Hearing loss can affect many areas of your daily life. Your hobbies, 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. This can cause increased stress, more disputes, and even the growth of animosity. If ignored, in other words, hearing loss can have a substantially negative effect on your relationship.
So how are relationships affected by hearing loss? These difficulties arise, in part, because people are usually not aware that they even have hearing loss. Hearing loss typically is, after all, a slowly advancing condition. Communication might be tense because of hearing loss and you and your partner might not even be aware it’s the root of the issue. Practical solutions may be hard to find as both partners feel more and more alienated.
Relationships can be improved and communication can start to be mended when hearing loss is diagnosed and couples get reliable solutions from us.
Can relationships be affected by hearing loss?
It’s very easy to overlook hearing loss when it initially begins to develop. Couples can have significant misunderstandings because of this. The following common issues can develop as a result:
- Feeling ignored: You would likely feel like you’re being ignored if you addressed somebody and they didn’t respond. This can often happen when one partner is experiencing hearing loss and isn’t aware of it. Feeling as if your partner is not paying attention to you isn’t good for long-term relationship health.
- Arguments: It’s not uncommon for arguments to take place in a relationship, at least, occasionally. But arguments will be even more aggravating when one or both partners are dealing with hearing loss. Arguments can become more frequent too. For others, an increase in arguments could be a consequence of changes in behavior (for instance, increasing the volume on the television to painful volumes).
- Couples often confuse hearing loss for “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 totally unintended, and in others, it can be a conscious decision. Spouses will frequently start to miss certain words or phrases or these words and phrases will sound jumbled when one of them has hearing loss. This can frequently be mistaken for “selective hearing,” causing resentment and tension in the relationship.
- Intimacy may suffer: In many relationships, communication is the foundation of intimacy. This can cause a rift to build up between the partners. Increased tension and frustration are frequently the consequence.
These problems will frequently start before anyone is diagnosed with hearing loss. Feelings of bitterness may be worse when parties don’t know hearing loss is the core issue (or when the partner with hearing loss insists on disregarding their symptoms).
Living with a person who is dealing with loss of hearing
How do you live with somebody who is dealing with hearing loss when hearing loss can cause so much conflict? For couples who are willing to develop new communication techniques, this usually is not a problem. Some of those strategies include the following:
- As much as possible, try to look right into the face of the person you’re talking with: For somebody who is dealing with hearing loss, face-to-face communication can give lots of visual cues. You will be providing your partner with body language and facial cues. It’s also easier to preserve concentration and eye contact. By giving your partner more visual information to process they will have a simpler time understanding what you mean.
- Help your partner get used to their hearing aids: Maybe you could do things like taking over trips to the grocery store or other chores 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.
- Patience: When you recognize that your partner is dealing with hearing loss, patience is particularly important. You might have to repeat yourself more frequently or raise the volume of your voice. It might also be necessary to talk in a slower cadence. This kind of patience can be challenging, but it can also dramatically improve the effectiveness of your communication.
- Use different words when you repeat yourself: When your partner doesn’t understand what you said, you will typically try repeating yourself. But try changing the words you use instead of 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.
- Encourage your partner to come in for a hearing exam: Your partner’s hearing loss can be managed with our help. Many areas of tension will fade away and communication will be more effective when hearing loss is well controlled. Additionally, managing hearing loss is a safety issue: hearing loss can impact your ability to hear the telephone, smoke detectors and fire alarms, and the doorbell. It may also be difficult to hear oncoming traffic. We can help your partner better control any of these potential concerns.
After you get diagnosed, what happens next?
Hearing assessments are generally non-invasive and quite simple. Typically, you will simply put on a pair of headphones and listen for specific tones. But a hearing loss diagnosis can be a significant step to more effectively managing symptoms and relationships.
Encouraging your partner to touch base with us can help guarantee that hearing loss doesn’t undermine your happiness or your partnership.
