Is telephone phobia a thing?

[hollydolly]

I don't mind using the phone... but I hate that feeling when the phone rings, and it's number I don't recognise...and I'm wondering who on earth this is...

I haven't anything to hide, but I just hate having to answer to someone I don't know... and you're kind of put on the spot without any preparation

 

[BJintheUK]

you know, you can get an amplifier for your phone

Hello Hollydolly.

The problem isn't so much the volume as that I've always had aural dyslexia, so understanding what people say is the problem. Couple that with me losing the higher registers of my hearing, and all I can hear is a muffled deep noise when people speak. Making it louder won't really help much. Instead I need to find a way of boosting just the upper registers, so that I can hear the 'S' and 'T' type consonants and the actual vowel sounds, instead of the 'uh' that I hear in all words.

For me the words 'line' and 'loan' sound exactly the same, and come out as a kind of 'lun' sound. It makes life difficult at the best of times, but now that my hearing is deteriorating, it's getting rather depressing. Furthermore, I can't tolerate having anything in my ear canals. I've tried wearing hearing aids, but they all go into the ear canal, and although I've tried to persevere with them, I had to give up in the end. It's due to the insane itching they caused.

The good news is that I've discovered the hearing things that singers use to hear the foldback sounds when on stage. Their hearing aids don't go into the ear canal, but sit at the entrance, and are individually fitted to the person so they don't fall out. There's a place in North London that can take casts from each of my ears, so that I can get proper gel plugs made up.

So now I need to find out if I can get a pair of those fitted to my ears, and somehow get them connected to a pair of behind the ear amplifiers that have been specifically tuned to my missing frequencies. If I can get that sorted then I'll have much more normal hearing, but I will still struggle with mobile phones, due to the way we use them, up against the ear.

Ideally for me, people should have something across their foreheads that gives me a running text version of what they say. A bit like subtitles on TV programmes. Otherwise I have to try to lipread what people say to me, and that can be a problem if I'm not actually looking at them when they speak.

 

[hollydolly]

@BJintheUK ..yes I know about IEM's that performers use in-ear..I didn't they could be adapted for the deaf...


I hope you can get something to help you hear much more clearly.. I know there's quite a few people on this forum who wear aids of different types, they may be able to advise..

In the meantime, your reference to holding mobile phone to your ear.... they're best held well away from the ear....like this..

 

[BJintheUK]

@BJintheUK ..yes I know about IEM's that performers use inpear..I didn't they could be adapted for the deaf...


I hope you can get something to help you hear much more clearly.. I know there's quite a few people on this forum who wear aids of different types, they may be able to advise..

In the meantime, your reference to holding mobile phone to your ear.... they're best held well away from the ear....like this..

Yes, I've started using the speaker function on my phone, with it turned up to maximum. That way I can hear it a bit better, but then I get all the other noises of life interfering with what the other person's saying as well. When you have a phone against your ear it cuts out all the background noise, but with the speaker on I hear everything. Sadly, so does everyone else within earshot hear what I'm hearing, as well as what I'm saying, whether they want to or not.

 

[BJintheUK]

Hollydolly, you wrote, "..yes I know about IEM's that performers use inpear..I didn't they could be adapted for the deaf..."

As far as I know they haven't yet!

That's the thing, I've put two and two together, but now I need to find someone who can do the actual work of connecting the gel plugs to actual hearing aids. If I can do that then I think there may be a market for such things.

 

[hollydolly]

Hollydolly, you wrote, "..yes I know about IEM's that performers use inpear..I didn't they could be adapted for the deaf..."

As far as I know they haven't yet!

That's the thing, I've put two and two together, but now I need to find someone who can do the actual work of connecting the gel plugs to actual hearing aids. If I can do that then I think there may be a market for such things.

oh wow.. well good luck I hope you can find someone...coming from a profoundly deaf family ( not me ).. I understand the frustrations

 

[katlupe]

I have a little of that feeling myself. I don't know where it comes from.

Me either because I worked as receptionist in accounting offices and as a network rep at the Home Shopping Network! I made a lot of phone calls.

 

[MACKTEXAS]

I want to hear the voices of people I care about and have real conversations now and then. It will be by phone when I talk to relatives. They live 200 miles away.