I’ve been wanting to do a post like this for a while now so here u go! :D note: this is just my experience, it might not be the same for everyone Unilateral deafness is a rare type of hearing disability. It is also known as one-sided hearing loss or single-sided deafness (ssd). If u have unilateral deafness, this means u cannot hear in one of ur ears. Ur probably thinking, doesn’t that just mean u can’t hear things from one side? as a person living with unilateral deafness, I can confirm it does not. this condition can also change how ur brain functions. In some cases of unilateral deafness, like mine, it means one ear can’t pick up sound. instead, ur other ear has to pick up all the noise at once, which can cause extreme listening fatigue and may cause u to not be able to process where the sound is coming from and may distort sound. Listening fatigue occurs when there are large amounts of noise at once in one space of time. Symptoms of listening fatigue are like most normal symptoms of fatigue; u can experience dizziness, tiredness, nausea, become light headed, panic attacks and ur ear may stop picking up noise for a certain amount of time to recover from the overload. Things that can trigger this are: steel pans (my worst enemy), concerts, fireworks, ppl talking to u all at once (it doesn’t even have to be that loud or lots of ppl) and small crowded rooms. Always bring ear plugs or ear muffs to loud places. If u suffer from this condition and go to a restaurant, make sure it’s in a large open space so there r no echoes and that isn’t too warm so u don’t pass out if u do get overwhelmed. Make sure u r with someone u trust bc sometimes the noise can cause u to breakdown or have a panic attack, this happens to me a lot. If u r with someone who is unilaterally deaf, check up on them and ask if they can hear alright and if they need a moment to calm down. as I said before it can also change how ur brain functions. Sometimes u might be hyper focused and block at all other sounds but sometimes the only sounds u can hear r the ones u don’t want to. It’s just how u process the sounds. Ppl sometimes confuse unilateral deafness with adhd for this reason. make sure u sit near the front of the class in school and that the teachers r aware of ur condition so they can help u. Also make sure that if someone is talking to u, make sure that they r on the right side of u so u can hear them or make sure u can see their lips so u can lip read I would like to note that this is just my experience and some ppl may have it differently. If u think u have unilateral deafness tell a trusted adult or contact ur nearest special needs centre. I sounded like an ai thru that whole thing im sorry ToT thanks for listening!
