Overcoming A Hearing Loss and The Need To Be Always Right

It is human nature to think we are right about what we’ve learned throughout our lives and right about the way our bodies are supposed to function. Those lucky people that have never had a medical problem, never been diagnosed with a serious medical condition or never had so much as the common cold have an extraordinarily hard time understanding what is happening when their hearing begins to fail. Their declining ability to hear clearly is in direct opposition of the person’s fundamental view of how their body should function. This need to be right is one of the most challenging issues facing loved ones of someone with hearing loss.

The problem with needing to be right all the time, and consequently refusing to admit to a medical condition such as hearing loss, is the patient is usually getting the answers wrong. Even though they are getting the answers wrong, the patient will still be completely sure they are right. Hearing loss patients will often accuse others of being the problem, absolutely sure others are mumbling or whispering on purpose.

Patients will refuse to believe they simply cannot hear conversational speech as well as they used to. This inability to hear conversational speech can significantly lessen a patient’s ability to answer a question correctly. Adding to the problem is the fact that only a high frequency hearing loss causes you to miss understand words and especially the higher vocal pitches of females or children.

A patient, after so much time getting the answers wrong, usually begins to doubt their ability to be right about anything in their life. That need and ability to be right, that is so much a part of human nature, is one of the building blocks of self-esteem. The connection between being right and high self-esteem is known as positive reinforcement. The more often a person is correct, the better they feel about themselves. Finding out that they are wrong much of the time can cause a hearing loss patient’s self-esteem to deteriorate, sometimes to the point of depression.

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