Gatherings. More, and more family gatherings.
During the holidays, it most likely feels like you’re meeting (or re-meeting) a new long-lost uncle every other weekend. The holiday season can be fun (and also difficult) for this reason. Normally, it’s easy to look forward to this annual catching up. You get to reunite with everyone and find out what they’ve been doing!
But those family get-togethers might feel less inviting when you’re dealing with hearing loss. What’s the reason for this? How will your hearing loss impact you when you’re at family gatherings?
Your ability to communicate with others can be significantly effected by hearing loss, and also the ability of other people to communicate with you. The resulting experience of alienation can be extremely discouraging and distressing around the holidays. Your holiday season can be more rewarding and enjoyable when you employ a few go-to tips formulated by hearing specialists.
Tips to help you enjoy the holiday season
Around the holidays, there’s so much to see, like lights, gifts, food and so much more. But there’s also a lot to hear: how your nephew is doing in school, how your cousin’s pond hockey team is doing, and on, and on.
During holiday get-togethers, make use of these tips to get through and make more unforgettable memories.
Steer clear of phone calls – instead, use video calls.
Zoom calls can be an excellent way to stay in touch with friends and family. That’s especially true if you have hearing loss. If you have hearing loss and you want to connect with loved ones over the holidays, try utilizing video calls instead of traditional phone calls.
Phones present a difficult conundrum with regards to hearing loss and communication difficulties. The voice on the other end can feel muffled and difficult to understand, and that can definitely be aggravating. With a video call, the audio quality won’t actually improve, but you’ll have a lot more information to help you communicate. From body language to facial expressions, video calls provide added context, and that can help the conversation flow better.
Be honest with people
It isn’t uncommon for people to suffer from hearing loss. If you need help, it’s essential to communicate that! There’s no harm in asking for:
- People to paraphrase and repeat what they said.
- People to slow down a bit when speaking with you.
- Conversations to happen in quieter areas of the gathering (more on this in a bit).
People will be less likely to become annoyed when you ask them to repeat themselves if they are aware that you have hearing loss. As a result, communication has a tendency to flow a little easier.
Find some quiet areas for conversing
Throughout the holidays, there are always topics of conversation you want to avoid. So you’re careful not to say anything that would offend people, but instead, wait for them to mention any sensitive subject matter. Similarly, you should try to cautiously choose spaces that are quieter for conversations.
deal with it like this:
- Attempt to find spots that have less motion and fewer people walking by and distracting you. This’ll make it easier to focus on the lips of the individuals talking to you (and help you lip read as a result).
- Attempt to find brightly lit places for this same reason. Contextual clues, such as body language and facial expressions, can get lost in darker spaces.
- There will be quieter areas in the home where you have conversations. Maybe that means moving away from the noisy television or excusing yourself from locations of overlapping conversations.
- When you choose a spot to sit, try to put a wall against your back. That way, at least there won’t be people talking behind you.
So what if you’re in the noisy kitchen, filling up your mug of hot chocolate, and your niece begins talking to you? In situations like this, there are a few things you can do:
- Ask your niece to continue the conversation someplace where it’s a little quieter.
- If there’s music playing in the area, politely ask the host to turn the music down so you can hear your niece a little better.
- Quietly direct your niece to a place that has less happening. Be certain to explain that’s what you’re doing.
Communicate with the flight crew
So, you’re thinking: what are the effects of hearing loss at family gatherings that aren’t as obvious? Like the ones that sneak up on you.
When families are spread out, lots of people have to fly somewhere. When you fly, it’s crucial to comprehend all the directions and communication coming from the flight crew. Which is why it’s really essential to tell the flight crew that you have trouble hearing or have hearing loss. This way, if needed, the flight crew can take extra care to give you extra visual instructions. It’s crucial that you don’t miss anything when flying!
Take breaks
It can be lots of work trying to communicate when you have hearing loss. You will often find yourself exhausted more often than you used to. So taking frequent breaks is essential. This will give your ears, and, maybe more significantly, your brain, a little bit of time to catch a breath.
Consider getting hearing aids
How does hearing loss affect relationships? Well, as should be clear at this point, in a lot of ways!
One of the greatest advantages of hearing aids is that they will make almost every interaction with your family over the holidays smoother and more fulfilling. And no more asking people to repeat themselves.
Hearing aids will let you reconnect with your family, in other words.
Remember that it might take you some time to become accustomed to your hearing aids. So you shouldn’t wait until right before the holidays to pick them up. Everybody will have a different experience. So speak with us about the timing.
You can get help navigating the holidays
When you have hearing loss, often, it can feel like no one can relate to what you’re going through, and that you have to do it all alone. It’s as if hearing loss is affecting your personality in this way. But you’re not alone. We can help you get through many of these dilemmas.
Holidays can be difficult enough even under typical circumstances and you don’t want hearing loss to make it even harder. With the proper approach, you can look forward to seeing, and hearing, your family during this time of year.
