Dealing With Yourself When You Have A Hearing Loss
No one knows I’m not hearing a lot of the conversation. That’s right. No one knows I didn’t get what was said unless I asked or said: what, repeat that, excuse me or what was that again. After awhile I actually just got tired of asking people. Most of the time they didn’t even know I wasn’t getting it, or at least I think they didn’t know.
Hearing aids have changed most of those situations for me. I know I don’t get everything, but I know I get almost all of it. What a difference this has made — not only for my family but most importantly, for me.
I consider myself a very sure person, I own and run many businesses. The one challenge I couldn’t overcome on my own was my hearing loss. At first I didn’t even realize I was missing words or just misunderstanding what was said. The biggest problem really comes when you think one thing was said and it was really another. When you get settled in your mind what was said and feelings are developed from that conversation based on what you thought was said, and you find out you got it all wrong, that’s when you realize it isn’t fun with any relationship — whether it be at home or in the business world.
Getting and wearing hearing aids has brought me back. I know it was important for my wife, but it was really most important for me. After all, you can only go through so many experiences misunderstanding people, the hard feelings I had about the many conversations that affected my relationships. I started out blaming them, but I soon realized it wasn’t them. I knew they weren’t the problem. It was my problem, and I was the one that could do something about it. And I did.
If you have a hearing loss — please — if a hearing aid will help, get them. Don’t put it off or wait until it has affected any of your relationships and most importantly the relationship you have with yourself.
