I can’t hear you

It always sounds like a lame excuse for avoiding social encounters, but I really think I have some kind of hearing issue, above and beyond whatever perfectly reasonable complaining a person might do about the obviously excessive volume. I seem to have difficulty discriminating sounds in any loud environment. I am often amazed at the way people seem to understand each other loud dinner parties: everyone’s chatting away like it’s no big deal, as if they can actually understand each other fine, and I am straining to catch enough keywords from my neighbour that I can carry on anything like a normal conversation. Concerts actually just don’t really sound like much of anything to me. I can hear/feel the beat well enough, but detail? Fuggedaboutit.