, and entered the referral process for treatment by an ear, nose, and throat specialist.After 8 months of waiting, I now have two hearing aids. At the time of writing, I have only been wearing them for 2 days, yet their impact is already significantly greater than I could ever have imagined.A gradual, creeping impact on your lifeTo recap, I'm lucky enough to have retained at least half of my hearing in each ear.
At present, I can lead a mostly active, healthy life, I don't need to communicate with sign language, and my work is unaffected.However, it's all too easy to dismiss the impact of a gradual, creeping condition such as hearing loss. It can develop suddenly, or, as in my case, take 20 years to reach a diagnosable level.I will be 30 years old this year, and those 20 years mark a hugely important period in anyone's life.Whether you are trying to make an impact as a young professional starting out, rounding off your formal education, building a family, or all of the above, you will undoubtedly be taking account of parts of your life that are becoming increasingly important and complex.
Communication is a huge part of navigating this formative stage. If any element of communication is lacking, it can have a significant impact on the way your personality develops, and the methods you use to connect with the outside world.The big kicker with gradual-onset hearing loss is that you are not aware of how it's changing you until the physical symptoms have become moderate to severe.Socializing becomes too much of a riskEvery pang of guilt or embarrassment after saying "what?" or "huh?" might lead to another night when you don't risk going out to socialize.
You end up distancing softly-spoken colleagues, friends, and even family members, simply because the effort it takes to process their speech can become draining.I've forgotten what it's like to chat with a friend at a concert or even a bar. Very often, I will have great difficulty separating conversational frequencies from noises in the environment, making it almost impossible to fully focus on what people are saying.Something as trivial as needing subtitles when watching television programs and movies with other people can create an isolating feeling of being stigmatized.Even though your friends are probably understanding, and although subtitles exist to significantly improve the viewing experience for people who cannot hear as well as others, it can still be hard to ignore the underlying feeling of being 'different.'
