You want to be courteous when you’re talking with friends. You want your customers, co-workers, and manager to recognize that you’re fully involved when you’re at work. With family, you might find it less difficult to simply tune out the conversation and ask the person next to you to repeat what you missed, just a little louder, please.
On zoom calls you move in closer. You look closely at body language and facial cues and listen for verbal inflections. You try to read people’s lips. And if that doesn’t work, you nod in understanding as if you heard everything.
Maybe you’re in denial. You’re struggling to catch up because you missed most of what was said. Life at home and tasks at work have become unnecessarily difficult and you are feeling aggravated and cut off due to years of progressive hearing loss.
According to some studies, situational factors like room acoustics, background noise, contending signals, and situational awareness have a major influence on the way we hear. These factors are relevant, but they can be a lot worse for people who have hearing loss.
Watch out for these behaviors
Here are some habits to help you figure out whether you are, in fact, convincing yourself that your hearing impairment is not impacting your social and professional interactions, or whether it’s simply the acoustics in the environment:
- Asking others what was said after pretending to hear what they were saying
- Having a difficult time hearing what others behind you are saying
- Requesting that repeat themselves again and again… and again
- Feeling as if people are mumbling and not speaking clearly
- Cupping your ear with your hand or leaning in close to the person talking without realizing it
- Missing important parts of phone conversations
Hearing loss most likely didn’t occur overnight even though it may feel as if it did. The majority of people wait an average of 7 years before acknowledging the problem and seeking help.
So if you’re detecting symptoms of hearing loss, you can be sure that it’s been occurring for some time unnoticed. Hearing loss is no joke so stop kidding yourself and make an appointment now.