The Realities of Wearing Hearing Aids

Here at ‘Iwearhearingaids.org', I have a couple of overarching themes which I consider to be ‘The Realities of life with hearing aids.'  Those realities are 1) You need to wear your hearing aids, 2) Your physical location will help you hear better, 3) Water is not your friend and 4) It is not enough to just wear your hearing aids.  I have chosen these four realities because most situations experienced by hearing aid users fall generally into one or two of these categories.

Reality #1 – You need to wear your hearing aids

One major purpose of ‘iwearhearingaids.org' is to help the people who need hearing aids feel comfortable and confident about wearing their hearing aids.  We live in a hearing world with wonderful accommodations for people who can't hear, but I assure you that life is easier for you and your family when you can hear and hear well.  If you need hearing aids, there are no good reasons for you not to wear them (except around water, which we'll discuss later).  In the coming posts, I will begin to discuss various events that you will run into while wearing hearing aids, and how to deal with them.  I will also point you to organizations which can help you purchase a pair if you have trouble affording them (they're much better at that than I am). But for now, I simply want to say, if you need hearing aids, go get some; and if you have hearing aids, wear them!

Reality #2 – Your physical location will help you hear better

I vacillated between putting this reality first or last in the list of realities of life with hearing aids.  Deaf and Hard of Hearing people, with hearing aids and without, function daily very well in the hearing world.  We do this with a lot of effort and a few strategies.  The most important one is how we position ourselves in the physical world to utilize the other senses we have at our disposal.  I also include advocating for yourself within the location category, because by advocating for yourself, you position yourself to be more functional for the people with whom you interact.  Because I don't know what it's like to be completely deaf, I am specifically focused on life with hearing aids, so I will focus much of my posts on how you can approach the physical world with your other senses, minimizing background noise which makes hearing so much more difficult, and advocating for yourself so that the people you encounter are able to help you function better.

Reality #3 – Water is not your friend

Your hearing aids are much like your cell/smartphone or any other small electronic device.  They are not protected very well from water.  For the most part, if your hearing aids get wet, they will short out and you'll either need to dry them or find new ones.  It is likely that you will find this the simplest problem of the ‘Realities of life with hearing aids.'  In a nutshell, don't let them get wet, either from an outside source such as a pool, shower, rain or a less obvious source such as high humidity or sweat.  I intend to discuss in this blog many ways to avoid water and discuss how to minimize the damage and/or dry them should they get wet.

Reality #4 – It is not enough to just wear your hearing aids

There are countless other things that you can do and many tools which you can utilize to improve your hearing beyond your hearing aids.  The reality is, wearing your hearing aids is just the first and the most valuable tool for improving your hearing.  Hearing aid technology has improved immensely over the past 100 years, but so has a lot of other options which will help you hear.  Thankfully, much of that technology is free/cheap, widely available and easy to use.

Conclusion

I created ‘The Realities of Wearing Hearing Aids' to provide some context and continuity between each of the articles you will encounter here on this blog.  I also created ‘The Realities of Wearing Hearing Aids' because by thinking of each reality as something that everyone with hearing aids experiences makes living with hearing loss less daunting.  Ultimately, I created this blog because there are many millions of people who need hearing aids but don't wear them.  I want them to know that they aren't alone and that with a little practice and patience they can do it! 
Until next time, please keep in mind that if you need hearing aids and don't wear them, you should!  If you know someone who needs them and doesn't, do them a favor and talk to them.  If you need to, send them to this site.  It's ok to wear hearing aids, there are lots of us who do!