Many aspects of your day-to-day life can be affected by Hearing Loss. Your pastimes, your professional life, and even your love life can be affected by hearing loss, for example. 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 unchecked, hearing loss can negatively affect your relationship in significant ways.
So how are relationships impacted by hearing loss? These difficulties arise, in part, because people are usually unaware that they even have hearing loss. Hearing loss usually is, after all, a gradually advancing condition. Communication may be tense because of hearing loss and you and your partner might not even be aware it’s the root of the problem. Practical solutions might be difficult to find as both partners feel more and more alienated.
Often, a diagnosis of hearing loss coupled with helpful strategies from a hearing specialist can help couples start communicating again, and better their relationships.
Can relationships be affected by hearing loss?
When hearing loss is in the early stages, it can be hard to identify. This can result in substantial misunderstandings between couples. As a result, there are a few common problems that develop:
- It’s not unusual for one of the partners to blame hearing loss on “selective hearing”: Selective hearing is when somebody effortlessly hears something like “let’s go get some ice cream”, but somehow misses something like “let’s do some spring cleaning”. Sometimes, selective hearing is absolutely unintentional, and in others, it can be a conscious choice. Spouses will often start to miss particular words or phrases or these words and phrases will sound jumbled when one of them has hearing loss. This can often be mistaken for “selective hearing,” resulting in resentment and tension in the relationship.
- Feeling ignored: You would most likely feel like you’re being dismissed if you addressed someone and they didn’t respond. This can often occur when one partner is suffering from hearing loss and isn’t aware of it. Feeling as if your partner isn’t paying attention to you isn’t good for long-term relationship health.
- Arguments: It’s not unusual for arguments to happen in a relationship, at least, occasionally. But when hearing loss is present, those arguments can become even more aggravating. Arguments can happen more often too. Hearing loss related behavioral changes, such as requiring volumes to be painfully loud, can also become a source of tension
- Intimacy may suffer: In lots of relationships, communication is the foundation of intimacy. This can cause a rift to build up between the partners. Increased tension and frustration are often the result.
Often, this friction starts to occur before any formal diagnosis of hearing loss. Feelings of resentment might be worse when parties don’t know hearing loss is the core issue (or when the partner with hearing loss insists on dismissing their symptoms).
Living with a person who is dealing with loss of hearing
If hearing loss can cause so much conflict in a relationship, how can you live with someone who has hearing loss? For couples who are willing to establish new communication techniques, this usually is not a problem. Here are a few of those strategies:
- As much as you can, try to look right into the face of the individual you’re speaking with: Communicating face-to-face can furnish a wealth of visual cues for someone with hearing loss. Your partner will be able to read facial cues and body language. And with increased eye contact it will be easier to maintain concentration. This supplies your partner with more information to process, and that usually makes it easier to understand your intent.
- When you repeat what you said, try utilizing different words: Normally, you will try to repeat what you said when your partner fails to hear you. But try switching the words you use rather than using the same words. Hearing loss can affect some frequencies of speech more than others, which means certain words might be harder to understand (while others are easier). Changing your word choice can help reinforce your message.
- Help your partner get used to their hearing aids: Maybe you could do things like taking over the grocery shopping or other tasks that cause your partner anxiety. You can also ask your partner’s hearing specialist if there are ways you can help them get accustomed to their hearing aids.
- Encourage your partner to come in for a hearing exam: Your partner’s hearing loss can be managed with our help. When hearing loss is well-managed, communication is typically more successful (and many other areas of tension may go away as well). Safety is also an issue with hearing loss because it can cause you to fail to hear the doorbell, phone, and smoke alarm. It might also be hard to hear oncoming traffic. Your partner can get assistance managing any of these potential problems by scheduling an appointment with us.
- Patience: When you recognize that your partner is dealing with hearing loss, patience is especially important. You might have to repeat yourself more often or vary the volume of your voice. You may also have to speak more slowly. The effectiveness of your communication can be substantially improved by exercising this kind of patience.
After you get diagnosed, then what?
Hearing assessments are typically non-invasive and quite simple. In most circumstances, those who are tested will do little more than put on specialized headphones and raise a hand when they hear a sound. You will be better able to regulate your symptoms and your relationships after you get a diagnosis.
Take the hearing loss related tension out of your relationship by encouraging your partner to come see us for a hearing examination.