I think that only hearing aid wearers can truly understand the immense desire to rip off your own ears and stab yourself in the brain. The sensory overload that comes from the constant bombardment of useless background noise that our brains do not have the ability to filter out. It's not like glasses. They don't become more comfortable the longer they're in, you do not forget you have them on. It is the exact opposite; the longer you wear them the more you want to take them off, until at the end of the day you rip them out of your ears as you walk out of work and all you can do, all you have the energy for, is go home take some painkillers and collapse!
There is no solid way to describe how it feels to someone who has never experienced it; the closest I can come is that it starts as a small headache, then after a little while it is followed by body/stomach pain that almost feels as though the flu is coming on, if you can't go somewhere quite for a bit and take out your hearing aids it will continue to build until if feels like your skin is vibrating and it takes everything you have not to blindly punch someone or throw something at someone's face.
When the day is over you finally get to go home and take them out and soak up the silence that is not a handicap or impairment, but a blessing and much needed. I don't think people give silence the respect it deserves.
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