The only one thing that you asked for was for the trash to be taken out. A little bit later you discover your partner didn’t do it. “I Didn’t hear you”, they say. Crazy how that works, how your partner failed to hear the one thing you requested from them. This “selective hearing” is a common sign that communication is breaking down.
We tend to think of selective hearing as a negative, kind of like it’s a character flaw. Accusing someone of selective hearing is saying they weren’t listening to you. But it’s possible that the real cause behind your selective hearing might not be a short attention span, it might be the early phases of hearing loss.
Selective hearing – what is it?
You’ve likely been accused of selective hearing at some point in your life, even if no one used that particular name. When you miss all the stuff you don’t want to hear but hear everything else, that’s selective hearing. You hear the part about cooking a delicious meal but miss the part about cleaning up the dishes. Things like that.
As a behavior, selective hearing is incredibly common. But this behavior is more prevalent in men than women, according to some research.
How people are socialized does give some context and it might be tempting to make some assumptions from this. But the other part of the picture might have something to do with hearing health. Let’s say your “selective hearing” starts to become more prominent or more common. That could actually be an early sign of hearing loss.
Communication can be impacted by hearing loss
Undiagnosed hearing loss can indeed make communication much more challenging. You’re probably not surprised by that.
But one prominent sign of hearing loss is communication problems.
Symptoms can be really difficult to notice when hearing loss is in the early stages. Your tv might get a little louder. When go out to your local haunt, you have a hard time hearing what people are saying. It’s probably because the music is so loud, right? But besides situations like that, you may never even observe how loud day-to-day sounds can be. This allows your hearing to gradually decline. Up to the time you’re having problems following daily conversations, you almost don’t notice.
Your hearing health is worrying your partner
You will notice some of the people close to you are starting to worry. Your family and friends will probably be annoyed when they think you’re deliberately ignoring what they say. But as it happens more and more frequently, aggravation may turn to worry.
And your partner may want you to find out what’s going on by having you schedule a hearing test.
It’s significant to pay attention to your partner’s concerns. Have an open discussion with them and accept their help because they care about your well-being and aren’t just irritated with you.
Early hearing loss has a few other indicators
If your selective hearing has become worse over time, it might be worth watching out for some of these other early indications of hearing loss. A few of those signs include:
- Having a difficult time making out consonants
- Cranking up the volume on your mobile phone, television, or radio
- Needing to ask people to speak up or slow down
- People sound distant or muffled when they talk
- Difficulty hearing in crowds
If you have any of these symptoms, you should call us for a hearing test.
Always protect your hearing
It’s essential that you take measures to safeguard your ears in order to prevent hearing loss. Limit your exposure to loud environments (or at least use earmuffs or earplugs when you have to be around noise). Hearing aids can also help you have more effective communication, which can smooth over many rough patches that your hearing loss may have caused in the first place.
A diminishing attention span will be to blame for the majority of selective hearing incidents in your life. But when you (or someone around you) observes your selective hearing getting worse, you may want to take that as an indication that it’s time to have your hearing tested.