You want to be courteous when you’re talking to friends. You want your clients, colleagues, and manager to recognize that you’re fully involved when you’re at work. You often find yourself needing family to repeat themselves because it was easier to tune out parts of the discussion that you weren’t able to hear very well.
On zoom calls you move in closer. You pay attention to body language and facial cues and listen for verbal inflections. You read lips. And if everything else fails – you fake it.
Maybe you’re in denial. You’re struggling to keep up because you missed most of the conversation. You might not know it, but years of progressive hearing loss can have you feeling isolated and discouraged, making projects at work and life at home needlessly overwhelming.
According to some studies, situational factors such as room acoustics, background noise, competing signals, and environmental awareness have a strong influence on how a person hears. These factors are relevant, but they can be a lot more extreme for individuals who have hearing loss.
Some hearing loss behaviors to watch out for
There are some tell-tale habits that will alert you to whether you’re in denial about how your hearing impairment is impacting your professional life:
- Pretending to understand, only to later ask others about what was said
- Having a hard time hearing what others behind you are saying
- Asking people to repeat themselves over and over again
- Finding it more difficult to hear over the phone
- Thinking people aren’t talking clearly when all you can hear is mumbling
- Leaning in during conversations and instinctively cupping your hand over your ear
Hearing loss most likely didn’t happen overnight even though it might feel as if it did. The majority of people wait 7 years on average before accepting the problem and finding help.
So if you’re detecting symptoms of hearing loss, you can bet that it’s been going on for some time unnoticed. Hearing loss is no joke so stop fooling yourself and schedule an appointment now.
