Do any of yall have problems with hearing?

Post Reply New Topic

This is what I was thinking when I read the first post. I definitely have problems with this & it goes both ways. If I am focused on something I will often not hear things that I should. On the other hand if things are too loud (such as walking past an extremely loud band) I will start to stumble & be otherwise clumsy. The sound is so loud it distracts my brain from being able to walk straight & balanced. If seen that's when I say; "My autism is showing"

I have near perfect hearing, although problems with auditory proccessing.

For example, I can hear the tv when it is at it's lowest volume level...when I was younger I claimed to be able to hear it when the sound was muted.

If someone speaks to me, though, I often hear what they say. The sounds and the amount of syllables in each word are clear...but it takes me a few seconds to "decypher" what was said and connect meaning to it. I often ask people to repeat things many times and am accused of being deaf on an almost daily basis.

I am exactly like this when there is a bit of background noise. Sometimes I can even see a picture of the odd word in my head, whether it is the correct one or not I don't know, but it all becomes like tangled wool.

I never realised I had this problem until last year when we were all dining out as a family and I was the only one who could not hear the waitress. This has been happening for years and I even went to get a hearing test done at the hospital, nothing was found to be wrong with my ears or hearing.

Now I am careful to pick quieter times of day to dine out or meet friends, to try and go somewhere where there is less background noise and fewer people. People can become really noisy once they have had a few drinks or finished eating and begin to talk.

I'm almost ecactly the same way. People will say something and I'll be like "Huh?" then just a few seconds later, as they're repeating what they just said, I get it and sometimes I'll start talking before they finish, just so they know that I did actualy hear what they said after all.

Also, I'm the same way with tv, there is audible speach when the tv in on but muted. I can't usualy make anything out except for S's and a few other hard consenants, but I can definitly hear something when others say "but it's muted!?!." However, dispite the fact that I can hear at the lowest level, I usualy turn the tv up full blast (drives my partner crazy, especialy when he's trying to use the computer or sleep) so that I can better understand what's being said.

YES! OMG YES!

Wow... I learn new things about myself every day on this board. I thought this was just me.

I'm forever being asked if I'm deaf, and my poor long-suffering boyfriend gets so sick of repeating himself to me. My hearing is near-perfect (I've been known to chase down electrical goods for half an hour at a time to find the source of the high-pitched frequency nobody else can hear, and yes, muted TV definitely still has sound!). The problem is I lag in processing what they're saying. Like, I hear the words, I hear the sounds, I hear it all perfectly. I just don't register it, it takes me a few moments to actually click what they're saying. So although I hear it, I don't understand it right away. Often a conversation with my bf will be like
Him: Blablabla
Me: Sorry?
Him: I just told you, bla -
Me: - Oh right! Yeah ok, so... -
Him: - blabla... if you heard it the first time why do you make me repeat myself?!

Poor dear. It's always worse on the phone too; phones do something to my hearing and I'm worse than ever in the deciphering thing then.

I also find that if someone's talking to me for longer than a sentence or two I kinda tune out and their voice and words became garbled and like they're speaking another language, then I tune back in again and it all clicks into place. By that time I've totally missed what they've said and usually just pretend to know. I do it a lot at work when my boss is explaining things to me - I find the easiest way to overcome it is to kinda summarise the key points I hear in my mind, and then relay them back to him like "Ok, so what I need to do is just this, this and this, right?" and he'll usually say "Yeah, exactly, and when you do this just make sure you do this too, cool?".

I really did just think this was me being blonde or silly or slow. I had no idea there was a name for it or that other people found the same thing... and I really didn't think about it being connected to the AS. Though it doesn't surprise me; everything I do like this usually turns out to be a part of the Aspergers!!

Will have to talk to the boyfriend about this later and explain it to him; he's really understanding about the Asperger's and various things I do, so this'll just be another one - at least he'll know why I have to get him to repeat things!!

I've had a hearing problem for years, much like you all have described, especially in loud places (lots of background noise.) In 2000, I had my hearing checked and was told that I have nerve damage in my ears (especially my right ear), which is due to my father using an industrial sized compressor for car repair in the basement of our house, which made very high pitched noises (it was very painful to listen to and hurt my ears a lot). Anyway, the nerve damage causes me to miss sounds or syllables every once in a while and so, I have to ask people what they've said or guess (you wouldn't believe the things that I hear from people ) Anyway, it is due to a sometimes paralysis of the bones in the ear, which can be relieved from surgery. Mine wasn't bad enough to have the surgery to correct it, so I waited and just had my ears/hearing checked a couple of weeks ago by another ENT doctor (I moved to another state) and he confirmed the same problem, but again, I can't get the surgery because my hearing, though bad, isn't quite bad enough and hearing aids won't help. I feel like my hearing is terrible, and feel annoyed when I have to ask people to repeat themselves, plus, I do a lot of lip reading, which doesn't help my inability to see/understand other's facial expressions (a near impossible task.) The ENT said that I have a conductivity issue in my ears, which doesn't allow me to move the sounds to my brain to figure out what is being said. So, I'll be going back yearly now to see when it gets bad enough to have corrective surgery (oh, fun.)

I'm glad to hear that others have experienced something sort of similar, though I'm sorry we have to deal with it at all.

I have that (problems with auditory processing), but even worse... I have a hearing loss of about 75% in one ear and 50% in the other. I got a bad ear infection as a baby and it wasn't properly treated.

nah, they mostly get bitchy. the idea that i might be hearing impaired never crosses their minds.

eta: that is to say, they consider it a personality flaw. frequently even if they know i'm hearing impaired.