anyone else not like wearing HA in public?

viper_80

viper_80

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just wondering if there is anyone who, like myself, prefer not to wear their HA in public? kind of stupid I know but I have my reasons.
 
what are your reasons? I was self conscience about them at first but I have no problem now as I am comfortable with myself and my hearing loss, that and I can HEAR with them. why dont you wear them in public?
 
Me never. I used to wear bright blue aids and ear moulds. (Got no aids anymore due them being broken). There no reason to hide it for me.

But my sister is moderate HOH, she never wear BTE aids in public since middle of high school cos she is hates being HOH, so she wears ITE or nothing. She can get by with nothing and still able to hear conversation in quiet room.
 
Usually, if you need to wear hearing aids, then the only person you were fooling in the past, was yourself. The average is about 7 yrs for an individual to finally admit that they have a hearing problem and to finally buy hearing aids. Prior to that everyone who you associate with already knew they had a hearing loss, the only one you were fooling was yourself. So why do you not want to wear your aids in public? Embarrassed by them? Afraid people will think you are getting old. Post your audiogram and let's see if you are being realistic. hearing loss is nothing to be ashamed of, it's not your fault.
 
For me...if just one HA or even 10 would help me hear somewhat...even if I had to wear them on my azz....darn right, I would wear it!...Why not let ur hair grow over ur ears if ur embarrassed?
 
viper_80 said:
just wondering if there is anyone who, like myself, prefer not to wear their HA in public? kind of stupid I know but I have my reasons.
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half the public probably won't even notice some might...it's a part of you now so just deal with what you can. I had to deal with that but I even got more respect and they were nicer to me(not pity) but slowed down and cooperated. :2c:
 
candybrowneyes said:
what are your reasons? I was self conscience about them at first but I have no problem now as I am comfortable with myself and my hearing loss, that and I can HEAR with them. why dont you wear them in public?
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It's a pretty long story lol, maybe I should write my biography and reveal all in that. But here is the short version lol. I had it pretty bad when I was younger and got my first hearing aid when I was about 6yrs old, got the piss taken out of me a lot and was bullied a fair bit through school up until I decided I wasn't going to take it anymore and stopped wearing one when I was about 12 as I didnt want to go through it all again when I started Comprehensive school (high school in america?). I went from being a nobody to a somebody even if it was because of my badboy behaviour, and got in with the popular group of people in my year as I created this image of myself trying to shake the bullying. It worked, I was popular at Comp but my school work suffered as a result as I was constantly in trouble inside and outside of school. Fast forward to a couple of years ago and I was starting to struggle a bit more with my hearing, always asking my Mrs to repeat things to me that people had said or came from the TV. She suggested I look into getting a hearing aid again so I swallowed my pride and got one. I was wearing it outside and was at a cash machine one day shortly after getting it and bumped into some old friends, I felt embarresed as they started talking to me and they noticed the hearing aid on my ear. It was like they were talking to my hearing aid as they didnt stop staring at it, they acted differently to how they used to towards me and cut the convo short and walked off. I watched them as they walked off laughing amongst themselves and covering their mouths with their hands as if to say 'oh my god did you see that!?', one even did the tongue pushing the inside of his bottom lip out look. It brought all the memories of when I first got a hearing aid flooding back, I felt angry as f*#k and stormed home feeling humiliated. I stopped wearing my hearing aid out of the house unless it was hidden by a hat or hoody because of this, oh and the one who stuck his bottom lip out with his tongue to imply I was like that...he got punched.
 
Wirelessly posted

I am one to do the opposite, meaning I wear them in public, but not private. I have gotten comments about them, but I have learned that what people think about you really isn't important in the whole sceme of things. You need to think about yourself and what is best for you! :)
 
I really dont like wearing them at all. When I must wear them, as to work, I dont mind that people look or even ask questions. Mine are pretty. There are sparkles, marbling on one of them, etc.
We get teased as kids. I had red hair, buck teeth, knock knees and was skinny and short. (what a cutie, huh?) Pick one and go from there.

We are grown-ups now. I did not dye my hair but embraced it. I did not fix my teeth but did get partials later, and now I am a chunky and comfy lapped granny. Things change is my point. I used to hear, now I am deaf. I took the bull from others for a while, but one day had a "Deaf epiphany". Some folks are just rude. Others merely curious. Not my issue. Good luck and I hope you learn to be proud too, or whatever helps you.
 
I know it's not a HA but still the same concept. I have a CI and I don't mind wearing it in public. I'm not embarrassed of my deafness and I am not embarrassed about having a CI either. Sometimes I will flaunt it by wearing stickers on them. Right now my CI has a hot pink glitter skull on the coil, which I think is cute.

I don't think people should be embarrassed about their hearing loss. It's not like you have toilet paper hanging out of your underwear/pants after you've gone to the bathroom. Really, it's not a big deal. No mature adult will make fun of you for wearing your HAs or CIs. If they do, it's because they have the psychological age of a ten year old.
 
Sometimes I don't, but nothing to do with the look, just that I can't even start to hear in a place with lots of background noise, and if that background noise is other people talking then the hearing aids often make it worse cos they will focus in on speech, but on any speech, so they will try to amplify someone who is not talking to you while you are trying to lipread the person you are talking to. You are hearing snippets of conversation that don't belong to you while you are trying to process the one that does, and it's harder with aids in than aids out.

Sometimes it's a comfort thing, too. If a hearing aid is going to go into some comfort program or other then I will not hear anything useful, if it doesn't go into a comfort program then I will have my head ringing as I get overwhelmed with the complexity of lots of sounds at the same time.

But even though my hearing in public is often worse with the aids I still usually wear them so I have something to point to when I can't understand people. Otherwise they just don't seem able to grasp why you are not communicating successfully. Often I wear them turned off, just as an adornment, a "this is why I am not hearing you sneak up behind me and talk".
 
viper_80 said:
I was wearing it outside and was at a cash machine one day shortly after getting it and bumped into some old friends, I felt embarresed as they started talking to me and they noticed the hearing aid on my ear. It was like they were talking to my hearing aid as they didnt stop staring at it, they acted differently to how they used to towards me and cut the convo short and walked off. I watched them as they walked off laughing amongst themselves and covering their mouths with their hands as if to say 'oh my god did you see that!?', one even did the tongue pushing the inside of his bottom lip out look. It brought all the memories of when I first got a hearing aid flooding back, I felt angry as f*#k and stormed home feeling humiliated. I stopped wearing my hearing aid out of the house unless it was hidden by a hat or hoody because of this, oh and the one who stuck his bottom lip out with his tongue to imply I was like that...he got punched.
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I can relate to your experience of bullying at school, I had to put up with the same. As for your 'friends' at the cashpoint, I would change your friends, genuine friends do not behave like that!
 
If you are all grown up and your friends have not grown up I would think about changing my friends. That is really crappy of them to still be making fun of people and especially their friend. I have had one friend be rude about my hearing aids and I haven't talked to her since. Shes not a friend to me. Aside from that all of my friends are getting adapted to it. And if for whatever reason any of them decide they can't handle it then they can't handle being my friend. Screw em! I am sorry you had to go through that though :( it never feels good.
 
When I had my HA's, I was glad to have them and had no problem wearing thiem. People would have comments, but then I always kept the old saying in mind "I'm rubber, you're glue, bounces of me and sticks on you!". A little juvenile, yes, but it made me feel better and got people to leave me alone. My friends understood that I had to have them and were a great support for me. No need for them now, so I no longer have them. Total deaf.
 
Well your childhood experiences although traumatic and unfortunate seems to have spilled over into adulthood. Don't be embarrassed or apologetic. Kind of weird that old friends, if they are friends, would just stare at the aids and not mention them. But if they were walking away making comments about your aids, then they are not really friends anyway and you're better off without them. Throughout your life as long as you wear your aids there are going to be ignorant idiots making snide remarks. Makes it a lot easier knowing right away who the a..holes are. Besides all of that your loss is nothing to be ashamed of, it's the cards you have been dealt. Don't ever let anyone make you feel inferior. You need to get past the way you were treated when younger, and choose friends that accept you for you, the way you are. People that walk away whispering negative comments are creeps who don't have the backbone or the maturity to act like adults. Next time you run into them, tell them you can't hear them, that your aids filter out background "noise" and they seem to fit into that category.;)
 
I got my first HA when was 7 years old , it was the kind you wore on your body. I wore it under my cloth and it looked like I had one square breast! My older sister and brother males friends were real jerks and would talk right into my HA! I hated that but it did not stop me from wearing it in public. My dad once hit me right on my ear mole button with his violin when I made a mistake playing the piano! I really hated wearing a HA then! And I never went
near the piano again! I was at a doctor office awhile ago and I had trouble understanding the DR. as he had an accent, I now were a HA behind my ear , and the DR. leaned over and talked into my HA!! Boy that brought back bad memories!
 
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