Was It Hard for You to Find a Suitable Hyperacusis Friendly Apartment?

[Marc22]

Hi folks:

I would like to know if it has ever been hard for you to find a suitable apartment , as a person with hyperacusis? I ask this because I have been having a hard time. I had been living 25 years in a fine place, but we had to leave. Learning to use the websites for apartment searches, finding a roommate who would be respectful (or living alone?), finances, etc... It's all been STRESSFUL!!

Marco

 

[another sean]

finding one on a neighborhood street is helpful or a modern complex with thick concrete walls and windows. Avoid being next to grass because of gardeners. And I personally sound proofed my bedroom window with a 3 inch custom sound barrier so I have a "safe room" if need be. many times it best to drive down streets you like and look for a rent sign instead of waiting for it to appear online.

 

[Marc22]

Thanks, Another Sean, very fine advice. One question though: your landlord let you sound proof that room? Or do you own the place that you live in?

I see you live in L. A., an even bigger city than mine, Montreal. How do you get around? Me, I can only take taxis, not often because of cost. My big worry is not having any choice but to be stuck in an apartment in a busy area with little chance of ever leaving my apartment. That has never happened in the 23 years of hyperacusis but who knows?

Marco

 

[Yo-Han]

Hey @Marc22,

I read your story about your bad housing move and wanted to reply a few months ago. Severe burnout has made me so tired the last months and i'm not able to work for a while and out of my normal doing, i couldn't find the energy to post ... And i'm in a pretty bad T setback now since late september.

I can account my last years misery and this current setback all to... a bad housing move! I see many simularities in what you've experienced @Marc22 . Needing to move, ending somewhere not so good with an unkown room mate... ending up in psychiatry because you have or feeled you have no options anymore ... (i'm not there yet in pscychiatry) I do not judge you here. I have sympathy. I'mm recently visiting i shrink doh; i need from my general doc for work ilness, and i'm not happy too with him for now.

I had to move after 15 years. All that after my H just got real bad in 2015. Before it was way milder and only troublesome above 90Db. The town (Ghent) here got a population of 250 000, the 3d largest one in Tiny Belgium.

It took me nearly about 2-3 years to find something decent in a quiet street in my city. Double the price off course.

The BAD. Worst appartment ever in terms of contact sound from a wooden floor above me!

Long year short ->

I have to be out on the 1st of januari 2019 cause i terminated a real shit contract here. I could have gone to court (but with bad H? hmmm ), but didn't have too because i used my smart. But it took me months to hold back the landlords from renting the floor above me in illegal ways. They did it with air bnb on my own home number while they do not live here! They now are gonna rent these 2 floors wich i have the lower ground floor from as one home again, nuff said i geuss.

My move is planned the 28th dec. know. Because i did not prolong this awfull 1 year contract. I didn't find anything decent i can get in before the 1st, so have to go in a room with a friend with some other house guest i do not know, sigh. I had that option before but i like my privacy most.

So i'm gonna move into a nearby smaller town i hope soon, or a few miles from the city and hope i survive the days and weeks months at my friends less private sometimes noisy house in the meantime. But its not as bad as i had it here at a time... or i might end up in a pysch ward too! I hope you are doing better , nice to reed you are @Marc22

I'll have had 3 moves in a short time like its not stressing enough with this H. I recognise this very well Marco! Its the H making it so stressfull.

So dear Marco, keep on looking for a better place, and find some peace and quit living. My first app was pretty sweet and 5 min walk from the city centre... But these are scarse now and teh city is growing expanding (cooonstruction hydraulic jackhammers wich caused my last bad spike). I agree with @another sean at certain pre-causions to make living with H easyer. I'd go nuts now in LA or any big town.

greets, Johan

ps. sorry for the long post, i'll be shorter next

 

[Marc22]

Yo-Han:

Thanks for your story. I am going to print it out and read it at home carefully. Then I will get back to you with some response.
Today I am in my library writing this , and waiting for a 2PM public alarm system to go off. It is a test for an emergency warning system for my city, Montreal. I should be OK inside here, but if not, I will go to the basement. There is always some challenge for a person with hyperacusis!

Marco

 

[Marc22]

Dear Yo-Han:

I just read your post thoroughly. It seems you really understand me and my housing problems. Thank you for giving me your feedback.

This has been my recent housing history:

- I left an apartment I had been occupying for 25 years with my mother on July 1st last summer, due to legal repossession by a new owner. I had been living there a little longer than I have had hyperacusis, which is 23 years.

-Then I went to a hotel for 7 days, then another for 1 month, then I moved in with a relatively unknown roommate. Left that in mid-October due to awful disputes with this roommate and awful noise from planes overhead and worry about construction that was going to start about 150 metres away . Then I just spent 5 weeks in a psych ward due to all the stress. That stay was my SECOND this year, after the first one in January earlier, which was due to all the worry of what MIGHT happen after getting a notice by the new owner last December 2017 that we had to leave by July. I successfully sold and gave away most of our possessions, without of course much help from anybody, despite some lingering depression and on and off bad hyperacusis (My hyperacusis at least ain't too bad these days despite the odd setback). I had to place my mother in a public nursing home, where she languishes at 93 years of age. A friend of mine told me that my mother felt like dying, which is not surprising, since amongst other reasons contributing to her despair, that nursing home is an incredible downer.
- Now I am looking for a new place for Jan 1st or earlier. I am not optimistic since I am feeling still depressed (not as bad as in the hospital) and fatigued. But money will run out, what then? Those idiots at the hospital have actually given me, as an option, to live in homeless shelters, and with my hyperacusis!

I swear, practically no one cares. The message I have received from the world in this last dreadful year is: FUCK YOU, YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN, AND IF YOU DO NOT MAKE IT, TOUGH LUCK, NOBODY CARES.

Marco