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Hearing problems and Aspies

-SN

-SN

Not following the crowd is good but lonely
Hello all

I was curious to know how many of you have hearing problems?

I wear hearing aids for certain tones but can hear without them, it is just not very clear.
I recall my therapist mentioning that many Aspies she helps have hearing loss.

I am picking up Kirkland brand hearing aids tomorrow, to try out for the first time. If anyone is interested in them, feel free to ask.

Thanks!
 
Hearing is too acute. I can hear a pin drop. I hear the clock tick three rooms away and had to take the batteries out.
 
Wow... people pay a lot of money just to get close to that. A mute button would be nice !
 
Excellent hearing here!

Pick up the smallest of sounds, which is most frustrating and hear, at night, the low hum of vehicles or low flying aircraft and drives me up the wall ( not literally) :p
 
Interesting. My wife has that issue, makes it hard to fall and stay asleep. We play loud white noise

I can sleep through anything
 
My husband who's also an aspie has a slight amount of hearing loss, possibly from playing and listening to very loud guitar and bands most of his life. He would have been one of those people who sat so close to amplifiers and speakers at concerts, that his ears would ring for days afterwards. My hearing is different, as I have more difficulty with low pitched sound than high pitched, I can barely hear a high-pitched dog whistle, which gives me a headache.
 
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Bolletje said:
I have excellent hearing, I just take a little longer processing what I hear.
Click to expand...

That's the exact issue I have. Sometimes people think I have a hearing problem because I'll say "What?" frequently and ask people to repeat themselves, but honestly I just do it to buy myself more time to process what they're saying. I feel bad doing it sometimes, but it's not as bad as having to take a long pause after someone says sometime where they just stare at you like 'why are you not answering?....'
 
I know just what you mean... like give me a chance to think for a sec. ha
 
That's a very interesting question, I believe I can hear okay and am very sensitive to certain sounds, but I often don't seem to process what I hear, E.g. a friend will talk and amongst other noises I don't always process what he says and he then accuses me of not listening, or being deaf, this happens a lot and I also get told I ignore people as I don't always automatically pick up that someone is talking to me or immediately process what they're saying. I am also not able to control the level of my voice, often being told that I am shouting when to myself I sound perfectly normal, but again this is a common aspie trait even though again some people say I might have hearing difficulties.

It's difficult to say whether you actually have a physical hearing issue (E.g. a problem with your ears) and since you can actually hear these frequencies without a hearing aid I'm really not sure. I'm certainly not qualified or experienced enough to make any sort of medical assessment, but it's very possible that at least some of your hearing issues are related to your brain not processing the sounds as easily and quickly as an average NT person whether you have an actual issue with your ears or not. Perhaps you could seek a second professional opinion and I'd be really interested to hear any future updates. Best of luck!

Update: I've just had another thought. If you were given a hearing aid that simply amplified all sound you would expect it to be useless in helping aspies who can physically hear properly, but have issues processing sounds, however does this mean that hearing aids can never help in this situation? Well I'm open minded and perhaps a specialist hearing aid that enhances certain sounds or frequencies could help, E.g. it could enhance dialogue while attempting to reduce other noises. In other words, even if you don't have a physical hearing problem, your specialised hearing aid may possibly still help.
 
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Thanks for the reply. I have been tested many times and definitely have loss. The graph should be a straight line and mine looks like the stock market. Ha.

I was just curious about others and if they also have issues with their hearing.
 
I'm in the same boat as Mia's husband, for the same reason. I've damaged my hearing from playing in bands and guitar playing and going to concerts. Once I found a context that I enjoyed loud noises in I couldn't get enough, at least of a while.
 
I have very sensitive hearing and certain sounds cause me physical pain. I cannot tolerate a concert, being in a plane, or using power tools and I always have to use hearing protection. Ticking clocks, or any other regularly occuring sounds, sound so loud to me. I have a family history of ear problems, but that was a physical condition, and, while I am more prone to ear infections than other people, I have not suffered hearing loss, probably because I always protect my ears.

I have heard of aspies having hearing loss though. Maybe it's one of those sensory issues: either we sense something too much or not enough.
 
I have excellent hearing in one ear, and "better than excellent" in the other; I have some minor hearing loss in the "just excellent" ear. Now, this comes at a price: because I hear too many sounds, I have a very hard time filtering out unnecessary sounds, and this discrimination issue means I do, like others here, take longer processing what's said to me, and as a result, people think my hearing is bad. I can have you repeat the same thing 3 times, and still not understand. I use a lot of deduction based on context, but it's not fool proof. I didn't realize this was not normal until quite recently, I thought it worked in a similar way for everybody.
I've saved you a rant on misophonia, but nearly every sound is noise to me, and noise hurts :(

Those who posted here with good hearing/trouble processing info might want to look up Central Auditory Processing Disorder; most of the information available in English deals with kids, but that's kind of like with autism, nyways, right?
 
-SN said:
Thanks for the reply. I have been tested many times and definitely have loss. The graph should be a straight line and mine looks like the stock market. Ha.

I was just curious about others and if they also have issues with their hearing.
Click to expand...
Well people have been telling me I have hearing problems for years which I have put down entirely to aspies not processing sounds as quickly, especially when I'm extra sensitive to some sounds, but after reading about your story and the possibility that aspies could be more prone to actual hearing difficulties, I will get my physical hearing checked properly too just in case. Thanks!
 
I had perfect hearing in both ears. Then, a long time ago, a not nice person handed me an already lit firecracker as a joke.
 
I use hearing aids. They are annoying for me though, so I only use them when around people so I know what’s going on.
 
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