Managing Your Mind When the Music Fades

Memoirist John Cotter describes his partial loss of hearing
through a series of anecdotes. Running along the Massachusetts
coastline, he found he could no longer hear the rush and ebb of
the ocean waves. He danced at a wedding to what he thought was an
indiscriminate wall of cacophony but when his wife said it was
“Billie Jean”, John’s brain was able to assemble the sound
together through memory. John was diagnosed with Ménière's
disease, which affects hearing and causes vertigo, but received
little in the way of treatment advice beyond being told to get on
antidepressants. This wasn’t necessarily bad advice because he
entered a deep depression from losing the ability to teach, to
enjoy his favorite music, and even to talk to friends on the
phone. Gradually, he finds hearing aids that are effective,
learns to read lips (which he does in this interview conducted
over Zoom), and finds music again.


Get your copy of Losing Music: A Memoir wherever books are
sold. Learn more about John Cotter by visiting his website,
www.JohnCotter.net.


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