Coming To Terms With Your Hearing Loss

Hearing loss can't be controlled.

It's impossible to enter a situation knowing what listening challenges we might face.

We can't control if an important speaker is a mumbler, or to make matters worse, a mumbler who's tone of voice is in the exact frequency we can't hear.

What we can control is our attitude towards these tough situations and how we cope with them. When we come to terms with our discomfort we take back the power that we lost in the first place.

Exerting control is the primary focus when coming to grips with your hearing loss. Without control we let the situation get the better of us.

Here's a few simple steps to exert control and stay calm in a stressful situation

1. Let others know about your hearing loss. Hearing loss is an invisible disability. If we don’t let people know that we have trouble hearing, they are unlikely to notice right away.
2. Provide specific requests for assistance. The more details we provide in our asks the better. People are generally willing to help, but they may not know what to do.

3. Understand what tools are available to help you. Educate yourself about hearing assistive technologies and use them. If you use hearing aids make sure they are set correctly.

1. Accept your hearing loss. This is a tough one for many of us, but the more relaxed you can be about your hearing loss, the more comfortable others will be.
2. Focus on what you can control & use your energy on what you can control.

Everyone’s hearing loss is different so each of us must learn to identify which situations are most problematic and through trial and error, which adjustments are most helpful. Then we need to take the next step, which is making the adjustments necessary or being brave and asking for the help we need.

Because hearing loss is an invisible disability, people may not know that we need help unless we ask for it. We can’t be shy and we must be as specific as possible in our requests. Well-intentioned people may try to help us by shouting or leaning into our ear, but this will block their lips.

Even the best intentioned get it wrong because hearing loss is such a hard thing to understand if you have not lived with it. It is our job as people with hearing loss to explain what we need as clearly as possible.

In summary I think that preparation and planning in advance to situations where you perceive a problem with you hearing might occur is the best way to relax and accept that hearing loss is apart of your life. People tend to be very accepting of hearing problems and can catch on quickly when you try to communicate with them that you have hearing loss.

Using the steps given above you'll be able to relax knowing that you can go into any situation with a calm mind and the ability to communicate your disability to others.