While walking the dog, listening to the radio through my hearing aid and singing quietly to myself, I reflected upon my hearing loss ‘journey’.  In the summer of 2021, after having a virus for three weeks I suffered 60% hearing loss in one ear.  Alongside the loss I had very annoying tinnitus; for me this is a constant high-pitched ringing / buzzing noise.

My hearing loss was sudden, unexpected, shocking and disorienting.  Overnight my model of the world changed and I no longer felt I knew how the world worked.  When in new environments and talking to new people I found myself ‘missing’ bits of conversation and having to ask people to repeat themselves.  I could no longer confidently identify where sounds were coming from, especially those behind me, which confused me and initially left me feeling less safe.  In my new world of hearing loss, the impact of background noise, people not speaking clearly or speaking softly and not being able to see people’s lips all became challenges to be overcome.

Ironically I grew up surrounded by ‘deafness’.  My father suffered significant hearing loss when he had Scarlet Fever as a child in the pre-antibiotic era.  Prior to this his sister, born hearing, suffered complete hearing loss when she had measles as a child in 1924.  Growing up, I was encouraged to speak clearly and look at the face of the person with hearing loss. I watched as my aunt and her husband (also completely deaf) communicated with sign language.  I have never known my father to not wear hearing aids and am grateful that he benefitted from the ongoingly development of hearing aid technology.  Little did I know that being around people with impaired hearing was unconsciously teaching me to cope with my hearing loss when it happened.

However, despite having insight into the world of hearing loss, I never thought it would happen to me so suddenly, as my hearing was irritatingly good; my husband said I could literally hear a pin drop even when there was background noise!  My work has always involved spending large amounts of time speaking to people, and so not being confident about hearing what people were saying concerned me.

Hearing loss remains a significant, if somewhat ‘unseen’ disability.  The latest figures from the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) (ref:1 & 2) are that:

• One in three adults in the UK are deaf, have hearing loss or tinnitus.
• Over half the population aged 55 or more have hearing loss.
• 80% of people over the age of 70 will have hearing loss.
• People who are deaf or have hearing loss are twice as likely to experience mental health problems compared to people without hearing loss.
• An estimated 1.2 million adults in the UK have hearing loss severe enough that they would not be able to hear most conversational speech.
• 38% of people who think they may have a hearing loss have not spoken to a professional about it
• An estimated 7 million adults could benefit from hearing aids but only about 2 million people use them

Working as a therapist I often use the phrase I treasured during training with The Quest Institute – “things are not supposed to be easy, just possible”.  Encouraged by others to show myself the compassion I show my clients, I allowed myself to mourn the loss of my acutely good hearing, whilst searching for my voice as someone with impaired hearing.

When working with clients it is often helpful to explore the idea of moving from an ‘external locus of control’, where it may feel that things are ‘happening to’ a person, towards a more grounded and centred ‘internal locus of control’ where someone chooses how to respond to situations.  This shift may be about our whole way of being but can also apply to individual issues; for me the shift was about how I interacted with the world and how I ensured my needs were meet as someone with hearing loss.

Hearing is an important part of brain health, and loss of hearing can lead to social isolation and depression.  There is ongoing research into the links between untreated hearing loss and the risks of developing dementia (3).  Cognitive Hypnotherapy recognises, and utilises, the concept of neuroplasticity; our brains ability to create new neural pathways and therefore find new ways of doing things.  Knowing my brain was capable of this type of adaptation gave me hope.