More than 1.5 billion people (nearly 20% of the global population) live with hearing loss every day. Although it is widespread, a lot of people may choose to avoid confronting the reality of hearing loss rather than seeking treatment.
Treating your hearing loss with hearing aids can help ease communication, improve awareness of your surroundings and more. Despite these benefits, people often let their fears of acknowledging hearing loss prevent them from enjoying the benefits of treatment.
You cannot always erase fear completely, but identifying your fears and developing strategies to face them is an essential first step toward dealing with your hearing loss head-on. Let’s look at some common fears surrounding hearing loss and how you can cope with each one.
Hearing Loss Will Make Communication Difficult
With any degree of hearing loss, you may have already begun to have trouble communicating with the people in your life. Missing words, phrases and other verbal cues is common with untreated hearing loss, but there are compensation methods available, including but not limited to:
- Wearing hearing aids. Hearing aids have a microphone that collects sound, an amplifier that raises its volume and a speaker which sends it directly into the ear canal. The small but powerful devices can help clarify conversation and make a dinner with your friends at the Smoke House Restaurant a more engaging and enjoyable activity.
- Informing your loved ones of your hearing loss. You don’t need to bear the weight of your hearing loss alone. Try giving the people in your life the opportunity to help you. Ask them to look at you while they talk and rephrase sentences you didn’t understand. They’ll appreciate that you are taking steps to understand them better, and it will take some of the stress of communication off of you.
Hearing Loss Will Pass To My Kids
Fear that hearing loss will be genetic is very common and is best addressed by your audiologist. An audiologist will be able to ask questions about your family’s medical and personal history to look for the cause of your hearing loss. If your hearing loss is genetic, it may be passed on to your children. Try confronting this possibility head-on. Learn about your hearing loss and discuss your concerns with your audiologist. This will give you the information you need to handle any hearing-loss challenges that may come your way, either in your own case or your children’s.
These and more fears may arise when you embark on your hearing treatment journey, but they don’t need to stop you from enjoying the benefits of treatment. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and learn all you can to make hearing loss a little less scary.
For more information on hearing loss treatment, contact Sound Advice today to speak to one of our specialists.