What type of HOH might I be?
Hi, I (F 24) struggle with my hearing very much and wanted to hear from other HOH people to see if anyone relates or might know what my issue is. I will see a specialist (again) when I can, but in the meantime I want to hear from other people and see what everyone has to say. So, I didn’t seem to notice this issue till about the age of 18. As far as I know, I have had no injuries that could have impacted my hearing except for some cases of wax impaction in my ear canals around that time frame. I have been told my ear canals are smaller than average as well. But, I keep my ears clean and check them regularly for buildup and haven’t had issues since. I can hear most things, I think? But only in ideal settings: quiet rooms with no background noise and I have to be directly in front of the person or thing I am listening to. If there is background noise, for example, multiple people talking and moving in a public space or even just the crunch of footsteps on a hike I cannot, as hard as I try, hear what people are saying. I hear the sound of their voice but it is extremely muffled by whatever din is going on in the background. Unless I hold my ear close to whatever/whoever I am listening to, noises completely drown out the people talking to me. Which as I’m sure you can imagine is not ideal for trying to have a conversation while keeping an appropriate amount of personal space lol. Additionally, as soon as they are no longer facing my direction, for example if they walk maybe a foot ahead of me or turn their head away as they are speaking, I cannot hear them. My friends and family had eventually become well aware of this, and urged me to see a doctor. When I finally got a general test done everyone, myself included, was shocked to find that I actually performed better than average. My specialist was surprised as well but surmised that my issue might be a software issue and not a hardware issue if that makes sense haha. It was one of those tests where you sit in a box with headphones on while someone talks to you through a mic. So, I’ve thought about the fact that maybe the test wasn’t an accurate test for my exact issue since my issue usually occurs when there are multiple sounds going on at once and when the source of sound is not close enough/facing me directly. I also wonder if it could be related to neurodivergence which does run in my family, though I am not officially diagnosed with anything. It’s been about 2 years since then and for a multitude of reasons I haven’t been able to go back until maybe now in the near future. But, I’m open to answering further questions and would love to hear if anyone else struggles with similar types of HOH and knows what might be going on.