You want to be courteous when you’re talking with friends. You want your customers, co-workers, and manager to recognize that you’re totally involved when you’re at work. With family, you might find it less difficult to just tune out the conversation and ask the person next to you to fill in what you missed, just a bit louder, please.

On zoom calls you move in closer. You watch for facial hints, listen for inflection, and tune in to body language. You try to read people’s lips. And if that doesn’t work, you nod as if you heard every word.

Maybe you’re in denial. You’re struggling to keep up because you missed most of what was said. Life at home and tasks at work have become unnecessarily overwhelming and you are feeling frustrated and cut off due to years of progressive hearing loss.

The ability for a person to hear is influenced by situational variables including background sound, contending signals, room acoustics, and how acquainted they are with their environment, according to research. But for people who suffer from hearing loss, these factors are made even more difficult.

There are certain tell-tale habits that will raise your awareness of whether you’re in denial about how your hearing loss is affecting your social and professional life:

Hearing loss most likely didn’t take place overnight even though it might feel that way. The majority of people wait 7 years on average before accepting the problem and seeking help.

So if you’re detecting symptoms of hearing loss, you can bet that it’s been occurring for some time unnoticed. Begin by scheduling an appointment right away, and stop fooling yourself, hearing loss is no joke.