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" Sitting at my cluttered desk at an advertising firm in Manhattan, I heard a subtle ringing in my ears. But within seconds, it sounded like a blaring, monotone fire alarm. I flinched, covering both ears with my palms. When I realized no one else noticed the noise, I literally bolted from my office building to catch a cab to the ER. Doctors took vials of blood, scanned my skull from every angle, and gave me a hearing test. I was pronounced deaf in my left ear \u2014 the ringing was my brain&amp;#039;s way of attempting to process sounds \u2014 but there was no explanation. I hadn&amp;#039;t suffered a trauma. I had no trace of a virus or a tumor. I&amp;#039;d never even had an ear infection. I was 24. Going deaf is surprisingly very loud. Especially in the first few weeks, my ear would pop, crackle, and ring for hours on end, a side effect called tinnitus. New York City, the vibrant place whose hum I loved, went from being the city that never slept to being the city that never shut up. Its loud noises drove me mad \u2014 I never knew which side they came from. The ringing eventually died down, but it comes back when I&amp;#039;m in loud places like a subway platform or at a concert. Before my ear failed me, live music was one of my greatest pleasures, but it became unbearable. Two songs into a concert, my ears would ring sharply, my head would spin, and I&amp;#039;d have to leave. Yoga poses like headstands and tree pose became impossible because they triggered vertigo \u2014 a nauseating spinning sensation that happens when you go deaf \u2014 so I quit my practice. I became a hermit, dodging questions I couldn&amp;#039;t hear and conversations I was too nervous to participate in. At night in my bedroom, I taught myself sign language, preparing for the day the world might become suddenly silent to me. It was a dark time. But as the months went by, I stopped having emotional meltdowns. And I started to believe my doctors when they said the chance of my right ear&amp;#039;s developing sudden-onset hearing loss would be like lightning striking twice. Because my right ear works so hard, I&amp;#039;ll become hard of hearing faster than most people do as they age, but hopefully that&amp;#039;s a couple of decades away. I still get mortified asking new people to stand on one side of me and then explaining why they have to, but now I think of it as a great litmus test \u2014 the good ones don&amp;#039;t make a big deal about my disability. And now I venture into bars to listen to live music. As the electric guitars start up, I reach into my purse and pull out earplugs. I sway to the music like everyone else, grateful to still hear it. Now I see my deafness as one detail that&amp;#039;s part of me \u2014 and not my whole story. Could It Happen to You? Sudden-onset hearing loss is random and rare, but loss is common as we age. Do this to protect your ears. &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; Turn it down. Using earbuds? Keep music at 60 percent of the max volume. Or try noise-canceling headphones. &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; Take breaks. Prolonged exposure to loud noises raises your risk for hearing loss. Duck out of loud areas every 10 minutes or so. &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; Try earplugs. Noise-filtering plugs don&amp;#039;t muffle sound and do lower the risk from Spinning class or concerts. Sources: Shelley A. Borgia, audiologist at NYC Hearing Associates; Craig A. Kasper, chief audiology officer at New York Hearing Doctors This article was originally published as &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m Too Young to ... Lose My Hearing&amp;quot; in the July 2014 issue of Cosmopolitan. Click here to subscribe to the digital edition! RELATED: I&amp;#039;ve Been Exhausted My Whole Life, and There Is No Cure My New Mole Almost Killed Me My Breasts Almost Ruined My Life Photo credit: Jessica Ciencin Henriquez "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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