[28m] I’ve been struggling with fear and anxiety since September when I started to notice I have difficulty hearing in noisy settings. I went to the ENT to get a hearing test and it showed 10-15db hearing loss at 6khz and 8khz which is  “normal hearing” but I definitely notice a challenge in louder environments.

I have such a hard time letting go of these fears that I am slowly losing my hearing and that this will hold me back from life even though I know that this was likely caused from years of abusing headphones at loud volumes and playing live shows with in ear monitors I’ve had turned up too loud. 

I can prevent it from getting worse by changing my listening habits but it’s damage is already drastically effecting me. I wake up on average twice a night and sometimes can’t even fall back asleep after I’ve slept 3-4 hours. I’m assuming it’s because of the anxiety I have about it. The lack of sleep is likely making my cognition worse which makes it harder to focus at work and in public settings feeding back into my anxiety. It has not been fun and I’m hoping I can accept my condition and move on from the angst I have about it. Many people have worse hearing than I do but don’t even realize, meanwhile I’m consumed by my minor condition. I welcome any advice.