Category — Effects of hearing loss

No one knows I’m not hearing a lot of the conversation.  That’s right.  No one knows I didn’t get what was said unless I asked or said: what, repeat that, excuse me or what was that again.  After awhile I actually just got tired of asking people.  Most of the time they didn’t even know I wasn’t getting it, or at least I think they didn’t know.

Hearing aids have changed most of those situations for me.  I know I don’t get everything,  but I know I get almost all of it.  What a difference this has made — not only for my family but most importantly, for me.

Baby Boomers are changing the attitudes of everyone about hearing aids.  The past view of Hearing Aids is less than desirable…from making someone look old to not even working for people who have a sensory neural hearing loss.

It is so great to see how attitudes are changing about wearing hearing aids.  To me it is downright refreshing.  For the past 35 years I have done everything within my power to try to convince people they should at least try wearing a hearing aid.  It has been extremely difficult, if not impossible, to motivate most people to at least try to see if they would benefit from amplification…even when the patient agrees they have a hearing loss and know their hearing loss is causing much pain in their lives.

We all agree that the most important aspect of communication is, of course, the words we use.  Then comes the inflections and tones of sounds that the words are presented or spoke in.  We all have heard it said that it’s not what you said, it was how you said it.

Communication all comes down to so many levels of receiving information that we try to decipher what was said or how it was said.  Bottom line, we will always remember how we felt after having a conversation much more than what was said during a conversation.  The reason for this is that it is the tonal part of words that communicate the most powerful part of communications and that’s our feelings.

I remember when the only people that would buy a hearing aid were people who were dragged into my office by someone who usually said he or she “is going to buy hearing aids or I am getting a divorce”.  There was no doubt that hearing aids were going to be purchased that day.  There had to be an extreme amount of motivation to overcome the resistance of purchasing hearing aids.

Hearing aids have always been talked about as not working by most Doctors as they told everyone if they had nerve loss, hearing aids wouldn’t help.  Well, come to find out, that’s the kind of hearing loss the hearing aids helped!  Interesting how the story changes when Doctors are dispensing hearing aids; isn’t it?

What an amazing time we are living in! Who knew we would be living in an age where we can literally invest in some of the best companies in the world and not break the bank doing it. Who would have thought?

Without a doubt, the most important investment we can make is in ourselves. It may be education or improving our skills up to higher levels so we will be worth more money as employees. According to Better Hearing Institute if you have a hearing loss, you better be investing in getting your hearing corrected. Their study about hearing loss is very revealing to all of us. It tells us how important our hearing is in relationship to how much money we make in the workplace and how hearing better can improve our careers. It was noted that someone with an uncorrected hearing loss on average makes about $1000 a month less when compared with someone who has normal hearing.

I believe the quality of our lives to be dependent upon the quality of our relationships. Sometimes we don’t stop to think about what makes our lives happy and meaningful and I believe, as most experts do, it all comes down to the quality of our relationships.

Think for a moment who you are really close to. Almost everyone has a special relationship with their mate, maybe even a special friend, and I would venture to say that it’s the people at work you are the closest to that make your work environment enjoyable and even profitable.

If you are a baby boomer, you may be experiencing the same frustrations as a lot of your peers. I’m talking about the inability to hear and understand your favorite television shows,news or even a political debate. It really often comes down to who has control of the remote control.  Most families agree that when one person wants it louder and the others think it’s way to loud a lot of friction develops.  Often to the point that many watch their own TV in a separate room.

Have all your family members recently started to mumble?

How about friends, especially in a crowded environment?

If so, you are probably like millions of others in the United States and have an undiagnosed hearing loss.
Not only does this cause frustration on your part because you feel that they are not speaking clearly, but it causes family and friends to stop even trying to speak with you.  People that don’t have a hearing loss quickly become impatient when they have to repeat themselves over and over.

You will hear “never mind” so often, you might be tempted to choke people.  This may even cause a rift in an otherwise great relationship.

These are scary economic times with everyone talking about the stock market plummeting, government bail out plans and the possibility of a new great depression.

Employers are going to be facing some tough decisions as so many companies are being forced to cut costs. It goes without saying that people will be losing their jobs.

If you are living with a hearing loss and have not yet sought treatment, have you stopped to consider how hearing well could help you keep your job?

Consider this scenario…

You’ve always been a happy, sociable person, but lately you just don’t feel like socializing.

If you have an undiagnosed hearing loss, this has a tremendous impact on your mood and general outlook from day to day. Because you don’t even realize you are losing your hearing, you can’t pinpoint why you no longer want to socialize.

One of the worst feelings in the world is being part of a group…..but not really part of the group. You begin to feel isolated and angry. This anger and frustration tends to spill over to all aspects of your life. You try to place the blame for these feelings on anything but admitting you may be losing your hearing; work, partner or stress.