"I was depressed when I found out at 14, I know it was a death sentence to my hearing. My father was deaf, my grandfather was deaf, I knew that I had inherited deafness," said Condon.

As his hearing started to deteriorate, Pat became worried about his future.

"There was a lot of insecurities about relationships, would I be able to get married, would I be able to find somebody to love me, would I find a job, there's a lot of that," said Condon.

Once he was able to accept his hearing loss, he started wearing hearing aids, got married, had children and is vice president of portfolio analytics for PMM Finance. Pat's employers provide him with accommodations but there are still challenges.

"I have difficulty in meetings. I don't hear every work in meetings but people know that. I'm more forthright in telling them I'm not going to hear it all. If I go to a conference, I get captioning provide or a cart service," said Condon.

The Chicago Hearing Society has a program called Hearing Loss Link.

"We really try and figure out what their specific goals are. If they say to us, I think I've reached the point that I need a hearing aid or what ever, where is it you're having troubled is it in the workplace with older people sometimes it's going to the movies," said Jill Sahakian, executive director of Chicago Hearing Society.

Sahakian says people do not always take their hearing seriously.

"There will be little features on the news about iPODs or other devices and people will be interviewed and they will say oh yeah I've heard about that but it doesn't cause me any problems," said

"I always wish I could get my hearing back," said

"Once you notice a problem, it's too late, it's gone," said.

By Karen Meyer
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=community&id=4002678