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Help For Auditory Processing Disorder


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#1 DePaw

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Posted 15 December 2014 - 12:26 AM


Anyone know of anything that can help auditory processing disorder?

Basically with this disorder I can hear fine, but turning sound into meaning as it were, is very difficult. Background noise is a big problem, eg tv/radio, other people talking, etc. For tv I need subtitles, without them it's gibberish, with them I can hear+understand what's said.

Sometimes when people are talking to me I can't work out the words, I can recognise their voice, tell that it's words, but I doesn't even sound like English, sometimes it sounds like other languages almost.

Even if people repeat what they said it may not work, and it's very frustrating, as they also get annoyed at having to say things over and over.

I also can't hear the difference between sounds I should, most commonly 'f' and 'th', as in 'free' and 'three' sound exactly the same to me. This symptom I know has been with me a long time as I have 'learnt' many words wrong, eg I say 'birfday' (but always 'birfday', I never say birthday and have to force myself to say it right, and it feels awkward and clunky). This made asking my mum for the Warcraft game 'frozen throne' very difficult.

Sometimes I misinterprete where sounds are even coming from, especially sudden intermittent noises, as it can take a while to pinpoint where it's coming from.

My actual hearing ability is fine, I've had my hearing tested a million times and it's fine, it's just turning sounds into meaning.

Is there anything that can be done to help this at all? As it impacts my daily life, sometimes a great deal.

Thanks.
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#2 DePaw

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Posted 15 December 2014 - 12:30 AM

Ps I also have mild dyslexia.

I also get grammar mixed up sometimes, instead of saying eg 'he did blah to her' I will say 'she did blah to him', swapping the pronouns round but keeping it grammatically correct, I only tend to do this with pronouns though not normal nouns. I have found using people's names instead of pronouns helps but makes me sound a bit weird and makes it much longer to explain things.
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#3 jroseland

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Posted 15 December 2014 - 07:07 PM

Dual N-back has an auditory mode that increases auditory intelligence and trains you ignore background chatter. Maybe worth a try...



#4 Candidatus

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Posted 16 December 2014 - 09:23 AM

@DePaw

Look into this http://www.scilearnglobal.com

I've read about it in a book "The Brain That Changes Itself" (which is an excellent and highly recommendable read). It's a software used for treating specifically what appears to be your condition - underdeveloped auditory processing nerve structures in the brain of people with otherwise normal hearing capabilities.

Edited by Candidatus, 16 December 2014 - 09:25 AM.


#5 DePaw

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Posted 16 December 2014 - 10:36 AM

Thanks for the replies and links guys, will check them out.

#6 DePaw

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Posted 17 December 2014 - 04:00 AM

Haven't managed to look at links yet but have learnt today I have another sound confusion I didn't realise. This one's funny.

My housemate was telling our other housemate that they applied to a shop, which I clarified was a pawn shop. Turns out from the ~45mins of discussion that followed, I'd said 'porn' shop because I can't hear the difference and defaulted to 'or', not 'aw'. Paw and pour (as in without the final 'n's) also sound the same to me, so seems I do it with vowels not just consonants. Anyway we all had a good laugh and stuff, cos apparently I'd done that one many times before... but they didn't tell me cos it was too funny! Such good friends...

#7 beboppa

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Posted 17 December 2014 - 10:31 PM

Hi DePaw,

My wife's sister has Auditory Processing Disorder rather severely, and it sounds like your description of symptoms. 

My wife has been Dx'd with Asperger's and Social Anxiety, but she definitely has some APD-ish symptoms.  She prefers subtitles turned on.  She has trouble hearing the meaning of what people say (but for her, as opposed to her sister, this sometimes means that her brain fills in the blanks with some pretty bizarre stuff.)

 

In both of their cases, symptoms seem to be directly proportional to fatigue, hunger, and low energy levels.  Stress makes it worse, but we noticed that *chronic* or extended periods of stress are what make things harder, not brief or acute stress. Nutritional status, especially blood sugar seems to be key.

 

 I am not a research expert on par with other members here, but I/we have a (poorly supported, layperson) theory that some of these LD's, autism, maybe some forms of ADHD, might really be forms of localized insulin/glucose resistance or "pre-diabetes." (Epigenetic downregulation of aromatase, RORa, or insulin receptors or other glucose metabolic factors that would lead to insulin resistance? )  Our son is autistic, and his symptoms also track with "tiredness" and (we think) blood sugar.   We have lots of diabetes in previous generations in our families, and we are all sensitive to food, sugar levels etc. in the manner of "hypoglycemics" or "pre-diabetics," however none of us are formally or systemically diabetic.

 

Based on these observations (however unscientific) we have been experimenting with solutions as if we all have diabetes, (or brain-region-specific insulin resistance.)  It's been a really interesting journey, but it's hard to rule out placebo effects and the positive effects of just plain getting healthier. 

 

Anyhow, we have noticed results from the following interventions, some of which might be useful for you to experiment with:

 

-Eating like a hypoglycemic:  Whey protein shakes in the morning, 100% avoidance of High Fructose Corn Syrup, fiber, probiotics, plus other adjustments that help diabetics (the first two *seem* most important.) Over the past 4-5 months this has been massively helpful for their moods and the APD symptoms.

 

-Regular exercise (of course.)

 

-Magnesium Taurate - Not sure exactly why, but this has been useful.  Makes me sleepy, but my wife gets energy and a big boost to mood from regular use.

 

-Sulbutiamine / Thiamine:  There are lots of posts here on Sulbutiamine (an unregulated drug/supplement that is apparently a fat-soluble form of Thiamine.)  These were interesting because diabetics' insulin resistant cells apparently take up less thiamine in proportion to the taking up of less glucose.  High dose thiamine is beneficial to many diabetics, so we tried Sulbutiamine thinking that, as brain-targeted Thiamine, it might be useful.  Turns out my wife and sister-in-law are *HUGE* responders to sulbutiamine... It has been almost magical with regards to the APD symptoms.   Unfortunately, "tolerance" (or, I suspect, depletion of glucose stores) sets in pretty fast (<1 week at 300mg/day.)  So we are experimenting with dosage/cycling schedules and high doses of old-fashioned Thiamine.  This is very exciting, but not at all dialed in yet.

 

-Genistein Soy:  Estrogenic, but might help with insulin resistance.  Wife started adding to her protein.  This has been <2 weeks, but it seems to be helping the Sulbutiamine and Thiamine to work more strongly again (???)

 

Other thing we are going to add, one-at-a-time:

-Chromium supplements

-Cinnamon

-Possibly Berberine.

 

Anyhow, I wish I had more hard data for you, but I hope that gives you some ideas to explore.  

 

 

 

 



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#8 DePaw

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Posted 19 December 2014 - 12:49 PM

My brain does fill in gaps weirdly as well, as most the time I only hear every other word. Sometimes I get it completely wrong if the body language is unusual, as that along with tone of voice is how I work out what they may be saying.

Interesting theory but doesn't hold true for me, my serum glucose is fine, fasting and post-prandial. I have been low carb, even zero carb before and didn't notice a difference.

But tiredness may be a factor, although it doesn't explain my early development of learning words wrong: I am diagnosed with narcolepsy+cataplexy. But I'm medicated and although I feel tired lots I don't fall asleep randomly anymore. So not sure where to go on this then...




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