I am 32 and have had considerable hearing loss for awhile due to loud cars, having a collector from a car back fire in my ear, loud car audio systems, concerts and thinking it was cool in my younger years that shooting with hearing protection was lame (50 BMG pistols and lots of rifles), explosions and did I mentions lots of guns with little to no hearing protection.  I use double now and when I go to concerts I am the guy with ear plugs in to preserve what I have left.

Now I am very tone deaf higher tones are pretty much non existence to me so lots of female voices are hard to hear and ring tones are all but useless most times.  My left ear I hear a lot of ringing sometimes for hours at a time, I can hear my pulse in my left ear, and my right seems to be there some but not great.

My question is what do you guys use to help hear.  I have finally got to the point where I want to hear but not have gigantic hear aids I would rather just be deaf.

Any help or advice is welcome and yes you guys can make fun all you want I already know what I did was stupid but I was young and naive.  I am paying for it now though

Huh? What? Speak Up!













You might want to go see a hearing specialist and get an honest evaluation and assessment of your choices as a start. They make a variety of hearing aids the size of which probably depends on the size of your budget.

Have you consulted an audiologist (a medical doctor)?



Hearing aids don't have to be conspicuous any more.  That may be your only option, other than just dealing with it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochlear_implant

I hear you man. early 30s and deaf as shit. My kids are sick and tired of me asking "what?"

So is my fiancé.

Consult an audiologist. Seriously.

I deal with this myself.

You need to see an ENT and also try and preserve what hearing you have left. My dad lost hearing in one ear a couple of weeks ago. No lead up, just gone overnight, no more hearing whatsoever in that one ear.

Cochlear implants are NOT what you need at this point. Your ENT can schedule you for a hearing test and tell you your options. Good luck!

1) Go to an audiologist

2) Get a hearing test so you actually know what frequency and dB loss you have

3) Discuss options with the audiologist for aids that will help and your budget/insurance

4) Make a decision



My observations from 40 years of wearing aids:



- As an adult, it is only your self-consciousness that is holding you back.

- Living without hearing sucks. Even more so if you can avoid it.

- Hearing technology is amazing.

- Denial is a powerful drug.



Why you should and probably are not aware of:



- With hearing loss can come loss of speech clarity

- The longer you wait, the harder it will be

- (because this is GD), Chicks don't care.

my hearing is uncontrollably selective I can hear scratching in the walls of the house form mice in winter that are in the next room over but I cant hear what people are saying 10 feet away form me

anyone else have problems hearing voices as compared to hearing sounds?

Chicks are not the issue ... Chick is I am tired of saying WHAT? WHAT YOU SAY?
I just do not want anything big and bulky.  Yes not hearing a lot of things does suck mostly it is worse with background noises so having conversations at restaurants with music playing is out of the question bars are the same way but I avoid them.

Failing to see the problem here.

J/K, good luck, OP.

Everything that you just told us is me to a T. I'm 48 and just got hearing aids 3 months ago. Damn, I can't believe what I've been missing. I wish I would have gotten them years ago. I purchased Behind the ear(BTE) and receiver in canal (RIC). They are small and you cannot see them but then again, I don't care just as long as I can hear. Once you get them , you will start to notice that a shit ton of people have them.


 

 

My uncle has some fucking bad ass hearing aids that are pretty inconspicuous.

That said, they are spendy as a motherfucker.

I was a Army range medic for a long while . and went often with the guys qualifying  155MM howitzer.    my hearing took a hit even with all the hearing protection I used.   took years for the ringing to go away.......If there is a load bang somewhere and I didn't get a chance for ear protection   my ears hurt so much it gives me tooth ache .  I'm lucky not to much loss  . I just hate  the pain in my ears  if anyone test ambulance/fire trucks  siren with 200 ft of where I am.   which is anyplace at the station inside or out.     Stay faithful to ear protection.   I wear them to hammer nails or use a Dremel tool.

((Hearing Instrument Specialist))

First, check locally and get a free hearing test to see what you have to work with.  Ask questions.  If you are not satisfied with the answers, ask another specialist or, an audiologist.  You can also shoot me a pm and I'll answer as I can.  I have hearing loss in the mid to upper frequencies and, yeah...know how it goes with talking to gals and kids.  

Second, hearing aids are not big, and haven't been for several years now.  Unless, that is, you are functionally deaf and need power aids.

Third, realizing you have an issue is the first step and, the only harder step is doing something about it.

Get your hearing checked at an audiologist. Most likely, if you are only missing higher frequencies you might be able to get a hearing aid. Be aware that they can be expensive as shit for the digital ones.

Don't worry about the size of the hearing aids. Really. I wore over the ear hearing aids as a kid up to an adult, then got cochlear implant. You need to have severe/profound hearing loss in both ears to qualify for CI's. Hearing aids usually don't help those people anymore.

Hearing aids aren't stigma anymore, other than maybe your buddies and family teasing you about it.

Like others have said, get your hearing tested. Until you get that done there's no way to tell what you need or how much you can be helped.





I'm 58 and wear hearing aids. Unless you're looking really hard you don't notice I do. Much better than asking people to repeat themselves and speak up constantly too. I wear a pair of Phonak Audeo S that look like these. They made a huge improvement in day to day life for me.





The Phonak site has an online testing that will give you an idea of what you're up against but its still no substitute for testing by an audiologist.