I've good hearing but it wont focus when im in noisy environments?

Cróga

I'm 24, and had this problem most of my life so it's not a new thing. I've never got this checked out but wondering if I should? Is this normal?

Whenever I am in say a coffee shop talking to a friend and there are other people talking next to us (even if they are on the other side of the room) my ears wont focus solely on what my friend is saying and I end up feeling confused and not taking in what my friend said.

endacl

Cróga wrote: »

I'm 24, and had this problem most of my life so it's not a new thing. I've never got this checked out but wondering if I should? Is this normal?

Whenever I am in say a coffee shop talking to a friend and there are other people talking next to us (even if they are on the other side of the room) my ears wont focus solely on what my friend is saying and I end up feeling confused and not taking in what my friend said.

Your ears won't focus, or you can't focus?

Cróga

endacl wrote: »

Your ears won't focus, or you can't focus?

I'm not sure, I think I have the opposite of this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocktail_party_effect where I cant tune out background noise.

endacl

I'm far from an expert, but it sounds to me like attention rather than hearing, per se. I've nothing really helpful to offer (sorry!), but I'd be interested in seeing what others have to say.

ongarboy

I think you should arrange a hearing test just to rule out whether it is your hearing rather than just an attention issue. Places like Specsavers and many GPs do this inexpensively.

jma

I have a similar problem, but it affects me mainly in noisy pubs, when my mates are having the craic and I can't understand a thing. I don't think it's an attention problem, but it might be a binaural issue. When I joined the military some years ago, I was sent to an ENT specialist, where it was discovered that the hearing in one of my ears was slightly worse than the other. I was in a kind of sound-proof box, and if I remember correctly, my vision was blocked. It was only a minute problem, not noticeable under normal circumstances, but apparently, certain frequencies weren't audible to me in one of my ears. I don't know what exactly caused it, but it could have been when I got struck by lightning through the phone line just a couple of years before that. I never got it checked since, but that's what I've put it down to. It seems that the cocktail party effect works best with proper binaural hearing.

Cróga

Turns out I may have had chronic otitis media due to allergies over the years, think I have labyrinthitis too. I'm awaiting an appointment with an ENT to confirm.

fairyhill

Some people with Glue ear suffer this problem and its fluid in the ear drum. Your hearing is a bit distorted so you can hear sounds further away better than right beside you. If you are in a pub of somewhere with lots of people the noise level can make it worse.