Hello Everyone. Today’s article is a guest post from Hidden Hearing.
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Living with hearing loss can be difficult but there’s a lot of help available. First of all you need to acknowledge the reality of your situation as you can take steps to minimise further hearing loss. It’s not easy but it’s important to accept it and learn how to cope with adapting to living with a loss of hearing.
Hearing Aids
These have come a long way in the last few years. Just take a look at Hidden Hearing, a company that offers hearing aids that are barely visible.
There’s a lot of support available to ensure you choose the hearing aid that’s right for you. If you haven’t already, you should go for a hearing test as this will give you more of an idea of what you need.
Always get your hearing aid through a certified professional as you’ll need one that fits properly and you’ll also be able to get the right advice on how to make the most of it. A hearing aid might not correct your hearing problem but they’ll help to improve your quality of life.
Cochlear Implants
These are medical devices that sit in the ear to stimulate the auditory nerve. They generally bypass damaged parts of the ear and while they do not replace normal hearing they can bring a range of sounds to someone who was once completely deaf.
Assistive Technology
This technology helps people living with hearing loss to enjoy the things that everyone else does.
It might be a movie specifically for people with hearing loss, it might be an amplified or captioned phone system or it could be other visual stimuli to replace an audio alarm or cue.
Learning How To Speak To Someone
It could be very easy to avoid people and not speak to anyone when you’re worried about not hearing what they might say but if you follow a few simple steps, it’s not difficult to have a normal conversation.
It’s okay to tell someone how to speak to you, they don’t want to repeat themselves just as much as you don’t want to say how you didn’t understand. You should also pick a bright, quiet spot where you can focus on what that person is saying.
Stay positive and relaxed and if you can’t hear/understand what they’re saying, say so.
Find Support
There are plenty of organisations around that will help you if you need support. This might be support with hearing devices and assistive technology or it might be someone to speak to when you’re feeling down about your situation. There’s no need to hide away and try to cope with this alone, family and friends might not understand but there are trained professionals out there to give you all the advice and support you need.
Trained professionals will also be able to give you advice on how to minimise further hearing problems – this is especially important if you have noise induced hearing loss.
Talk with family and friends so they fully understand your situation. They’ll probably be more than willing to help, even if they can’t understand what you’re going through.