Five Steps to Better Hearing, Part One

Step One – Admit that I have a permanent hearing problem.

If you have had your hearing professionally tested and have been told that you have permanent hearing problem, you now have two choices: acceptance or denial.

It is normal for most people to go through a period of denial, using some typical thought processes:

1. “I hear fine, it’s just that people mumble; they don’t speak clearly any more.”
2. “It’s the noisy places where I have trouble hearing…I’ll just avoid those places.”
3. “I hear what I need to hear.  I’ll just ask them to repeat.”
4. “I can cope with it. I’ll just concentrate a little harder.”
5. “It’s really not bad enough that I need hearing aids yet.”
6. “Wearing hearing aids does not fit into my self image.”
7. “If my hearing gets any worse, then I’ll get help.”

The fact is you cannot hide your hearing loss. It’s more obvious than any pair of hearing aids.  Your associates, clients, friends and loved ones already know that you have it.  You can push the fact out of your mind, but you are only fooling yourself — the symptoms have already given your secret away.

1. You answer wrong questions.
2. You confuse similar words, like bathroom and vacuum, dime and time, peach and teach.
3. You turn up the TV too loud for normal listeners.
4. You have started a pattern of asking others to repeat what they have said.
5. When listening, you get a confused look on you face.

There is no help for a hearing problem until it is admitted. This can be simply one or two sentences.  Example: “The many years of noise from my work and hobbies has gradually affected my ability to understand consonants in words.  I have a high-frequency nerve-type loss.  I have decided to wear hearing aids.” 

Practice saying it until it becomes natural for you.

Read Part Two