Many facets of your daily life can be impacted by Hearing Loss. Neglected hearing loss, for example, can impact your professional life, your favorite pastimes, and even your relationships. Communication can become strained for couples who are coping with hearing loss. Animosity can develop from the increased stress and more frequent arguments. If untreated, in other words, hearing loss can have a substantially negative effect on your relationship.
So how are relationships affected by hearing loss? These difficulties arise, in part, because people are often unaware that they even have hearing loss. After all, hearing loss is usually a slow-moving and hard to detect condition. Communication might be strained because of hearing loss and you and your partner may not even be aware it’s the root of the problem. Practical solutions may 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 reliable solutions from us.
Can hearing loss impact relationships?
It’s really easy to overlook hearing loss when it initially begins to develop. Couples can have significant misunderstandings as a result of this. The following common issues can develop as a result:
- Arguments: Arguments are fairly common in almost all relationships. But when hearing loss is present, those arguments can be even more aggravating. For some couples, arguments will ignite more frequently because of an increase in misunderstandings. Hearing loss related behavioral changes, like needing volumes to be painfully loud, can also become a source of tension
- It isn’t uncommon for one of the partners to blame hearing loss on “selective hearing”: Selective hearing is when someone easily hears something like “let’s go get some ice cream”, but somehow misses something like “let’s do some spring cleaning”. In some cases, selective hearing is absolutely unintentional, and in others, it can be a conscious choice. One of the most common effects of hearing loss on a spouse is that they may start to miss words or specific phrases will seem garbled. This can sometimes result in tension and resentment because one spouse confuses this for “selective hearing”.
- Intimacy may suffer: In lots of relationships, communication is the cornerstone of intimacy. And when that communication becomes harder, all parties may feel more separated from one another. As a result, hearing loss might introduce friction throughout the relationship, leading to more frustration and tension.
- Feeling ignored: You would probably feel like you’re being disregarded if you addressed someone and they didn’t respond. This can frequently happen when one partner is suffering from hearing loss and isn’t aware of it. The long-term health of your relationship can be severely put in jeopardy if you feel like you’re being ignored.
These problems will often start before anyone is diagnosed with hearing loss. Feelings of resentment may be worse when parties don’t know hearing loss is the root issue (or when the partner with hearing loss insists on disregarding their symptoms).
Advice for living with someone who is dealing with hearing loss
How do you live with a person who has hearing loss when hearing loss can result in so much conflict? This will only be a problem for couples who aren’t willing to formulate new communication strategies. Here are some of those strategies:
- Patience: When you recognize that your partner is dealing with hearing loss, patience is particularly important. You might have to change the way you speak, like raising your volume for example. You might also have to talk more slowly. This kind of patience can be a challenge, but it can also drastically improve the effectiveness of your communication.
- Make use of different words when you repeat yourself: When your partner doesn’t understand what you said, you will usually try repeating yourself. But try switching the words you use instead of using the same words. Hearing loss can affect some frequencies of speech more than others, which means certain words may be more difficult to understand (while others are easier). Changing your word choice can help reinforce your message.
- Help your partner get used to their hearing aids: Perhaps you could do things like taking over trips to the grocery store or other chores that cause your partner anxiety. There also may be ways you can help your partner get used to their hearing aids and we can assist you with that.
- Try to talk face-to-face as often as you can: For someone who is dealing with hearing loss, face-to-face communication can give lots of visual cues. You will be providing your partner with body language and facial cues. And with increased eye contact it will be easier to preserve concentration. This supplies your partner with more information to process, and that usually makes it easier to understand your intent.
- Encourage your partner to come in for a hearing exam: Your partner’s hearing loss can be controlled with our help. When hearing loss is well-managed, communication is typically more successful (and many other areas of tension may recede too). In addition, treating hearing loss is a safety issue: hearing loss can effect your ability to hear the telephone, smoke detectors and fire alarms, and the doorbell. You could also fail to hear oncoming traffic. We can help your partner better regulate any of these potential concerns.
What happens after you get diagnosed?
A hearing test is a relatively simple, non-invasive experience. In most cases, those who undergo tests will do little more than put on specialized headphones and raise their hand when they hear a sound. You will be better able to manage your symptoms and your relationships after you get a diagnosis.
Take the hearing loss related tension out of your relationship by encouraging your partner to come see us for a hearing examination.
