It just gets harder
Hearing loss comes on slowly….it just creeps up on you over time. Typically you end up having to make a big physical effort to be able to communicate and at the same time protect your self esteem so that you don’t make a fool of yourself by getting things wrong. Somehow it seems OK to wear glasses but hearing aids may seem a bit of a no-no?
Do you feel you aren’t hearing conversation properly? Do friends and family say you really need to get a hearing aid? Socially a hearing loss means an inability to effectively participate in the community. After the loss develops into a handicap it will affect all aspects of life including workplace activities. Quite a few BFP users have mentioned hearing aids, or needing to have their hearing tested. And the BFP instructs us to be consistent when doing the program: if you have hearing aids wear them each time.
Improve your quality of life
Hearing aids do actually have an impact on improving your health related quality of life and your well-being. Hearing aids for people with a health care card are free in Australia and the hearing aids that are provided “absolutely do the job, they’re good quality digital hearing aids.” However according to one BFP user, you have to have infinite patience to get through the process of assessments, doctors, administration and government approvals etc.
The average age in Australia for having a hearing aid is 72! However, depending on your occupation, you may have had hearing loss since you were 55. “The enemy of people with hearing loss is background noise. Background noise is a thick deep sound that crashes like a wave over the quiet soft sounds that we need to hear that give words clarity.”
Do your grandchildren have an iPod?
At the National Acoustic Laboratories in NSW some of the testing situations demonstrated that 1 in 4 people are having their iPods at a volume that will do damage. The iPod gives you such a really good seal in the ear canal that there’s no leakage of the sound…..
” B.F.A. Editor Note: As our auditory functions start to decline, many of us give up things we at one time loved, trading in social stimulation for sitting at home. This creates (if you remember from one of Margaret’s previous posts) ‘negative plasticity’. Don’t accept it as “what happens as you get old”. Speak with your GP and stay active!”
