I want to be 100% deaf, how about you?

[Finished]

I have diagonsed myself with Misophonia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misophonia

Certain sounds almost send me into a panic especially when they continue to occur. Dogs barking is at the top of the list. It's not the ruff, ruff playing around barking. It's the howling, screaming barking saying I need help or I want attention. My body naturally reacts to that as if there is some emergency that needs to be taken care of. But, oddly, babies cry and kids screaming doesn't bother me at all. I can simply tune them right out. I guess that's how it is with dogs for most people because it doesn't seem to bother them. Some other things that send me into a panic are loud stereos, people yelling and/or talking excessively loud. I do not like noise at all. But, general noise is only irritating. I can usually tune it out when I'm concentrating on something else.

I have tried wearing ear plugs along with the highest rating ear muffs I can get. But, the dogs barking easily cuts right through all of that. This neighborhood has changed big time and noise is the accepted normal. It seems like gas powered leaf blowers go all day long because most people are too lazy to take care of their own yards any more. This isn't the noisest neighborhood either. I picked this neighborhood because it used to be extremely quite. I do not think quite exists any more though.

Now, I also have tinnitus pretty bad. My ears always ring quite loud and then there's loud popping and cracking sounds too. I am so tired off all the noise it is making me crazier. I really feel like I want to cut my damn ears off and fill up the hole with something.

So, I looked into surgically becoming deaf. It's an easy proceedure. But, all the ringing and buzzing already in my ear will probably become even worse. Also, from what I read, my balance will be significantly effected. Also low frequency sounds like the damn car stereos will still rattle one's skull, which gets translated into sound.

Do any of you think you have Misophonia? What sounds send you into a panic? Have you found any solutions?

 

[Colster]

Never heard of this!

No seriously, I haven't. I do however wear hearing aids, and have since turning 40, although have actually needed them since birth. Naturally I have about 10℅ range, missing the top end. Certain letters I just cannot hear unassisted. So like in sex, I just hear the "Eee"

Personally, I cannot imagine choosing to be deaf. Yet, I do enjoy days without the hearing aids. The silence is lovely. I suppose the nearest I've had to what you described was during the early stages of my assisted hearing. They tuned these things to give me a normal range. Only, after 40 years of not hearing properly, my body just couldn't cope with the new sounds. If someone dropped a pencil i onto a table, it was like a punch to the side of my head.

Fortunately, those days are over. It did take a few years, though. I also didn't know just how ******* noisy rain is. Mum & Dad can't explain why I never got hearing aids as a kid. It does annoy me, as I wonder what I missed at school, and much more I might have known. Reckon they just didn't want the stigma themselves. Anyhow, that and being a short-arse, just shaped me into the humorous little bastard, that I am.

They say that tinnitus is one of those weird things, people hear alsorts of different things, from high pitched noises, to bacon being fried. Likewise, it was also claimed that the noise you hear, is actually the last time you hear that specific sound, as it's supposed to part of your range dying. I'm not so sure.

I couldn't go fully deaf, least not by choice. I'd miss big V8 sounds, BBC Radio 4, the ocean, oh and that noise women fake, just before your life starts to get expensive.

 

[SecondStarTotheRight]

Oh do I know how it feels. I'm hypersensitive to noise of all kinds. Hyperacusis. Noises can cause anxiety, stress. I'm always hearing things (real sounds) others can't seem to make out. I have to gear myself up to go in crowded places. It's so important that it's quiet where I live.
Incessantly barking dogs drive me over the edge. I don't get mad at the dogs, just their idiot owners. Sudden noises, doors slamming, music blaring without end... I could make a long list.
I used to travel a lot more. Can't even sleep in hotels. Every time someone opens or shuts a door...
Also, people who talk constantly.
Snowmobiles, noisy toys.

My dad was drawn to the audiology field because of his own noise sensitivity. But with that, he had an unusual ear for music. Never learned how to read music but he was a jazz pianist and could hear any tune and replicate it, then put his own spin on it. He and my mom ran a camp for the deaf and hearing impaired. I got along well with the kids, people who couldn't hear and would mostly sign. I don't know why, other than feelings of isolation around others, but we understood each other.
Being deaf is isolating. Apparently, more than being blind.

I've tried different things to lessen the sensitivity to sound, and still keep going back to white noise. I have an excellent machine. Meadow sounds, train, rain. There are a lot of cheap machines out there that just sound rickety.
Meditation helps. Staying calm is crucial.
A lot of it is trial and error because everyone's different.
I also use noise cancellation headphones. Once in a while, allergy medicine works. I'm not allergic to anything that I know of but have heard that some people are triggered by seasonal and barometric changes, so it might not hurt to try.

 

[user 188522]

I, too, have never heard of this. I have a horrible reaction to my cell phone ringing and text messages. My anxiety level soars; I feel like the world is trying to invade my space. My solution is to hide my phone.

 

[Colster]

I, too, have never heard of this. I have a horrible reaction to my cell phone ringing and text messages. My anxiety level soars; I feel like the world is trying to invade my space. My solution is to hide my phone.

I regularly have my phone set to Do Not Disturb. Not that I get calls, etc. Weirdly, it does feel like an invasion of space.

 

[roses4all]

My dad was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, late in his life (after some of the grandchildren). Lots of sounds bothered him, including music. He only liked he crooners. Everything else was noise. I figure I inherited some ot that.

The worst for me was the fire alarm in primary school. The teachers let me stay outside another 20 min or until I felt better after everyone else went back inside. Why couldn't they have let me go outside before the damn drill? My mom had a very big, very loud vacuum. I didn't like that either. (I have a very small one and only have one carpet.) Alarm clocks drive me crazy... the bells on the old ones, and the buzz of the clock radios. I use my old cell phone. It has ONE non-obtrusive sound. It is horrible to start the day after being jarred by an alarm.

I know someone who sleeps with a fan for white noise.

Decades ago, I had the same problem with gas stations... you could smell the gas blocks away. I used to beg my dad to drop me off a couple of blocks away and to come and pick me up after. He always refused. It was really hard to hold my breath that long.

I have noise cancellation head phones too. The ones used in a wood shop. I use them when I need to concentrate and I can't block out sounds around me.

I keep my cell phone on vibrate. When I am out, I keep it in my front jeans pocket. It doesn't bother me to feel vibration on my hip. At home, it is usually on vibrate too. I check the call screen from time to time, and call people back. Some people don't like it. But I don't like to have my silence invaded. I have anxiety now... so silence is golden.

 

[ewomack]

I think I have the opposite of misophonia - sounds don't get to me at all. I shouldn't have any hearing left whatsoever since I spent a good chunk of my younger years playing in bands in small concrete rooms with the amps cranked up to 11 and the drums crashing loudly only a foot or two away. Seriously, I'm surprised that I can hear anything at all. I had my hearing checked in the relatively recent past and they deemed my hearing as "normal." I don't know how I did that. I completely abused my ears. Maybe my ears haven't rebelled yet? In any case, I don't have problems with sounds bothering me. I wonder if it comes from all of the meditation I did not too long ago. The type I practiced involved filtering out the world in a way that you just realize you're reacting, but you don't really react, or at least over time you stop reacting. Now I can focus a lot better. The bird squawks don't bother me, sudden loud traffic doesn't bother me, neighbors falling out of bed upstairs doesn't bother me, etc. It took some practice, some that not everyone would find pleasant, but it did seem to work. That's my best guess.

 

[Azariah]

but Music...

 

[Finished]

but Music...

I would miss some sounds and some songs. But, sound for me really doesn't do much. It's far more of an aggrivation that angers me.

 

[user 188522]

I have a bird that sits on my shoulder all day while squeaking in my ear. My ear rings constantly. I guess I have gone full pirate.

 

[Finished]

Finding a doctor to make you deaf is just about impossible. However, there may by some drops that can temporarily paralyze the ear drum maybe? I sure wish the creator would have given us all a damn Mute button on the side of our heads!

 

[Finished]

Well, I think the real issue is the way ears / nerves are setup. Now I believe I'm starting to realize why doctors back away. First, my balance is fine. I do not want that to change. Most of the ENT sugeons, as far as I can gather, don't have the capabilities to only section the Cochlear(hearing) nerve without messing up the Vestibular(balance) never as they are combined together shortly from the Cochlea. The nerves are bascially like a bundle of wires. I want / need only the Cochlear nerve to be cut. That's tricky. However, it has been done for some people with severe Tinnitus. Supposidely all hearing, including the Tinnitus will go away. That is exactly what I want done.

So, after all this Corona Virus thing is done I will be trying to find an ENT sugeon to do that for me. Since I don't have insurance it will be interesting to see how much this will cost me? What I would like to do is just walk into an ENT office and ask how much would it cost for a dual ear Cochlear nerve section.

They will give me a dumb look and ask if I know what that is and then say it depends. They ask what is your diagnosis? Should I tell them the truth? With all my ear problems noise is driving me to the point that killing people and blowing **** up in order to silence them is really starting to seem like a viable solution to me now.

I really don't want to go through all the BS to prove that, that is really what I want. And then how do I really know if the doctor is a good surgeon? You know good enough not to just section the entire Cochlear nerve bundle.