You’re missing phone calls now. On occasion, it’s that you don’t hear the phone ring. On other occasions, you just don’t want to go through the hassle of having a conversation with a garbled voice you can barely understand.
But it’s not simply your phone you’re staying away from. Last week you missed pickleball with friends. More and more often, this sort of thing has been occurring. You can’t help but feel a little… isolated.
Your hearing loss is, obviously, the real cause. Your diminishing hearing is leading to something all too common: social isolation – and you can’t figure out what to do about it. Trading loneliness for friendship may take some work. But if you want to make it happen, here are a few things you can do.
Acknowledging Your Hearing Loss is Step Number One
In many cases, social isolation first manifests when you aren’t quite sure what the root cause is. So, noticing your hearing loss is an important first step. That might mean scheduling an appointment with a hearing professional, getting fitted for hearing aids, and making sure you keep those hearing aids maintained.
Recognition may also take the form of telling people in your life about your loss of hearing. In a way, hearing loss is a type of invisible condition. There’s no particular way to “look” like you have hearing loss.
So when somebody looks at you it’s unlikely they will notice that you have hearing loss. To your friends and co-workers, your turn towards isolation could seem to be anti-social. Talking about your hearing loss can help those around you understand what you’re going through and place your responses in a different context.
You Shouldn’t Keep Your Hearing Loss Secret
Accepting your hearing loss–and telling the people around you about it–is an important first step. Getting scheduled hearing aid checks to make sure your hearing hasn’t changed is also essential. And curbing your first tendencies toward isolation can also be helpful. But you can combat isolation with several more steps.
Make Your Hearing Aids Visible
The majority of people think that a smaller more invisible hearing aid is a more ideal choice. But if others could see your hearing aid they might have a better understanding of the difficulty you are going through. Some individuals even go so far as to embellish their hearing aids with customized art or decorations. You will encourage people to be more considerate when speaking with you by making it more obvious that you are hard of hearing.
Get The Appropriate Treatment
If you aren’t effectively treating your hearing ailment it will be quite a bit harder to deal with your tinnitus or hearing loss. Management could be very different depending on the situation. But normally, it means using hearing aids (or making certain that your hearing aids are correctly calibrated). And your everyday life can be greatly affected by something even this simple.
Be Clear About What You Need
It’s never enjoyable to get yelled at. But individuals with hearing impairment regularly deal with people who think that this is the preferred way to communicate with them. That’s why it’s important that you advocate for what you require from those around you. Perhaps texting to make plans would be a better option than calling. If everyone can get on the same page, you’re not as likely to feel like you need to isolate yourself.
Put People In Your Path
In this time of internet-driven food delivery, it’s easy enough to avoid all people for all time. That’s why purposely putting people in your path can help you avoid isolation. Go to your local grocery store instead of ordering groceries from Amazon. Schedule game night with friends. Social events should be scheduled on your calendar. There are lots of simple ways to run into people like walking around your neighborhood. In addition to helping you feel less isolated, this will also help you to identify words precisely and continue to process sound cues.
It Can be Harmful to Become Isolated
Your doing more than curtailing your social life by separating yourself because of untreated hearing impairment. Isolation of this kind has been connected to mental decline, depression, worry, and other mental health problems.
Being sensible about your hearing problem is the number one way to keep yourself healthy and happy and to keep your social life on track, recognize the truths, and do whatever you can to ensure you’re making those regular card games.