Not trusting that your peers have your best interests in mind when it comes to selecting an activity that won’t cause you stress and anxiety because of your hearing, while dealing with the backlash as you are accused of not having enough faith in others, when, ironically, you’ve had to explain to those same people many times why you don’t answer the phone or why you’re over the loud, crowded bar scene or why that guy’s looking at you funny because of your accent.

And then they proceed to tell you that it’s all in your head.

I’m not fucking dealing with this in 2018. Get out of my face with my shit.

It disgusts me how many adults in my life have tried to raise me as a hearing person. It’s their secret way of saying, “No. We don’t accept this.” And to think how I’m not the only one. It happens to all of us, everyone, in different ways. And not just deaf and hard of hearing people.

Life is either constantly looking around to pretend that you are hearing things like everybody else or isolating yourself to not give a damn. There is no middle ground.

I’m not sure if I think any of us are obligated to apologize to some hearing people for making them feel uncomfortable for five seconds when we are uncomfortable in their world for a lifetime.

It’s funny how everybody wants to talk about mental illness and depression, but hardly anybody is willing to engage in a conversation upon which we discuss how deafness and/or central auditory processing disorder are oftentimes a huge contributor to anxiety and depression on so many levels. Not only are you constantly navigating an isolating world where you cannot always rely on your ears or your brain to process sound, but you have to understand how other people communicate, worry about accommodations and accessibility, strain yourself physically and mentally in order to mainstream, deal with numerous embarrassing situations that require a thicker skin than most, combat audism in your community, oftentimes family, friends, and coworkers, miss out on many activities and conversations, and struggle every day with accepting your limitations. There millions of us all over the world. Why are we not talking about this?

HOH tip

Sandwich yourself in between two hearies at all possible times when out and about to create a halo of hearing detectors.

Reblog if you have ever been scolded as a child (and as an adult) for not realizing that someone was talking to you.