Just Because Hearing Loss Is Invisible Doesn’t Mean It’s Less Real

By Kayleena Pierce-Bohen

When I was in my 20s for a period of about three years, I worked in nightclubs in San Francisco as part of the floor staff. I was subjected to live bands (including heavy metal, rock, punk, and other heavily percussive groups), DJ playlists, and other live performances for four nights a week, for roughly 10 to 12 hours at a time.

It was about two years after that period that people around me started suggesting I get my ears checked because I was frequently turning up music and the TV to hear it, speaking louder than normal indoors, and asking friends and family to repeat themselves because I was having difficulty hearing them.

When I got an annual physical, my general practitioner suggested I do an auditory exam as well as some imaging. It was at that time I was told I’d experienced some high frequency hearing loss. It was also about that time that I developed a high-pitched whine in my ears (tinnitus), as well as a horrible clicking, which continues even now whenever I try to write at a computer or read a book.

I also suffer from vertigo, which is compounded by my hearing loss and makes my life pretty miserable when it appears. I’ll have entire 24-hour periods where I feel like I’m on a ship trying to get my sea legs. Just walking in a straight line will have me clutching a counter or wall for support, which I know looks quite peculiar to other people to whom I seem “fine.” I’ve had to use a cane. I never had anything remotely like vertigo before I had been working in incredibly loud environments.

Working at the nightclub, I didn’t stop to consider that I was going to the equivalent of four concerts a week. Photo credit: Antoine J./Unsplash

Earplugs, But...

I think because I was in my 20s and thought working at a nightclub was fun and interesting, and I was surrounded by talented musicians and entertainers, I didn’t stop to consider that I was going to the equivalent of four concerts a week. Not even concerts with two-hour sets—more like multi-day music festivals with four bands each performing two-hour sets!

Earplugs were provided for employees at the nightclubs, and I wore them when I remembered to, but they weren’t always the most effective. I could have invested in better ones. I could have also trusted the older staff members who cautioned against getting too close to the large speakers at the front of the stage. I could have done quieter activities when I wasn’t at work, so as not to compound the hearing issues I was unknowingly subjecting myself to.

Back then, it was definitely a case of “hearing loss is something that happens to other people” or “hearing loss is something I’ll experience maybe 20 or 30 years from now.” I had no idea that I would experience it so soon, and have to suffer from it so greatly while in my early 30s. I didn’t realize that hearing loss isn’t something anyone has to suffer from, and that in order to avoid it—whether now or decades from now—there are protective steps I can take. 

Living With It

To deal with symptoms related to hearing loss, I now get annual earwax removal (something I didn’t think to do previously) from my general practitioner, and I use white noise machines to drown out the tinnitus wherever possible. I did participate in cognitive behavioral therapy, which is often used successfully to help tinnitus patients, but I didn’t find that it was effective in my case. It’s important to find out what works for each individual because while things like medication may work for some, they won’t work for others. There’s no cure for tinnitus or hearing loss, just ways to make symptoms more reasonable to live with.

I now work almost entirely at a computer for my job as a senior writer for an entertainment news site, and I have to take frequent breaks when the tinnitus and clicking get particularly irritating and make it difficult to concentrate. Usually, this involves going into a dimly lit room, turning on a white noise machine, and using a cold compress on my forehead. It’s highly disruptive, but I have developed the system that works best for me, and those around me are understanding when my ears are acting up and I need to do what I have to in order to make the effects more manageable.

Please Be More Aware

Hearing loss is something that sneaks up on you, especially when you’re not thinking about it. Hearing loss affects you in personal ways you don’t expect because it impacts communication, and that can make life difficult and frustrating. If people don’t know you very well, they can often think you’re trying to garner sympathy, and that’s another stressor that was initially frustrating for me to overcome.

I’ve definitely tried to impress upon people I know to protect their hearing when they want to enjoy their nightlife and to take frequent breaks from loud environments. Just making sure people are more aware of something they don’t normally even consider is a step in the right direction. A lot of people think only roadies or mechanics who work on jet engines develop hearing loss when they’re young.

I’d like to emphasize that because hearing loss is an invisible condition, it often gets dismissed because those of us who suffer from it “look fine.” This can make dealing with the general public or people who don’t know us very well a challenge. But we do value our close friends and family who support us.

Kayleena Pierce-Bohen lives in California. She appears in the video “A Few Words About Hearing,” part of HHF’s Keep Listening prevention campaign.

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