Even the most detailed diagnosis doesn't help the individual to evaluate his feelings about his condition, in particular, how normal those feelings are. In contrast, the terms medical, surgical, progressive and traumatic can be helpful because they embody the experience of change and where the change came from. In medical losses, the person has the accompanying illness and either the illness or the medications causes the deafness. In progressive losses, health is good, except there is this contant, gradual change in what the person is able to hear. Progressive losses often take 20 years or more.
Traumatic losses involve some kind of head injury, and are sudden.
Usually when there is a head injury, there are other problems to deal with. For further descriptions of the experiences of 'medical', 'surgical', 'progressive', and 'traumatic' routes to deafness, see elsewhere on this site . Contacting me .