[Crowbob]

Sorry to read about this.

Tweez and Lubey are quite correct about others not being sympathetic or otherwise indifferent to your impairment. That is something you will have to learn to deal with. But first, you must realize you cannot hold their indifference against them. The truth of the matter is that your impairment is your problem, not theirs.

For perspective, imagine someone with progressive, irrestorative hearing loss. It has been noted that loss of hearing is more traumatic and disruptive than loss of vision. Vision loss separates you from things, hearing loss separates you from people.

A person with vision loss does elicit tremendous empathy and assistance from people while carrying on normal daily activities. People are naturally helpful once they realize visual limitations which are fairly obvious.

Hearing loss is invisible to people (no pun intended). Understandably, people simply cannot comprehend, unless you tell them, sometimes repeatedly that you cannot communicate with them the 'normal' way, not on the telephone, the radio, or in the dark, or in noisy environments, or at a distance, or when more than one person is talking, or with children who have not acquired mature speech, in groups and crowds, soft-spoken people, people with very rapid speech, or when they are not directly facing you.

Hearing-imparied people (particularly hearing loss acquired late in life) lose the joys of music, of wildlife and the voices of loved ones.

Visual memory in most people is more durable than auditory memory. In most people, the ability to recall visual images, sights, faces and colors, etc. is maintained. Auditory memories are often times more fragile, they decay more rapidly.

Your life will gradually transform from Visual to Auditory just as the lives of people with progressive hearing loss change from auditory to visual. The shift from Visual to Auditory is easier than vice versa, believe it or not, so they say. The shift from A to V involves a tragic progression to social isolation.

Visually-imparied people can and do learn braille and so can still 'read', just as hearing-impaired can learn sign-language. However, how many people without hearing loss will take the time to learn sign-language just for you?

As with any loss, acceptance is an absolutely mandatory process. However, the acceptance of loss is one thing, the acceptance of something additive is quite another. For example, many people acquire some kind of uncontrollable or partially controllable chronic pain syndrome such as low back pain, neuropathy, migraines, etc. Unfortunately, with hearing loss, not only must a person deal effectively with the loss of hearing not infrequently (actually quite commonly) they must also deal with accepting variable degrees of chronic, unrelenting and supremely annoying tinnitus.

My point is not to dismiss the severity of your impairment or the consequences therefrom. My points are to demonstrate and express my deeply felt empathy for your loss and to prepare you for a challenge that you, perhaps alone, must rise to overcome.