What is it about?
This article has been written in the form of a poem, which conveys a Facebook conversation between two cousins, one Deaf and one Hearing, about their lived experiences of tinnitus. The discussions include sounds, possible connections to other symptoms such as poor balance, and coping mechanisms.
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Why is it important?
Lots of interesting information about tinnitus is conveyed in this article, in a way which is easy to understand. Information includes the fact that the sounds of tinnitus can be varied, can change, and can come and go, rather than being a constant ringing. Feedback on the article has revealed that this information was surprising to many, even to others who have tinnitus, since the dominant idea of tinnitus is of a constant ringing, whilst experiences of tinnitus fluctuating appear to be less common. Tinnitus is also revealed to be a "Deafhearing phenomenon", that is to say, it can be experienced by Deaf and Hearing people. It is also a rare insight into the lived experiences of people with Waardenburg syndrome type 1. The article has been written in poetics and is thus an example of performative social science. Feedback on the article has revealed that the format attracted the attention of lecturers on an international scale and that the article was placed on the learning platform of a course in the United States of America as part of a collection that students could choose from, upon which to base their assignments. My assignment was chosen by one student who used it as a basis for her reflexive assignment about challenging what research could be and the forms in which we can express it.
Perspectives
I made a post to Facebook about the tinnitus I was experiencing and my cousin answered with empathy and wisdom, drawn from his own experiences. This was interesting because he is older than I am and had clearly been reflecting on it and researching it for longer than I had; I was just about at the stage of acknowledging that it was there. During the course of the conversation we established interesting observations about patterns and connected symptoms. One of the most interesting things to come out of the conversation was how so many people perceive tinnitus to be a "constant ringing", which was so different from my experience and that of my cousin. It is also the dominant view of tinnitus among the general public. However perhaps the most surprising thing of all for me was that it hadn't occurred to me that it might be a Deafhearing phenomenon.
Dr Sara L Wheeler
Bangor University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Tinnitus, Qualitative Inquiry, February 2015, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1077800414542700.
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