In conversation with friends, you want to be courteous. You want your customers, colleagues, and boss to see that you’re totally involved when you’re at work. With family, you may find it easier to simply tune out the conversation and ask the person next to you to fill in what you missed, just a little louder, please.
On zoom calls you move in closer. You watch for facial cues, listen for inflection, and pay close attention to body language. You try to read people’s lips. And if none of that works, you nod in understanding as if you heard every word.
Maybe you’re in denial. You’re struggling to catch up because you missed most of the conversation. You may not recognize it, but years of progressive hearing loss can have you feeling cut off and frustrated, making projects at work and life at home needlessly overwhelming.
According to some studies, situational factors like environmental acoustics, background noise, competing signals, and situational awareness have a major influence on the way a person hears. But for individuals who suffer from hearing loss, these factors are made even more difficult.
Some hearing loss behaviors to watch out for
Here are a few habits to help you identify whether you are, in truth, fooling yourself into thinking hearing loss isn’t affecting your professional and social relationships, or whether it’s just the acoustics in the environment:
- Unable to hear others talking from behind you
- Asking people to repeat themselves over and over again
- Pretending to understand, only to follow up with others to get about what was said
- Leaning in When people are talking and unconsciously cupping your ear with your hand
- Feeling like people are mumbling and not talking clearly
- Finding it more difficult to hear over the phone
While it may feel like this crept up on you suddenly, chances are your hearing loss didn’t occur overnight. Most people wait 7 years on average before accepting the issue and seeking help.
So if you’re noticing symptoms of hearing loss, you can bet that it’s been going on for some time undetected. Begin by scheduling an appointment right away, and stop kidding yourself, hearing loss is no joke.
