Are you still struggling to be transparent about your hearing impairment? If so, don’t be alarmed; many who struggle with this common condition are doing the same! Pretending to hear is not a productive way to communicate. Hearing loss has become one of our country’s top five health concerns, alongside diabetes and cancer. Learn to recognize your condition, how to come to terms with your hearing impairment, and how to empower yourself to take control. Stop pretending to hear today!
Avoidance
Avoidance can start as an intuitive way to regulate us when we aren’t aware of something wrong. We don’t want to interrupt the flow of someone’s conversation or routine by drawing attention to our condition. Instead, our social circumstances put us in situations where we seek to avoid embarrassment or vulnerability to others. Hearing loss can be very slow and subtle. Let’s look at some of the common ways people attempt to pretend to hear and work through the beginning stages of hearing loss:
For a while, some of the above techniques might work in pretending to hear, but ultimately avoiding the condition can do more harm than good. For example, if you were to use avoidance techniques in a work setting, the results might be substantially worse than amongst friends and family members.
Overcompensation
The subtlety of hearing loss from its onset can and frequently be compensated by our ability to improvise. We start to rely on more visual clues, such as facial expressions and body language, to gauge the context of the conversation. When this happens, we overwork our other senses, feeling more fatigued, and cause even more damage to our normal hearing process even more.
When we pretend to hear by overcompensating, our brain will try to correct the misinformation of the sounds we now receive. The result is that we force our brains to work harder to establish new neural pathways for hearing. In addition, the parts of our brain used to being employed for a whole hearing experience are now assigned to other areas.
Face the Challenge
Did you know that informing and educating people about your hearing loss increases communication? People mostly want to be helpful, so communicating that you are having difficulty hearing, whether because of hearing loss or something else, is always the best action for any situation.
At work, there are laws in place to make sure your hearing ability is not used against you, as well as accommodations that can be put in place for your benefit.
The change for the better does require courage to acknowledge your condition and then disclose it to others in an informative manner!
Which of the two options would optimize a conversation?
If you chose B, then you are already doing well! Disclosure is important because it gives you a chance to inform as well as give suggestions to create conditions that benefit everyone. By disclosing your situation with others, you can avoid the following:
Practice Situations Where You Struggle to Hear
Do you remember practicing and role-playing for job interviews or presentations at work? The same concept can be applied to help in situations where you have been pretending to hear.
Examples
At your next appointment with your hearing health specialist, list your concerns. Chances are good that they have a wealth of information to share when people first start experiencing hearing loss. When you are ready to call us, we will be here to help you with more information or to make an appointment for the next important step in your wellness.
Are you still struggling to be transparent about your hearing impairment? If so, don’t be alarmed; many who struggle with this common condition are doing the same! Pretending to hear is not a productive way to communicate. Hearing loss has become one of our country’s top five health concerns, alongside diabetes and cancer. Learn to recognize your condition, how to come to terms with your hearing impairment, and how to empower yourself to take control. Stop pretending to hear today!
Avoidance
Avoidance can start as an intuitive way to regulate us when we aren’t aware of something wrong. We don’t want to interrupt the flow of someone’s conversation or routine by drawing attention to our condition. Instead, our social circumstances put us in situations where we seek to avoid embarrassment or vulnerability to others. Hearing loss can be very slow and subtle. Let’s look at some of the common ways people attempt to pretend to hear and work through the beginning stages of hearing loss:
For a while, some of the above techniques might work in pretending to hear, but ultimately avoiding the condition can do more harm than good. For example, if you were to use avoidance techniques in a work setting, the results might be substantially worse than amongst friends and family members.
Overcompensation
The subtlety of hearing loss from its onset can and frequently be compensated by our ability to improvise. We start to rely on more visual clues, such as facial expressions and body language, to gauge the context of the conversation. When this happens, we overwork our other senses, feeling more fatigued, and cause even more damage to our normal hearing process even more.
When we pretend to hear by overcompensating, our brain will try to correct the misinformation of the sounds we now receive. The result is that we force our brains to work harder to establish new neural pathways for hearing. In addition, the parts of our brain used to being employed for a whole hearing experience are now assigned to other areas.
Face the Challenge
Did you know that informing and educating people about your hearing loss increases communication? People mostly want to be helpful, so communicating that you are having difficulty hearing, whether because of hearing loss or something else, is always the best action for any situation.
At work, there are laws in place to make sure your hearing ability is not used against you, as well as accommodations that can be put in place for your benefit.
The change for the better does require courage to acknowledge your condition and then disclose it to others in an informative manner!
Which of the two options would optimize a conversation?
If you chose B, then you are already doing well! Disclosure is important because it gives you a chance to inform as well as give suggestions to create conditions that benefit everyone. By disclosing your situation with others, you can avoid the following:
Practice Situations Where You Struggle to Hear
Do you remember practicing and role-playing for job interviews or presentations at work? The same concept can be applied to help in situations where you have been pretending to hear.
Examples
At your next appointment with your hearing health specialist, list your concerns. Chances are good that they have a wealth of information to share when people first start experiencing hearing loss. When you are ready to call us, we will be here to help you with more information or to make an appointment for the next important step in your wellness.
3557 Dempster St.,
Skokie, IL 60076
Monday
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Tuesday
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Wednesday
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Thursday
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Friday
9:00 am - 3:00 pm
Saturday
Closed
Sunday
Closed