You want to be polite when you are talking to friends. You want your clients, co-workers, and manager to see that you’re fully engaged when you’re at work. You regularly find yourself needing family to repeat themselves because it was easier to tune out parts of the discussion that you couldn’t hear very well.
On zoom calls you move in closer. You watch for facial hints, listen for inflection, and pay close attention to body language. You read lips. And if none of that works, you nod as if you heard every word.
Maybe you’re in denial. You missed a lot of the conversation, and you’re straining to keep up. Life at home and projects at work have become unnecessarily difficult and you are feeling aggravated and isolated due to years of progressive hearing loss.
The ability for a person to hear is impacted by situational variables including background sound, contending signals, room acoustics, and how familiar they are with their setting, according to studies. These factors are relevant, but they can be much worse for individuals who suffer from hearing loss.
Look out for these behaviors
Here are some habits to help you identify whether you are, in fact, convincing yourself that your hearing loss is not affecting your professional and social interactions, or whether it’s just the acoustics in the environment:
- Requesting that repeat themselves over and over again
- Missing important parts of phone conversations
- Having a hard time hearing what people behind you are saying
- Cupping your ear with your hand or leaning in close to the person who is speaking without realizing it
- Thinking people aren’t talking clearly when all you seem to hear is mumbling
- Asking others what you missed after pretending to hear what they were saying
While it might feel like this snuck up on you suddenly, more than likely your hearing impairment didn’t occur overnight. Acknowledging and seeking out help for hearing impairment is something that takes most people 7 years or more.
So if you’re noticing symptoms of hearing loss, you can be sure that it’s been going on for some time unnoticed. Begin by scheduling an appointment right away, and stop kidding yourself, hearing loss is no joke.