a medical discovery for deafness

[Kari24]

i think it would be nice for someone like me, i am hard of hearing. I have a 60 percent loss and it is a STRUGGLE to live life everyday. To hear some sounds and to not.
I just wish I'm either deaf or hearing. I live in both worlds

 

[ambrosia]

Wrong. You are beig audist by claiming that hearing is always better. WHY? Can you honestly honestly explain to me WHY hearing is better? You say so b/c you LOST it. I understand that 100%. But to me that's like saying being a white straight middle class male is better then being a black gay woman. It's not bad or good. It's just different.

Because being hoh/deaf separates you from people, and from music. It is really something that has to be experienced, it's like trying to explain how blue the sky is to a blind person. It's fine that you just love being deaf, but don't sit there and say hearing is "over rated", you don't know what you are talking about, you have never been hearing. You don't have to tear something down to build yourself up. And no I'm touching your ridiculous comparison of being hoh/deaf to being gay. Its dumb.

Here's an example though. I was just visiting with my family in NH. Quite a few times we drove places at night, when the car was dark. They're all talking and laughing, and I have no idea what they're talking or laughing about. Now, this is dark, even if this was a car full of deaf people it's not like you're going to be sitting in the back seat and be able to have a conversation with the driver, who has their back to you, in the dark. That is just one example of the ease of communication for the hearing, with anyone anywhere anytime. It would have been nice to sing along with the music if I could have heard it too.

 

[Lau2046]

But to me that's like saying being a white straight middle class male is better then being a black gay woman. It's not bad or good. It's just different.

I don't know why you have to constantly remind people that you're gay in every post. It seems to me you're not capable of replying without giving everyone a gay example to illustrate your point. We know you're gay, we've got it by now, we know you're gay...and hearing loss is not the same thing as sex with your partner. I don't see why you keep bringing it up to compare two unrelated subjects. Just because Ambrosia, or anyone else disagrees with you, doesn't mean we're "audists." It means we have a different view point, which everyone is entitled to.


Laura

 

[shel90]

Because being hoh/deaf separates you from people, and from music. It is really something that has to be experienced, it's like trying to explain how blue the sky is to a blind person. It's fine that you just love being deaf, but don't sit there and say hearing is "over rated", you don't know what you are talking about, you have never been hearing. You don't have to tear something down to build yourself up. And no I'm touching your ridiculous comparison of being hoh/deaf to being gay. Its dumb.

Here's an example though. I was just visiting with my family in NH. Quite a few times we drove places at night, when the car was dark. They're all talking and laughing, and I have no idea what they're talking or laughing about. Now, this is dark, even if this was a car full of deaf people it's not like you're going to be sitting in the back seat and be able to have a conversation with the driver, who has their back to you, in the dark. That is just one example of the ease of communication for the hearing, with anyone anywhere anytime. It would have been nice to sing along with the music if I could have heard it too.

Deaf people do have conversations with the driver. I have done it and my friends have done it.


There are many solutions to different situations. Deaf people have been able to do it for decades.

 

[Babyblue]

Wirelessly posted

i think it would be nice for someone like me, i am hard of hearing. I have a 60 percent loss and it is a STRUGGLE to live life everyday. To hear some sounds and to not.
I just wish I'm either deaf or hearing. I live in both worlds

I also live in both worlds. I work in a hearing enviroment and I have adjusted very well. I also have many deaf friends that welcomes and accepts me for just being "me" Sure, I get some people in both worlds that will turn their nose up at me. Those are the ones that I do not waste my time with. I have been called confuse, fence straddler etc... There is no law or rule stating you must choose one or another.

 

[LoveBlue]

Deaf people do have conversations with the driver. I have done it and my friends have done it.


There are many solutions to different situations. Deaf people have been able to do it for decades.

I think she was saying that it would be hard to have a conversation in a dark car, but I'm sure the deaf have ways around this.

 

[ambrosia]

I don't know why you have to constantly remind people that you're gay in every post. It seems to me you're not capable of replying without giving everyone a gay example to illustrate your point. We know you're gay, we've got it by now, we know you're gay...and hearing loss is not the same thing as sex with your partner. I don't see why you keep bringing it up to compare two unrelated subjects. Just because Ambrosia, or anyone else disagrees with you, doesn't mean we're "audists." It means we have a different view point, which everyone is entitled to.


Laura

Thanks! it actually having the state of my hearing being equated with someone's sexual preference weirds me out. I get embracing your deafness. But feeling that hearing is "over rated", when the person has never actually been hearing in the first place sounds like a sense of forced and false pride. that doesn't seem very embracing to me.

It'd be different if this was being said by someone like me, that is late deafened and has experienced being hearing, we can make a comparison of whether or not something is better. If someone has never eaten peas, they can't say carrots taste better than peas, because they don't know what peas taste like.

Somehow I don't think someone who went blind later in life would think being blind is better than being able to see. If they were saying that it would sound like a lot of bluster don't you think?

 

[ambrosia]

I think she was saying that it would be hard to have a conversation in a dark car, but I'm sure the deaf have ways around this.

That's exactly what I was trying to say, you need to be able to see to sign, driving around with the interior light on would be horrible.

The thought of trying to have a convo in sign with a deaf driver kind of scares the hell out of me I guess they have ways around it but I know I can't take my eyes off the road long enough to have a decent conversation while I'm driving. I don't sign, but I need the visuals too, I need to speech read, if it's dark my son it turn his cell phone on hold it up to his face to light up his lips, but he can't say much before I have to look back at the road.

 

[Babyblue]

Wirelessly posted

I don't know why you have to constantly remind people that you're gay in every post. It seems to me you're not capable of replying without giving everyone a gay example to illustrate your point. We know you're gay, we've got it by now, we know you're gay...and hearing loss is not the same thing as sex with your partner. I don't see why you keep bringing it up to compare two unrelated subjects. Just because Ambrosia, or anyone else disagrees with you, doesn't mean we're "audists." It means we have a different view point, which everyone is entitled to.


Laura

Thanks! it actually having the state of my hearing being equated with someone's sexual preference weirds me out. I get embracing your deafness. But feeling that hearing is "over rated", when the person has never actually been hearing in the first place sounds like a sense of forced and false pride. that doesn't seem very embracing to me.

It'd be different if this was being said by someone like me, that is late deafened and has experienced being hearing, we can make a comparison of whether or not something is better. If someone has never eaten peas, they can't say carrots taste better than peas, because they don't know what peas taste like.

Somehow I don't think someone who went blind later in life would think being blind is better than being able to see. If they were saying that it would sound like a lot of bluster don't you think?

I do have to agree with your post. A person can not claim to know what it is like when they never had it.

 

[shel90]

I think she was saying that it would be hard to have a conversation in a dark car, but I'm sure the deaf have ways around this.

hard yes, but not impossible. Just trying to clear that up.

 

[goodonya]

It is kind of interesting how feisty people are here.
Still I enjoy a good verbal joust.
Technology has made this joust possible. Would you throw away your opportunity to communicate on a broader scale? Many make that choice.
Myself I love it. I am by nature a very shy man, not willing at all to speak before a crowd. It is torture for me to do so to the point of disability. Yet I can get on here and type away speaking to a crowd.
The inner drive to communicate is huge and part of not just being human but for all of us mammals and if we look farther beyond ourselves- all of life.
Hearing or not hearing? Sound is the great medium of communication but all the senses are part of the great communication mix as well. With technology we get even more variables to that mix.
You are a nice bunch of people I am glad to hear you by reading your words.

 

[shel90]

If people wish they would be hearing, thats their right but to say that hearing people have it better than us is just really sad. We can still enjoy our lives without hearing. I know I am. Sure, there are times when it is hard but I believe there are solutions. I wont let society define my life based on how much I can or cant hear. I used to and it just made me very miserable.

 

[ambrosia]

If people wish they would be hearing, thats their right but to say that hearing people have it better than us is just really sad. We can still enjoy our lives without hearing. I know I am. Sure, there are times when it is hard but I believe there are solutions. I wont let society define my life based on how much I can or cant hear. I used to and it just made me very miserable.

That's not what I'm saying at all. It's not like... okay I can't hear shit, my life is over, everything is going suck, I might as well go slit my wrists in the bathtub, I'm never going to be happy.

But on the other hand, a person can and should be honest with themselves. Some things in life would certainly be easier if I could still hear. Trying to convince myself it doesn't matter and being deaf is better than hearing would just be lying to myself.

 

[Babyblue]

Wirelessly posted

If people wish they would be hearing, thats their right but to say that hearing people have it better than us is just really sad. We can still enjoy our lives without hearing. I know I am. Sure, there are times when it is hard but I believe there are solutions. I wont let society define my life based on how much I can or cant hear. I used to and it just made me very miserable.

That's not what I'm saying at all. It's not like... okay I can't hear shit, my life is over, everything is going suck, I might as well go slit my wrists in the bathtub, I'm never going to be happy.

But on the other hand, a person can and should be honest with themselves. Some things in life would certainly be easier if I could still hear. Trying to convince myself it doesn't matter and being deaf is better than hearing would just be lying to myself.

Shel, ILY but I do get her point. If you lost your vision tmw how would you adjust? Knowing you had vision before and knowing what it was like. Would you say it's Ok, being blind, it is my new "normal" for me. I don't miss seeing. I am "happy" with the way my vision is.
I do not know what it is to be fully hearing or to have full vision. i can tell you this... People can not tell others how they should feel until they walked in their shoes

 

[deafdyke]

Because being hoh/deaf separates you from people, and from music. It is really something that has to be experienced, it's like trying to explain how blue the sky is to a blind person. It's fine that you just love being deaf, but don't sit there and say hearing is "over rated", you don't know what you are talking about, you have never been hearing. You don't have to tear something down to build yourself up. And no I'm touching your ridiculous comparison of being hoh/deaf to being gay. Its dumb.

Here's an example though. I was just visiting with my family in NH. Quite a few times we drove places at night, when the car was dark. They're all talking and laughing, and I have no idea what they're talking or laughing about. Now, this is dark, even if this was a car full of deaf people it's not like you're going to be sitting in the back seat and be able to have a conversation with the driver, who has their back to you, in the dark. That is just one example of the ease of communication for the hearing, with anyone anywhere anytime. It would have been nice to sing along with the music if I could have heard it too.

Been reading too much Helen Keller have we? Indeed you are operating on this from the perspective of a formally hearing person. There are tons of ways to fully function WITHOUT hearing. Even in the dark, you can do tactile Signing........granted you can't talk with the driver if you're in the back seat but so what? That's not a huge loss..That is ONE tiny aspect. heck, hearing people cannot communicate through a clear glass wall for example. ......I realize that YOU feel like its a loss, but there are ALSO many many ways to adapt to and live with being dhh....Wanna know something? I have HEARING friends who have told me they wish they were dhh, so they could turn off their hearing.

 

[deafdyke]

And Lau, I do not constantly remind people that I'm gay in every and any post. I simply see a lot of the intersectionality between GLB stuff and Dhh/disability stuff...Heck my "second mom" who is hearing, a 'terp and gay reconizes a lot of the exact same corralations.
Even scholars in GLB and feminist theory have reconized a lot of the same intersecilationities.

 

[ambrosia]

Been reading too much Helen Keller have we? Indeed you are operating on this from the perspective of a formally hearing person. There are tons of ways to fully function WITHOUT hearing. Even in the dark, you can do tactile Signing........granted you can't talk with the driver if you're in the back seat but so what? That's not a huge loss..That is ONE tiny aspect. heck, hearing people cannot communicate through a clear glass wall for example. ......I realize that YOU feel like its a loss, but there are ALSO many many ways to adapt to and live with being dhh....Wanna know something? I have HEARING friends who have told me they wish they were dhh, so they could turn off their hearing.

exactly, that was one little example, just one, and there are so many many more......

oh yeah, and of course I'm speaking as a formally hearing person, someone with experience with actually being hearing, which you have not. So no you can't say that hearing is over rated, you have no experience as being a hearing. You blowing smoke up your own ass and trying to blow it up mine. You're drinking your own kool aid. But I'm sorry I'm not buying because I don't need to give myself a pep rally and tell myself how great it is to be deaf now, just to be able to deal with it.

Pay a little bit of attention to what I'm saying here. I'm not saying that hearing is absolutely necessary to function. You can function without a lot of things. But just because you can doesn't mean functioning with it is over rated. So yes if they could wave a magic wand over me and give me back my hearing why the hell wouldn't I want them to do that??? Nothing you can say, nothing, will convince me that I wouldn't be better off if large ways and small if I had my hearing back. That isn't an audist view that's a realistic one.

 

[deafdyke]

That's not what I'm saying at all. It's not like... okay I can't hear shit, my life is over, everything is going suck, I might as well go slit my wrists in the bathtub, I'm never going to be happy.

But on the other hand, a person can and should be honest with themselves. Some things in life would certainly be easier if I could still hear. Trying to convince myself it doesn't matter and being deaf is better than hearing would just be lying to myself.

ambrosia, agreed. That's the difference between late/aquirred disablty and stuff you've always lived with. I know some late deafened people who have totally embraced it, and gone "Deaf"
But people who for example went blind or became a wheelchair user or acquired a physical disability mourn and still wish they were in Orgional Condition? We get it. It's a lot harder to adapt to the loss of the abilty to walk, or see or hear, or whatever.......We realize that for you to have lost whatever abilty you formally had was REALLY hard, and that it would be SO much easier to see/walk/hear again.
But for those of us who WERE born that way.....we're in Origional Condition, and we've found lots and lots of ways to adapt to that.

 

[deafdyke]

Wirelessly posted



Shel, ILY but I do get her point. If you lost your vision tmw how would you adjust? Knowing you had vision before and knowing what it was like. Would you say it's Ok, being blind, it is my new "normal" for me. I don't miss seeing. I am "happy" with the way my vision is.
I do not know what it is to be fully hearing or to have full vision. i can tell you this... People can not tell others how they should feel until they walked in their shoes

Again that's the difference between aquirred disabilities vs always having had the condition.

 

[TXgolfer]

Yes I would do it in a heartbeat.

There seems to be a big misconception here that somehow gaining/regaining hearing changes you. No, it changes your life experience, that's it. It's really no different than eating a piece of chocolate.

1. Some people have never had chocolate. Of those some may like to try it someday based on what others have said about chocolate, whereas other couldn't care less.

2. Some people have had chocolate in the past, but not lately. Of those some would kill for a Hershey bar right now. Some wish they could have a Hershey bar but if they never do, they will live. Some never cared for chocolate so they won't waste money on it. And some can't have chocolate due to medical conditions so they don't even consider the option.

Regardless, the chocolate doesn't change anyone (except for diabetes maybe)......it merely changes their life experience. Chocolate is not necessarily better or worse.....just more desirable for some than others.

So, isn't silly for the person that doesn't want chocolate to complain that a person wants chocolate because they think chocolate is better?