Many aspects of your daily life can be affected by Hearing Loss. Neglected hearing loss, for instance, can affect your professional life, your favorite pastimes, and even your relationships. Communication can become strained for couples who are dealing with hearing loss. Animosity can develop from the increased stress and more frequent arguments. In other words, left uncontrolled, hearing loss can negatively affect your relationship in substantial ways.
So, how does hearing loss effect relationships? In part, these tribulations happen because the parties 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 base cause of your communication issues. This can lead to both partners feeling alienated and can make it difficult to find practical solutions.
Frequently, a diagnosis of hearing loss coupled with helpful strategies from a hearing specialist can help couples start communicating again, and improve their relationships.
Can hearing loss impact relationships?
It’s really easy to ignore hearing loss when it first presents. This can lead to substantial misunderstandings between couples. Consequently, there are a few common problems that develop:
- Arguments: Arguments are rather common in almost all relationships. But when hearing loss is present, those arguments can be even more frustrating. Arguments can happen more often too. Hearing loss related behavioral changes, like needing volumes to be painfully loud, can also become a source of tension
- Couples frequently confuse hearing loss for “selective hearing”: Selective hearing is what occurs when someone hears “we’re having brownies for dessert” very clearly, but somehow doesn’t hear “we need to take out the trash before we eat”. In some cases, selective hearing is a conscious action, in other instances, it’s quite unintended. One of the most frequent effects of hearing loss on a spouse is that they might start to miss words or certain phrases will seem garbled. This can sometimes lead to tension and resentment because one spouse mistakes this for “selective hearing”.
- Feeling ignored: You would likely feel like you’re being ignored if you addressed somebody and they didn’t respond. When one of the partners has hearing loss but is oblivious of it, this can frequently take place. Feeling like your partner is not paying attention to you is not good for long-term relationship health.
- Intimacy may suffer: In many relationships, communication is the cornerstone of intimacy. This can cause a rift to build up between the partners. As a result, hearing loss may introduce friction throughout the relationship, leading to more frustration and tension.
In many cases, this friction begins to occur before any formal diagnosis of hearing loss. Feelings of bitterness may be worse when parties don’t know hearing loss is the root problem (or when the partner with hearing loss insists on ignoring their symptoms).
Tips for living with someone who is dealing with hearing loss
If hearing loss can cause so much conflict in a relationship, how do you live with someone who is dealing with hearing loss? This will only be a problem for couples who aren’t willing to formulate new communication strategies. 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. Many areas of stress will fade away and communication will be more successful when hearing loss is well controlled. In addition, treating hearing loss is a safety concern: hearing loss can impact your ability to hear the telephone, smoke detectors and fire alarms, and the doorbell. It may also be hard to hear oncoming traffic. We can help your partner better control any of these potential concerns.
- As much as you can, try to look directly into the face of the person you’re talking with: For somebody who has hearing loss, face-to-face communication can give an abundance of visual cues. You will be supplying your partner with body language and facial cues. And with increased eye contact it will be easier to maintain concentration. This supplies your partner with more information to process, and that typically makes it easier to understand your intent.
- When you repeat what you said, try using different words: When your partner doesn’t hear what you said, you will usually try repeating yourself. But rather than using the same words again and again, try changing things up. Certain words may be harder to hear than others depending on what frequencies your hearing loss impact most. Your message can be strengthened by changing the words you use.
- Help your partner get used to their hearing aids: This can include things like taking over chores that cause significant anxiety (like going to the grocery store 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 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 dramatically improved by practicing this kind of patience.
What happens after you get diagnosed?
Hearing assessments are typically non-invasive and quite simple. Usually, 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 ensure that hearing loss doesn’t sabotage your happiness or your partnership.
