New to Hearing Loss

Hearing Loss Basics

Hearing Loss Issues

What Can I Do About My Hearing Loss?

Hearing Loss Basics

This page is intended for those of you who are new to hearing loss. We don't necessarily mean that you have a hearing loss yourself, only that you don't know much about hearing loss and would like to know more. If you're a friend or family member of a person with hearing loss, welcome! Whatever your reason for being here, we hope you will benefit from your experience. We've included an email link at the bottom of this page for your feedback!

The first thing we'd like to suggest is that you bookmark this site so you can easily revisit it.

What you'll find on this page is a bunch of links to information that answers the most questions most commonly asked by people who are new to hearing loss. Pick a link that interests you and follow it as far as you like. Then use the "Back" button to get back to this page so you can explore a different topic. Ready?

OK, the first thing you might want to do is learn about the various members of the hearing loss community. Does a person who loses his hearing normally learn sign language? Are there really people who would choose to remain deaf if they could hear? Learn about the various components of the hearing loss community on our Who's Who Page.

Have you run across some hearing loss terms that might as well be Greek? Our Glossary will help you make sense of all the new terminology.

If you're a baby boomer whose hearing is deserting you, you've got lots of company. Hearing loss is practically an epidemic among boomers. 

And I'm sure you want to know what caused your hearing loss. As hard as it might be to believe, most people never really know what caused their loss. But, if you want to see what some of the common (and not so common) causes are, visit our causes of hearing loss page.

Hearing Loss Issues

People with hearing loss are concerned with lots of issues, from "Why doesn't my health insurance cover hearing aids?" to "How will my hearing loss affect my employment?" to "How do I learn to enjoy social activities again?" You'll eventually confront these and many other issues. If you've got lots of time and want to become familiar with many of these issues, you can brew a fresh pot and visit our Issues page (I'll give you the link later ;-). 

But I'd suggest that you limit your inquiry to just a couple of the most immediate issues for now. Your most immediate concern may be the effect your hearing loss has had on your formerly cheery personality. You may be beating yourself over the head because you can't shake this depression. We don't have any magic cures, but it may help you to know that what you're experiencing is normal, and that you will become better at coping with your hearing loss. Explore these concepts on our Psychology of Hearing Loss page.

A close second in terms of immediacy may be the effect your hearing loss is having on your family, particularly your spouse. You may be surprised to learn that some of your marital issues are a direct result of your hearing loss. Check out our hearing loss and family members page for more about what might be going on here and what you can do about it.

The third issue you may want to address now is oral communications. It's really hard, right? Wears you out? That hearing loss impacts oral communications is pretty obvious; how it happens and what you can do about it are less clear. Here are some thoughts on what you can do to improve oral communications.

OK, want to look at some more issues? I'm betting you want to move on to "What Can I Do About My Hearing Loss?", but you can check out more issues on our Issues page.

What Can I Do About My Hearing Loss?

Unfortunately, there's probably nothing you can do to restore your natural hearing. Doctors just don't know enough about hearing to be able to do that. And you probably also can't "fix" your hearing loss in the sense that you can fix poor vision by wearing glasses. The available hearing technology isn't that good. What you can do is learn to cope with your hearing loss, and you can almost certainly do a lot better job of this than you think you can.

Hearing Loss Organizations

In my humble opinion, the very best thing you can do about your hearing loss is to spend time with other people who have hearing loss. You say you don't know any? Let's see if we can fix that. If you visit our Hearing Loss Organizations page (I'll give you that link later ;-), you'll see that there are lots of organizations that are trying to help. I'm going to recommend three for you to start with.

If you live near a city, there may be a local chapter of the Association of Late Deafened Adults (ALDA) or Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) near you. You can find out by following the links to the home pages of these organizations and looking at their chapter list. If you are fortunate enough to have a chapter near, contact them NOW (I'll wait) and arrange to attend their next meeting.

If you don't have a local ALDA or SHHH chapter, you should join the SayWhatClub. You should probably join even if you have a local ALDA or SHHH chapter. They have incredible interaction online, so you can participate no matter where you live. And you can have daily, even hourly contact with other people with hearing loss.

I can't stress this enough. Join at least one of these organizations NOW.

Oh yeah, here's the promised link to a list of hearing loss organizations. 

Medical Treatment

If you haven't already told your doctor about your hearing loss, you should do that right away. He will examine you to rule out medical conditions that can cause hearing loss. He may also refer you to an ENT (ear, nose, and throat specialist) for additional diagnosis. 

Hearing Aids

Now that you've been to the doctor and gotten in touch with other people with hearing loss, chances are you'll want to think about getting hearing aids. We've got lots of information about how to select hearing aids, how to care for them, etc., and you'll want to read all of that. But there's nothing like the personal experience of your new hearing loss friends to help you select the right hearing aids and the right place to buy them.

Other Resources

OK, that's it for the "Guided Tour". You've barely scratched the surface of the information on this site, so take a moment to browse other topics of interest. 

You might want to check out our Resources Directory, where we have assembled lots of information on a multitude of products and services that assist people with hearing loss.

If you're interested in organizations and services in your area, please visit our Local Resource Directory and select your city. Here you'll find things like captioned movie listings, hearing aid dispensers, churches that provide accommodations to people with hearing loss, etc.

And you have bookmarked this site, right? 

Questions and Comments

We sincerely hope you've benefited from our tour. If you have other topics you think we should cover in our introduction, or if you have other questions or comments, please let me know.