Many facets of your day-to-day life can be impacted by Hearing Loss. Untreated hearing loss, for example, can impact your professional life, your favorite hobbies, and even your relationships. Communication can become tense for couples who are dealing with hearing loss. Animosity can develop from the increased tension and more frequent arguments. In other words, left unchecked, hearing loss can negatively affect your relationship in substantial ways.
So how are relationships impacted by hearing loss? In part, these difficulties arise because the individuals are not aware of the hearing loss. Hearing loss typically is, after all, a slowly developing condition. Communication may be strained because of hearing loss and you and your partner may not even be aware it’s the root of the problem. This can result in both partners feeling alienated and can make it hard to find practical solutions.
Relationships can be improved and communication can begin to be mended when hearing loss is diagnosed and couples get effective solutions from us.
Can relationships be impacted by hearing loss?
When hearing loss is in the early stages, it can be hard to identify. This can lead to significant misunderstandings between couples. As a result, there are some common problems that develop:
- Intimacy may suffer: In lots of relationships, communication is the cornerstone of intimacy. This can cause a rift to build up between the partners. Consequently, hearing loss may introduce friction throughout the relationship, causing more frustration and tension.
- Feeling ignored: When someone doesn’t respond to what you say, you’re likely to feel ignored. When one of the partners has hearing loss but is unaware of it, this can frequently take place. Feeling as if your partner isn’t paying attention to you isn’t good for long-term relationship health.
- Arguments: It’s not unusual for arguments to take place in a relationship, at least, sometimes. But arguments will be even more frustrating when one or both partners have hearing loss. Arguments can become more frequent too. Hearing loss related behavioral changes, like requiring things to be painfully loud, can also become a source of tension
- It’s not unusual for one of the partners to blame hearing loss on “selective hearing”: Selective hearing is when somebody 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 unintended, and in others, it can be a conscious decision. Spouses will frequently start to miss particular words or phrases or these words and phrases will sound jumbled when one of them has hearing loss. This can frequently be mistaken for “selective hearing,” resulting in resentment and tension in the relationship.
Often, this friction starts to occur before any actual diagnosis of hearing loss. Feelings of bitterness might be worse when parties don’t suspect hearing loss is the core problem (or when the partner with hearing loss insists on dismissing their symptoms).
Living with somebody who is dealing with loss of hearing
If hearing loss can create so much conflict in a relationship, how can you live with someone who is dealing with hearing loss? For couples who are willing to formulate new communication techniques, this typically is not a problem. Some of those strategies include the following:
- Encourage your partner to come in for a hearing exam: We can help your partner regulate their hearing loss. When hearing loss is well-managed, communication is usually more effective (and many other areas of stress may go away as well). Safety is also an issue with hearing loss because it can cause you to fail to hear the doorbell, phone, and smoke alarm. You might also fail to hear oncoming traffic. We can help your partner better control any of these potential concerns.
- Try to communicate face-to-face as often as possible: Communicating face-to-face can furnish a wealth of visual clues for somebody with hearing loss. You will be supplying your partner with body language and facial cues. And with increased eye contact it will be easier to preserve concentration. By giving your partner more visual information to process they will have a simpler time understanding what you mean.
- Make use of different words when you repeat yourself: Typically, you will try to repeat what you said when your partner fails to hear you. But try changing the words you use rather than 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: This can include things like taking over tasks that cause significant anxiety (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 particularly true when you recognize that your partner is struggling with hearing loss. You might have to change the way you talk, like raising your volume for instance. You may also have to talk more slowly. This kind of patience can be challenging, but it can also drastically improve the effectiveness of your communication.
What happens after you get diagnosed?
Hearing examinations are typically non-invasive and quite simple. In most instances, those who undergo tests will do little more than put on specialized headphones and raise their hand when they hear a sound. But a hearing loss diagnosis can be a significant step to more effectively managing symptoms and relationships.
Take the hearing loss associated tension out of your relationship by encouraging your partner to come see us for a hearing examination.
