You want to be courteous when you are talking to friends. You want your customers, colleagues, and boss to recognize that you’re fully involved when you’re at work. You regularly find yourself needing family to repeat themselves because it was less difficult to tune out parts of the discussion that you couldn’t hear very well.
On zoom calls you lean in closer. You watch for facial hints, listen for inflection, pay close attention to body language. You attempt to read people’s lips. And if all else fails – you fake it.
Maybe your in denial. Your struggling to keep up because you missed most of what was said. Life at home and tasks at work have become unjustifiably overwhelming and you are feeling frustrated and isolated due to years of cumulative hearing loss.
The ability for someone to hear is influenced by situational variables like background sound, competing signals, room acoustics, and how familiar they are with their surroundings, according to research. These factors are relevant, but it can be a lot worse for people who suffer from hearing loss.
There are certain revealing behaviors that will raise your awareness of whether you’re in denial about how your hearing loss is affecting your professional life:
- Feeling like people are mumbling and not speaking clearly
- Constantly having to ask people to repeat themselves
- Leaning in during conversations and unconsciously cupping your ear with your hand
- Having a difficult time hearing what others behind you are saying
- Missing important parts of phone conversations
- Pretending to comprehend, only to later ask others about what was said
Hearing loss most likely didn’t occur overnight even though it could feel as if it did. Most people wait 7 years on average before accepting the problem and seeking help.
That means if your hearing loss is an issue now, it has most likely been going un-addressed and untreated for some time. Hearing loss is no joke so stop kidding yourself and schedule an appointment right away.