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Hearing Loss: Come introduce yourself and connect with others
Hearing Loss | Last Active: 4 days ago | Replies (1456)Comment receiving replies
Hi, my name is Michelle. I have a congenital bilateral sensorineural hearing loss which has just been upgraded (downgraded ?) from mild/moderate to moderate/severe. I wore aids intermittently as a child and now that I'm 49, I'm about to get a new pair. This was prompted by my noted (and scary!) cognitive decline. I'm currently being tested by a neuropsychologist on my mental processing abilities, which is complicated by the possibility that I also have undiagnosed ADHD. I'm very much interested in self-advocacy and strategies for hearing impaired people to thrive in the workforce.
Replies to "Hi, my name is Michelle. I have a congenital bilateral sensorineural hearing loss which has just..."
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Welcome to Mayo Connect Michelle. You will be amazed at how much you will learn from other people who truly 'get it' about hearing loss. Hopefully your new hearing aids will be life changing for you. I encourage you to see if there's an HLAA chapter in your area of the country. Those chapters bring people together to discuss how hearing loss affects their lives. Untreated hearing loss can lead to what appears to be cognitive decline, when much of it relates to cognitive overload. We have to work so hard to hear in some settings that our brains just decide to tune out because we're exhausted. That makes people think we can't think.
My progressive sensorineural hearing loss was diagnosed when I was in my early 20s. By the time I was in my mid 30s I felt helpless. I had been told that hearing aids didn't work well, so I didn't get them. Finally did and it made a big difference for me. Five years later I learned about HLAA. The organization that let me know I wasn't alone because it put me in touch with others. I'll be interested to know if your new hearing aids have telecoils built in, and if your provider explained what they can do for you. Keep us posted on your progress.