Katherine Bouton

I learned about hearing loss and the different options and issues, which is something that I never considered, since my hearing (and my mom's too) is quite acute.
What annoyed me was the author's constant denial and vanity; her refusal to admit she was going deaf and her refusal to wear a hearing aid "out there", in public.
Eventually, towards the final 1/3 of the book, she notes that her vanity was annoying one of her therapists. I agree! If I wasn't able to hear things, I'd put that hearing aid in STAT. Who cares what others think?
I wear glasses because I want to see, so I think it's the same thing. If more people wore hearing aids, the stigma would become lessened, just like depression meds, etc.

… (plus d'informations)

To quote the New Yorker summary: "Bouton's personal narrative, which offers essential insight into the subtle but crippling ways that this 'hidden disability, one often borne in secret', can upend relationships and threaten professional goals".

As the daughter of a mother with age-onset hearing issues, watching her struggle adapting to hearing aids that often need adjustments, tinnitus, dizziness and the other challenges accompanying hearing loss, as well as the grandmother of a two-year-old born premature and deaf (but now with cochlear implants learning both sign language and speech recognition), this book was extremely relevant. I found it full of useful information plus moving narratives, moments of optimism, moments of sorrow, and its excellent collection of first-person stories that reflect all the stages in-between. For anyone in a similar situation (experiencing hearing loss) or with family and/or friends who are either going deaf, born deaf, or even wanting to avoid going deaf, read this book and share it. It has already changed my behaviour with family friends and hopefully will help me cope better one day if I should find myself slowly discovering that I am becoming, with age, "hard of hearing". One immediate action was the downloading of an iPhone app to detect environmental noise levels.… (plus d'informations)