Many aspects of your day-to-day life can be affected by Hearing Loss. Your hobbies, your professional life, and even your love life can be impacted by hearing loss, for example. For couples who are coping with hearing loss, communication can become tense. Animosity can develop from the increased stress and more frequent arguments. In other words, left uncontrolled, hearing loss can negatively impact your relationship in significant ways.
So, how does hearing loss effect relationships? In part, these hardships arise because the individuals aren’t aware of the hearing loss. Hearing loss usually is, after all, a slowly advancing condition. As a result, you (and your partner) might not notice that hearing loss is the root cause of your communication problems. Workable solutions might be difficult to find as both partners feel increasingly alienated.
Relationships can be improved and communication can begin to be mended when hearing loss is diagnosed and couples get effective solutions from us.
Can hearing loss affect relationships?
It’s really easy to disregard hearing loss when it first presents. Couples can have substantial misunderstandings as a result of this. Consequently, there are some common issues that develop:
- Feeling ignored: You would likely feel like you’re being dismissed if you addressed somebody and they didn’t respond. This can frequently occur when one partner is experiencing hearing loss and doesn’t know it. Feeling as if your partner isn’t paying attention to you is not good for long-term relationship health.
- Arguments: It isn’t unusual for arguments to occur in a relationship, at least, occasionally. But arguments will be even more aggravating when one or both partners are dealing with hearing loss. Arguments can happen more often too. Hearing loss associated behavioral changes, such as requiring volumes to be painfully loud, can also become a source of tension
- Intimacy may suffer: In many relationships, communication is the foundation of intimacy. This can cause a rift to build up between the partners. Increased tension and frustration are frequently the result.
- It’s not uncommon for one of the partners to blame hearing loss on “selective hearing”: Selective hearing is what happens when somebody hears “we’re having brownies for dessert” very distinctly, but somehow doesn’t hear “we need to take out the trash before we eat”. Sometimes, selective hearing is absolutely unintended, and in others, it can be a conscious decision. Spouses will often begin to miss certain words or phrases or these words and phrases will sound garbled when one of them has hearing loss. This can often be mistaken for “selective hearing,” leading to resentment and tension in the relationship.
These issues will often start before anyone is diagnosed with hearing loss. If somebody doesn’t know that hearing loss is at the core of the issue, or if they are ignoring their symptoms, feelings of resentment could get worse.
Advice for living with someone who is dealing with hearing loss
How do you live with somebody who has hearing loss when hearing loss can create so much conflict? For couples who are willing to formulate new communication techniques, this typically isn’t a problem. Here are a few of those strategies:
- Encourage your partner to come in for a hearing exam: Your partner’s hearing loss can be controlled with our help. Many areas of tension will fade away and communication will be more successful when hearing loss is well managed. Safety is also an issue with hearing loss because it can cause you to fail to hear the doorbell, phone, and smoke alarm. It may also be difficult to hear oncoming traffic. Your partner can get assistance managing any of these potential problems by scheduling an appointment with us.
- Utilize different words when you repeat yourself: When your partner doesn’t understand what you said, you will usually try repeating yourself. But instead of using the same words again and again, try to change things up. Hearing loss can impact some frequencies of speech more than others, which means certain words may be more difficult to understand (while others are easier). Your message can be reinforced by changing the words you use.
- Try to communicate face-to-face as often as possible: Communicating face-to-face can supply a wealth of visual cues for somebody with hearing loss. You will be supplying your partner with body language and facial cues. It’s also easier to maintain concentration and eye contact. By giving your partner more visual information to process they will have a less difficult time understanding what you mean.
- Help your partner get used to their hearing aids: This can consist of things like taking over tasks that cause substantial stress (such as going shopping or making phone calls). You can also ask your partner’s hearing specialist if there are ways you can help them get accustomed to their hearing aids.
- Patience: This is especially true when you know that your partner is dealing with hearing loss. You may need to change the way you talk, like raising your volume for instance. It might also be necessary to talk in a slower cadence. The effectiveness of your communication can be significantly improved by practicing this kind of patience.
What happens after you get diagnosed?
A hearing test is a fairly simple, non-invasive experience. Typically, you will simply put on a pair of headphones and listen for particular tones. You will be better able to regulate your symptoms and your relationships after you get a diagnosis.
Encouraging your partner to touch base with us can help guarantee that hearing loss doesn’t undermine your happiness or your partnership.