Coming to Terms with Your Hearing Loss

Have you noticed that your hearing isn’t as sharp as it once was? Have your loved ones been making comments about your hearing that make you concerned about your hearing health? Roughly 40 million Americans strain to hear, but many choose to ignore their hearing loss, and refuse to come to terms with their inability to hear clearly. While this might seem like the easiest solution in the moment, avoiding dealing with your hearing health will reduce your quality of life, and threaten your overall health and wellbeing.

Denying Your Hearing Loss

Hearing loss is a gradual process, and if you’re a senior with slowly changing hearing, it’s likely that you won’t be the first to notice that you can’t hear clearly. Your family may draw your attention to the fact that you didn’t hear them call your name from another room, or haven’t been hearing the stove alarm. Think about some of the softest sounds in your life. Are you still able to hear birds chirping outside, or the ticking sound of your car’s turn signal? When someone points out your hearing loss, it’s natural to deny it. You don’t want to admit to having poor hearing, or feel as if you’re getting older, and may think you just have a bit of hearing loss in one ear. Sadly, many Americans deny their hearing loss for 5 to 7 years, and live with untreated hearing loss for far too long.

Blaming Others

When you struggle to follow conversations, you might be tempted to blame those around you for your inability to hear. After all, it seems as if your loved ones are mumbling, and if they would just speak more clearly, you’d have no trouble hearing. Not only that, but they keep reminding you that you can’t hear them, or that you’ve been turning up the TV volume too loud. However, getting upset at someone else won’t bring back your hearing, and if you can’t follow conversations it’s time to come to terms with your hearing loss and seek treatment.

Falling into Depression

If you’ve been living with untreated hearing loss, and can’t follow conversations, connecting with your friends and loved ones becomes increasingly difficult. Simple interactions get complicated, and even ordering a coffee or paying for groceries can be exhausting. You avoid meeting friends in crowded restaurants or any places with a lot of background noise, since it’s just too hard to follow conversations, and you get embarrassed every time you ask someone to repeat themselves or mishear what’s been said. You’ve come to realize that your hearing will never be completely normal again, and your world begins to shrink.

Untreated hearing loss is closely linked to anxiety, stress, social isolation, and depression. That’s why coming to terms with your hearing loss and seeking treatment as soon as possible is so important to your overall health as well as to your mental health and wellbeing.

Treating Hearing Loss

As you come to terms with your hearing loss, you begin to accept the reality of your situation, and stop fighting your hearing limitations. Once you accept that you have hearing loss, the rest is easy! Treating you hearing loss will change your life, and you’ll be able to hear clearly, interact easily with family and friends, and enjoy natural sound.

At Orange County Physicians’ Hearing Services our team of friendly hearing health specialists will test your hearing, and together we’ll discover exactly which sounds you can and can’t hear. We work with the world’s top hearing aid manufacturers that design innovative hearing technology that does incredible things. From the latest in connectivity features that will make talking on the phone a breeze to rechargeable technology that means you’ll never have to fiddle with your devices, we have the best hearing aids on the market.

We’re committed to finding you the device that matches your unique lifestyle and hearing needs so that you’ll be able to hear clearly in every situation. Hearing clearly will improve your quality of life, keep you connected with friends and loved ones, give you back your social life and independence, and increase your happiness. Visit us today and find out what hearing aids can do for you.