People Who Have Gone Deaf Share Which Sounds They Miss Most

Just People

I'm losing my hearing slowly - right now I just miss when I didn't have to ask people to repeat themselves so often. And I'm sad that a lot of times if I can't make out what was said the third time I just give up and nod like I did.

billbapapa

Tweeting

Birds.
My cat meowing to be let in.
The kettle going off when its boiled.
Most music.
Being able to go to the movies.

magnumthepi

One-Two Step

I'm deaf in my right ear though. I miss not having to do a weird twostep and dance around somebody to make sure I'm on the side I can hear them, and then explain to people who don't know why I want that side facing them. Or walking with my head turned so I can hear them whilst trying not to walk into anything. Worse when people try to whisper in my ear and I have to turn my head at close proximity and risk rubbing noses with them.

Kittykatjs

A Second Chance

I had hearing, then gradually lost it, and it was restored by a cochlear implant. So I got a second chance!

What I really missed was "normal" conversation. Being able to talk with someone without asking a zillion times what they said, or struggling to hear every other word and then put the parts together. Family dinners were really hard. I could hear the person across from me, but everything else was a blur. People would laugh and I wouldn't get the joke.

That's all changed!

Some of the more fun things I've rediscovered: my Maine Coon cats purring - very loud and quite often. The quiet rumble of distant thunder. My fridge has an alarm when the door is left open.

Grateful? Hell yeah.

DancesWithElectrons

Give And Take

I miss being able to hear my daughter's laugh.

I definitely don't miss the crying though.

QwrtyMan213

Feeling Left Out

I went to watch Avengers End Game on the weekend, and I remember distinctly being able to hear less and less with every Marvel movie really. I genuinely heard about 10% of the entire movie dialogue. The cinema was laughing at scenes and I had no idea what happened. All the discussions everyone had after taught me more about the movie than what I had even watched. It was incredibly frustrating, about an hour in I just wanted to go home and cry from trying so hard to actively hear and not hearing anything at all, and it gets so emotionally draining like that most days, being with friends and not hearing anything or always having to ask to repeat and always just being behind and feeling stupid.

Don't ruin your hearing, it is an incredibly precious and fragile thing.

the_pigeon_overlord

As We Go On

I'm slowly losing my hearing, I miss not having to hold the remote in my hand to turn up/down the volume while my SO is sleeping. When there's just talking I have to turn it up, then action scenes, music and background noise is too loud so I have to turn it back down. I turned the subtitles on a few months ago and it's changed my life!

I miss not having to say "I can't hear you, you need to yell at me". Like when I'm doing dishes, I can't hear someone who's standing next to me talking normally.

My miss the feeling of clear ears. Mine constantly feel like I need to pop them. Luckily I live on a mountain so once in a while when I'm going down the mountain one of my ears will give a good pop and feels better for a little while.

I miss not hearing my voice echoed in my head. If you don't know what I mean, put your fingers in your ears and talk.

It's all around sh*tty, but I've accepted my fate.

caitejane310

A Far-A-Way Talk

I can sorta still hear (Cochlear) but I lost my hearing back when I was 5...in 1986. I remember talking on the landline phones at the time and while I could clearly hear the person, they sounded far away. That's what I remember. I wonder if landline phones sound like that today still.

br0b1wan

Lost My Balance

My mom has sudden neural sensory hearing loss in both ears. Luckily the cochlear implants worked. However, music does not sound the same at all. She loves live music and always played CDs at home. She is very sad about how music sounds. She can only listen to music she knows because her brain sort of fills in the gaps. But any new music just sounds weird to her. Losing her hearing changed her life. Coincidentally, since hearing loss is an inner ear problem, she doesn't drink anymore. She says it already feels like she's had a margarita, 24/7.

jloppnow138

Back To The Birds

Not deaf but hearing-impaired. I love walking in the woods, and greatly miss the sound of birds chirping. The woods used to sound full of life. Now I can't hear them at all for the most part, and just listen to one of those "Sounds of Nature" CD's of bird song at high volume.

Scientists are about to start testing a drug that has successfully regrown ear hair cells in mice, so I'm hopeful that 10 years from now that I'll be able to hear again.

MetricT