Hearing Loss

Our book discusses the sounds of silence, which is deafness. The book states that deafness may lead to feelings of paranoia and a sense that people are talking about them. (121) I can’t completely relate to someone being totally death in both ears, but I can describe the feeling of being 50% death in one ear. About six months ago, I was having many problems with my left ear along with decreased hearing loss to the point that I couldn’t even talk on the phone using my left ear (very scary). After seeing a specialist, I was diagnosed with having cholesteatoma’s. In simple terms, cholesteatoma is basically just a cyst growing inside my ear drum. Thankfully, the problem could be corrected with surgery, but I lost 50% of hearing in my ear. This has caused me to adjust my life due to the decreased hearing loss. I can completely relate to the word “paranoia”. Almost everyday I experience paranoia because if someone is talking to me on my left side and I have to ask them several time to repeat what they say. This makes me wonder if they think I’m a complete moron! I have learned to adjust with my decreased hearing loss by making sure I speak with people on my right side or by sitting closer to the teacher when in school.