Lost my hearing
Went to counselling - counsellors kicked me out telling "I don't know how to help you". They were supposed to help me handle my job. It's been a difficult task developing a career goal when everyone thinks because your deaf you lost your brains.

It's an interesting experience to be told wow we like your work but we are giving the job to someone with less talent than you because we don't know how to deal with your deafness.

I stand there in amazement thinking hang on I'm deaf that's for me to deal with not you. You just give me the job and I do it. So I say to them,"here I am sitting and communicating with you with no problems, you see my portfolio shows that I can do it?" "No, I can't risk it."

Lost my job. Unemployed 5 years now

To my horror I was put on disability rather than assigned an employment counsellor.

The disability pension is 50% below the poverty line. I am not permitted to touch my superannuation till I reach retirement age 25+ years away. It's losing money anyway and I figure in about 7 years they'll start billing me (its a government scheme)

Developed a relationship that ended with "I'm sorry I can't handle your hearing impairment I've decided to try and develop another relationship"

I lost my home which I had fully paid off.

Today I spoke to my father for the 1st time in 18 months he's been trying to contact me for the last 5 weeks. Last time I spoke to him he informed me that I am a "useless human being" amongst some other things that I don't care to recall.

Today his advise to me was "Don't bother looking for a job... you won't get one anyway".

I live on my own, unless I wear my hearing aids the world is quiet.

Am I loser? If I listen to my father, yes.

To me personally, no. My answer is it makes no difference - it's just an opinion and opinions can change. Even the opinon I have of myself is a choice.

Consider this.

To Laugh is to Risk appearing a fool - Laugh anyway.
To Weep is to appear sentimental - weep anyway.
To Reach out for another is to Risk involvement - Get involved anyway.
To Expose your feelings is to Risk exposing your true self - Be Vulnerable anyway.
To Place your Dreams before a crowd is to Risk their loss - Present them anyway.
To Love is to Risk not being loved in return - Love anyway.
To Hope is to Risk despair - Hope anyway.
To Try is to Risk failure - Try anyway.
To Live is to Risk dying - Live anyway.

The Person who will Risks Nothing; does Nothing; has Nothing IS Nothing.
Only a person who will Risk will become truely free.
- Patrick Mc Bae

I know that there is nothing in this post that is an answer to your problem.

I keep doing whatever I do and just keep going. I accept responsiblity for my deafness, I am not waiting around for someone to save me because I don't need saving. I know there are things I could be doing better. The fact of the matter is that the only person that you can really count on when everything around you is stuffed up is yourself. Often it feels like you're picking yourself up by the bootstraps.

You've got to be your own best friend. To that end you start letting yourself hear what you would like to hear 'your friend' telling you. 'Hey you're ok you know.' When you say to your friend, 'I don't know' you will want hear 'Yeah, but maybe we can find out?'. Or you say, 'I can't' your friend would probably say, 'well, maybe not yet, but we could learn.'

In all forget goals, worries and that... get the Self Esteem Supercharger from LSC. Use that everyday for a couple of weeks and see what you want from life then.

Good luck
Alex