Poll PTSD And Hearing Problems

[Aribear]

Wow! I never thought about this. I have CAPD. My hearing is fine, but I have 60% loss of function as far as piecing things together. I also have the expressive portion that causes difficulty FINDING words to say as well.

As far as it contributing to my PTSD, some of the abuse happened when/because I didn't understand things said, so the CAPD is intertwined with pieces of the trauma. I was not diagnosed as a child, and was often "punished" for things stemming from not putting things together correctly and eventually mocked and hit for not producing the right words right away. I think it caused a lot of frustration for my father and was part of the initial reason I was singled out. Not understanding or misunderstanding puts me into fight or flight mode and causes massive anxiety. I'm working on it, but it still does. Also, I've noticed that when I am anxious or having a hard time, my ability to understand spoken language decreases, so they kind of feed in on each other.

Luckily I have a friend now who can sort of decipher what I mean through gestures when I have trouble word finding, so that part is less of an issue now that I am more comfortable with it.

 

[who am i kim]

Okay I thought cool post but most of you are not deaf compared to me. (Sorry I just get frustrated with people who say they have a hearing lost but find out that theirs is mild compared to mine, it is hard having CPSTD and being deaf) I have lived my whole life with severe to profound hearing lost. My mother had Rubella when I was born. No hearing in the left ear and severe lost in the right.

I was brought up in what they call Main Stream Schooling not a deaf school. My mother also did not like have a disabled child and gave me no support of any kind regarding my deafness. I empathize with the Tinnitus suffers and I am lucky that I do not have to deal with that. I do not intentional what to cause any hurt with this post, but this subject is close to my trauma. there is more too my story and if any one wants ask anything pls feel free too

Oh if this is not an appropriate post feel free to delete having CPSTD i can inadvertently do the wrong thing

 

[who am i kim]

Oh no I forgot to add my hearing get worse when stressed but I take out my hearing aid then as noise get too much for me to handle.

 

[Aribear]

Kim, I am very sorry that your deafness resulted in so much pain for you and I am sorry for your frustration... However, what you said sort of struck a nerve with me. The fact that I am NOT deaf, but have significant hearing problems was a big contributor to my trauma. People around me thought I should "just be normal" or I shouldn't have any problems because I could physically hear. I was harmed at home because of incidences in school where the teacher thought I was being defiant but I just didn't understand what I "heard".

You are right that it isn't the same... you have faced very different challenges than I have. Part of this site is about not judging what other people go through compared to ourselves or deciding who had it worse. Whether a car isn't running because of a bad battery, the alternator, or the ignition switch, it still isn't working. You can say one situation is worse than another, but the bottom line is in any case, the car won't start. Same for hearing problems. The glitch can be in different parts of the ear or in the brain circuitry, but it still causes trouble.

 

[who am i kim]

Aribear have I upset you by saying your not deaf because you sound to me that you are?? I can hear in my right ear only (severe/moderate) but need a hearing to be able to hear with in the world. I spent the first 12 years of my life with out one. Left is Deaf (profound to severe). Could you tell me what you have got hearing wise left/right ear. School was one of my biggest challenges in life and the trauma it brought. I also find it that not many people talk about psychological abuse and i feel lonely with my type of PTSD. Could also just me and my mind.

 

[ericaboo]

I have reduced hearing in both ears due to infections, chicken pox and playing in loud amplified bands.

I don't want/can't afford hearing aids (yet), but I am able to utilize the hearing I have, along with lip reading to understand 99% of what is being said.

It was hard to be accepted by completely deaf friends, but it's been one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had. I just wish I could learn sign language better so I could communicate more intimately with my friends with severe impairment.

 

[who am i kim]

Ericaboo takes time to learn sign language, I can finger spell but it needs brushing up. I have not had contact with deaf people and to them being oral spoken I would be afraid of not being accepted. Here in
Australia we have Ausland for sign language. I do not know what country you live in.

 

[Tanishq]

My right ear full functioning and can pick any kind of voice. It is just the left ear which can't work properly. I think being suppressed so long, not taken care of myself when I was child and unbalanced emotional health did lots of damage to left ear and lost the confidence.

Left ear is not completely dead, just can't pick up the lower tones. Only higher tones are allowed.

My parents didn't help me. In fact my dad used to say in anger, he will hit so hard that I will loss both ears. He used to hit on ears,too. I used to feel lot of pain.

 

[einzelganger]

I answered yes. Mine is from damage to my ear drums. My ear drums were ruptured many times due to my father "boxing" my ears. My ears would bleed for several minutes. My right ear has more damage and I can barely hear out of it now as I have gotten older. Also like others, I lost some hearing in the military. I worked on jet aircraft.

I'm also a hyper-thinker plus I constantly have audio flashbacks of pain-induced screaming (animals and people). A lot of times, when someone talks to I can't understand them because when they speak they are competing with my own thoughts and the screaming I hear in my head.

 

[Tanishq]

I'm also a hyper-thinker

I have that,too.

I am sorry to hear what you had to go through.

 

[Changing4Best]

I had many ear infections as a kid too.

These days, I have some hearing loss that has to do with missing some consonants. I do read lips to some degree, I think, but I am not often consious of doing so. I'm guessing that my mind also does some extra work to figure out that which I have missed. Sometimes I let it go, if it does not seem important; other times I ask the person to repeat what they said, or I'll repeat half the sentence and then add that I did not hear the rest. Folks are usually pretty good about helping me with this, thankfully.

I also have had some kind of ear drainage since 1985 in my left ear. No doctor has ever been able to cure it, no matter what kind of ear drops I am prescribed.

Also, in reading the above replies, after I answered the poll, I'd like to add that it seems highly likely that I had my ears boxed by my abuser/ molester too. In reading that one of you had experienced this, I could almost recall it, it seems half real. I would certainly not be surprised if this were the case. My abuser hit me often and in many places, I seem to recall. All of this was early life, before I was 6 yrs old or so, so it is sketchy.

 

[Aribear]

Hi:)
Kim - I wasn't that upset, but just felt like you were sort of calling all hearing problems that were not deafness less severe. I hear fine - in fact my ears are hypersensitive to sound. The thing is that what they pick up doesn't process as words or sounds I recognize most of the time. Like someone will say "Hi, how are you this morning?" and it will sound to me like "ky How are hgboirnin". I have to rely on cues like tone, gestures and lipreading to figure out what was said. Sometimes I can catch words and figure what was said based on that, but it is one big sound jigsaw puzzle with little way to figure out where the pieces go. So my ears pick up sound, but the connections that do things with the sound are faulty. Think of it like blurry vision where you can see colors of things and some basic shapes but can't really SEE anything even though your eyes pick up a lot.

As a side note, I also can't distinguish sneezes from other sounds. I'll say "bless you" to someone and find out they hiccuped! lol.