When you think of the benefits of hearing aids, your mind might go immediately to the practical benefits. When you are talking with someone at a shop or other local amenity, you will be better able to get the information you need and to have a comfortable conversation. In healthcare settings, you will be sure you are getting information about your diagnosis and answering the right questions in the diagnostic process, as well. You can even trust that hearing aids will help you navigate an emergency situation in a way that protects you and your family. Although these benefits of hearing aids are indeed crucial to your wellbeing, there’s another benefit you might not have considered: strong relationships. When you get assistance with your hearing, you are in a position to better understand what others are trying to communicate, making you able to respond to their feelings, thoughts, and needs. Let’s consider some of the elements of strong relationships, as well as the ways that hearing aids can enhance them.
Building Trust
Among the important building blocks of relationships, trust is a crucial aspect of what it means to have a strong connection with someone. It takes time to build trust with another person, and that trust can come and go over the years, as well. If you are in a time when your relationship with someone is struggling, the problem can often be boiled down to a lack of trust. Perhaps something has happened that made you feel insecure with that person or they let you down. In order to restore the strength in your relationship, communication is crucial. When you talk through the problems you have encountered in the past, you need to know that you are giving all the information to your loved one and hearing everything they have to say. This communication process requires the best attention you have, and hearing aids can step in and make this trust-building process better than ever. When you use your hearing aids to assist the conversation, you will find that it flows more freely and you don’t have to focus so much on the individual words. Instead, you can let your mind focus on the underlying meaning for you and your loved one.
Maintaining Trust
Although you might feel like you have strong relationships right now, they will not stay that way without maintenance. Just like anything of value, we have to put our energy and attention into relationships to make sure they stay strong and clear of any misunderstandings. When you have untreated hearing loss, these misunderstandings can come about for practical reasons. The inability to hear what others have to say is a simple problem that can be remedied with hearing assistance. When a person tells you something—whether it is a deep disclosure of emotion or a simple comment, opinion, or joke—that communication is a bid for your attention and response. If you don’t hear what the person says, they can feel like they’re left hanging, or worse, that you don’t care about them. That feeling of being undervalued is a common way that strong relationships can falter. Even if you love that person and value them highly, not hearing what they have to say is a common way to break down that foundation of trust that had already been built. You might think that deep conversations are the only way to maintain relationships, but our casual conversations and asides are also crucial to a feeling of security and knowledge that we are not alone. Simply hearing and responding to what your loved ones have to say is a crucial aspect of your relationship strength, and hearing aids make it possible to maintain that simple but essential connection.
If you are ready to take the step toward hearing assistance, the time is now to get a hearing test. That exam is the first step toward repairing or maintaining your relationships through clear and honest communication. Give us a call now to set up your appointment for a full diagnostic assessment, and our hearing health professionals will take it from there, letting you know what aspect of your hearing needs assistance and the right hearing aids to meet your individual needs.