Unfortunately, not everybody gets to keep all five senses throughout their lifetimes.
Some people will lose their sight, some their taste, some feeling in their fingers and toes. Still yet, some will lose their hearing. And after a lifetime of knowing what that is like, losing it can be devastating.
u/_jaysco_ asked:
Deaf people of reddit who used to be able to hear, what sounds do you miss the most?
Here were some of those answers.
Just People
Giphy
I'm losing my hearing slowly - right now I just miss when I didn't have to ask people to repeat themselves so often. And I'm sad that a lot of times if I can't make out what was said the third time I just give up and nod like I did.
Tweeting
Birds.
My cat meowing to be let in.
The kettle going off when its boiled.
Most music.
Being able to go to the movies.
One-Two Step
I'm deaf in my right ear though. I miss not having to do a weird twostep and dance around somebody to make sure I'm on the side I can hear them, and then explain to people who don't know why I want that side facing them. Or walking with my head turned so I can hear them whilst trying not to walk into anything. Worse when people try to whisper in my ear and I have to turn my head at close proximity and risk rubbing noses with them.
A Second Chance
I had hearing, then gradually lost it, and it was restored by a cochlear implant. So I got a second chance!
What I really missed was "normal" conversation. Being able to talk with someone without asking a zillion times what they said, or struggling to hear every other word and then put the parts together. Family dinners were really hard. I could hear the person across from me, but everything else was a blur. People would laugh and I wouldn't get the joke.
That's all changed!
Some of the more fun things I've rediscovered: my Maine Coon cats purring - very loud and quite often. The quiet rumble of distant thunder. My fridge has an alarm when the door is left open.
Grateful? Hell yeah.
Give And Take
I miss being able to hear my daughter's laugh.
I definitely don't miss the crying though.
Feeling Left Out
I went to watch Avengers End Game on the weekend, and I remember distinctly being able to hear less and less with every Marvel movie really. I genuinely heard about 10% of the entire movie dialogue. The cinema was laughing at scenes and I had no idea what happened. All the discussions everyone had after taught me more about the movie than what I had even watched. It was incredibly frustrating, about an hour in I just wanted to go home and cry from trying so hard to actively hear and not hearing anything at all, and it gets so emotionally draining like that most days, being with friends and not hearing anything or always having to ask to repeat and always just being behind and feeling stupid.
Don't ruin your hearing, it is an incredibly precious and fragile thing.
As We Go On
I'm slowly losing my hearing, I miss not having to hold the remote in my hand to turn up/down the volume while my SO is sleeping. When there's just talking I have to turn it up, then action scenes, music and background noise is too loud so I have to turn it back down. I turned the subtitles on a few months ago and it's changed my life!
I miss not having to say "I can't hear you, you need to yell at me". Like when I'm doing dishes, I can't hear someone who's standing next to me talking normally.
My miss the feeling of clear ears. Mine constantly feel like I need to pop them. Luckily I live on a mountain so once in a while when I'm going down the mountain one of my ears will give a good pop and feels better for a little while.
I miss not hearing my voice echoed in my head. If you don't know what I mean, put your fingers in your ears and talk.
It's all around sh*tty, but I've accepted my fate.
A Far-A-Way Talk
I can sorta still hear (Cochlear) but I lost my hearing back when I was 5...in 1986. I remember talking on the landline phones at the time and while I could clearly hear the person, they sounded far away. That's what I remember. I wonder if landline phones sound like that today still.
Lost My Balance
My mom has sudden neural sensory hearing loss in both ears. Luckily the cochlear implants worked. However, music does not sound the same at all. She loves live music and always played CDs at home. She is very sad about how music sounds. She can only listen to music she knows because her brain sort of fills in the gaps. But any new music just sounds weird to her. Losing her hearing changed her life. Coincidentally, since hearing loss is an inner ear problem, she doesn't drink anymore. She says it already feels like she's had a margarita, 24/7.
Back To The Birds
Giphy
Not deaf but hearing-impaired. I love walking in the woods, and greatly miss the sound of birds chirping. The woods used to sound full of life. Now I can't hear them at all for the most part, and just listen to one of those "Sounds of Nature" CD's of bird song at high volume.
Scientists are about to start testing a drug that has successfully regrown ear hair cells in mice, so I'm hopeful that 10 years from now that I'll be able to hear again.
I can't definitively say I've come face to face with the spirits. But I have had some unsettling feelings in the dark. Shadows are just shadows sometimes, but who can be sure.
I hear it...
Nbc Wings GIF by HULUGiphy"I was helping my dad clean my grandma's house after she passed and I went in and was trying to find a song in my phone and before I could I heard a cough plain as day come from down the hallway where her room was. She died of lung and throat cancer it was pretty crazy."
Running Past...
"When I was 5 I remember getting home from my grandpa's birthday party. For context my mom was pregnant with my brother at the time, so my parents had already bought his crib. I woke up in the middle of the night to find a women in a white dress and long black hair standing over my brother's crib. I managed to wake up my dad so he could take me to the bathroom. When I got back it was still there. It was only until morning when it disappeared. Every now and then I see a glance of what I assume is that thing running past the backyard."
The Cat
"My best friend and his wife had moved to a new apartment. I came over to visit a few times, and each time I'd see the motion of a cat in my peripheral vision. Not the image of a cat, but a sense of how a cat moves. Anyway, one day I finally cracked some joke about the ghost cat in the place and his wife was instantly saying "See! See! I told you we had a ghost cat!"
"excuse me"
"I worked graveyard shift in a dementia ward for 4 years and it was anything but quiet. I was working with a nurse one night when we both heard a resident say "excuse me." We looked around and no-one was there. I checked on the resident in question and she was fast asleep in her own room. Many of us also experienced someone whistling in the ward late at night and one nurse even managed to catch a video of it happening. It was unnerving to say the least."
Clueless
Skeleton GIFGiphy"I once saw someone short walk by me in my house. They walked into the laundry room which only has one way in. I walked into it behind them and they where gone. I thought it was my little brother but I went to his room and he was asleep. I still have no clue what that was."
- ImBolio
Now was everyone here positive they were sober? Just asking. Those are certainly spooky moments. I'd like some video footage please. Continue...
Reflections
ghost library GIFGiphy"I was up at 3am when I was maybe 7 or 8. I looked out the window and saw a woman in a white dress run across my yard. I could see through her. She was transparent like the reflections on the window."
"you alright?"
"So, my work place is haunted. I was having a really crap day, and as a cleaner, it's normal that me and my co worker will be the only ones left at night. So I was standing on the second floor, leaning on the banister for the stair case, when I heard this male voice say in my ear "you alright?" Clear as day. I turned around so fast and nobody was there and it scared the hell out of me."
- Rex-the-
Watching Me
"I remember as a young kid I usually use to sit in my bed and watch tv with my room door open while the adjacent guest bedroom next to mine would always have the door shut. I always remember seeing that door fully open and close by itself multiple times a day very slowly and gently. Never really bothered me much now that I think about it… but there were other creepier experiences I had in the same house that made me feel uncomfortable like I was being watched."
Betsy
"I went to the Betsy Ross House as a really little kid in the early 90s. Normal house but I was confused why the tour guide never talked about the woman on the chair crying at the edge of the bed in Betsy Ross's bedroom. So I asked about it. No one else saw the woman at the edge of the bed. I figured it was just a wax museum since there was a wax statue of a man in uniform rolling bullets in the basement."
"Years later, I was looking at haunted Philadelphia tours to go on with a friend and the Betsy Ross House was on it. I was like "woah! I was there!" and looked into it some more. Turns out there is a woman at the end of the bed crying and a uniformed man in the basement that people have reported seeing. There is no way that 8 year old me would have known about either of these things."
hello kitty...
hello kitty lol GIF by Animation Domination High-DefGiphy"I had this hello kitty Balloon In my bed room, it had a string and weight on it. So it was late, I had the lights on just Sitting on my bed. The Balloon turns, faces my door, slowly floats into my hallway and turns and floats into my sister's room. To this day I am scared of balloons."
They are among us and they like Hello Kitty. I'm probably rattling the paranormal cages and they'll come for me next, but I'm ready. I feel like this thread has prepared me.
Boo!
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