It remains a mystery as to why wearing glasses—which improve vision impairment—is perceived as a sign of intelligence, while wearing hearing aids—which correct hearing impairment—has been perceived as a sign of old age.
Perhaps it’s about time the stigma of hearing loss is reversed, and we redefine what it means for our bodies to work together with technology.
The question is, when you look at someone wearing a pair of hearing aids, what do you think?
Here are 6 of the favorable things we think wearing hearing aids says about you.
1. You love living an active life
Most social events and activities require healthy hearing, while hanging out alone at home does not. Wearing hearing aids is therefore an indicator that you like to be active and social, and that you’re not going to allow hearing loss stop you from pursuing your favorite experiences.
2. You’re an open-minded, proactive problem solver
When you’re confronted with difficult problems or obstacles, you find ways to defeat them. You don’t wait around feeling sorry for yourself or defend a stubborn denial of the problem—you’re open-minded enough to admit to your hearing loss and proactive enough to correct it.
3. You’re tech-savvy
Today’s digital hearing aids are like miniature computers, furnished with exceptional capabilities like wireless connections, Bluetooth streaming, directional microphones, and background noise reduction.
By wearing a pair of modern hearing aids, it shows that you are on the leading-edge of technology, prepared to enjoy the advantages that new technology has to offer.
4. You’re health conscious
Several new studies, particularly from Jonhs Hopkins University, have linked hearing loss to serious medical conditions including depression, general cognitive decline, memory issues, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Wearing hearing aids shows that you value living an overall healthy lifestyle, proactively taking the steps necessary for a lengthy, healthy life—physically, mentally, and emotionally.
5. You value your relationships
You understand that the foundation for any healthy relationship is strong communication, and you’re not going to let hearing loss create a barrier between you and the people you love.
Your relationships are simply too significant to permit hearing loss to produce instances of miscommunication, misunderstanding, and the hassle of others always needing to repeat themselves.
6. You’re self-confident
You’re not trying to keep hidden the reality that you wear hearing aids—you’re proud of it. You like to live an active, sociable life and you’re proud that you’ve taken the actions to ensure your own total well-being.
In fact, many hearing aid users have reported improved performance at work, and research by the Better Hearing Institute shows that hearing aid users reported higher household income than those with untreated hearing loss.
What do hearing aids say about you?
What did we leave out? What would you add to the list?
There are countless reasons to wear hearing aids with pride: Tell us in a comment some of the reasons you wear hearing aids so we can keep the list going.