Wednesday, October 28, 2009

huh?

I've always had trouble making out what people are saying in noisy places. I've taken hearing tests over the years, and according to them my hearing is fine, and yet, I can be with a group of people in a restaurant, and they're all having a conversation and seem to be hearing each other just fine, and I have no idea what anyone is saying, except, if I'm lucky, the person right next to me.

I finally got around to googling the problem, and found a discussion of it that proves I am not alone. From reading what people say it seems I may have Central Auditory Processing Disorder. This makes sense; my theory was, since my hearing is fine that the problem must be the way my brain was dealing with the information.

It looks like there are some treatments for CAPD, all of which seem to involve listening to something or other many many times for weeks or months. Unfortunately these seem to be treatments for children; I haven't come across anything on treatment for adults. Some people just learn to lip read, which is something I've considered. It's just a matter of forcing myself to work on it.

This is the second problem I have that almost no one else has, the other being my difficulty remembering faces. It just seems that there's something off with my brain. Unfortunately, both of these issues make socializing more difficult, which may be why I was always a bit of a loner: perhaps biology is destiny.

3 comments:

  1. I have this hearing issue too. I can't hear what people are saying if there's loud music playing, for example.

    So, when i go out dancing, I have a hard time hearing what anyone is saying too. It's one of the big reasons I never went to clubs and I feel lost at big parties and events.

    Nice to know there's a reason, I guess.

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  2. Ah Charles, but you do very well in a group... now just learn to read the lips and there is what my dad does - smiles and nods :-).

    Cheers,
    Stephanie

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  3. Smiling and nodding works really well until someone asks you a question or tells you to do something. And the problem is, sometimes I can't tell if that's happening. But the truth is I've had many conversations where I have smiled and nodded and laughed at the appropriate time and had no real idea what conversation I was having.

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