u/lone-souls

So I've pretty much limited most contact between me and my family, and I'm a loner now. Though I'm safe, I still feel a sense of danger because the lies about me never stop. It's gotten so bad that whenever I meet someone who is nice to me I assume they must be trying to manipulate me as my family have. I've felt this way for 14 years now since I was 18. I used to joke around about serious subjects to make light of them, but my family would take my jokes very seriously and use them as a way to villainize me. The abuse was covert. They were very friendly to my face, but spoke badly about me to everyone behind my back. I now struggle with basic interactions and knowing how to communicate, having been lied to my entire life. I feel an intense sadness mixed with anger most days because I know what they did to me was wrong, but I feel helpless to do anything about it.

Has anyone else been through anything similar? And did you find a way to make it easier to connect with people?

I'm 32M struggling with premature hearing loss. Last year I became homeless, on top of ongoing stress from my half siblings spreading lies about me. I did some audiograms. My hearing dropped across all ranges, but the high frequencies were hit hardest. I struggle with sleep every night, and my body has been in fight or flight mode since then. I'm hopeful that if I can de-stress somehow then my hearing might come back. I also experience symptoms of hyperacusis where some sounds (like car horns) are especially loud drowning out others. Everything sounds muffled with any background noise, but I can hear people much easier if it's one-on-one conversation. I'm not totally sure how to differentiate between ear fullness and deafness.

Has anyone else had stress-related hearing loss? And if so, what have you tried to fix it?

Any advice is welcome.