Staying relaxed in noisy environments being hoh or deaf. .

HoH_Profound

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Being HoH can feel extremely stressful in noisy situations which a hearing person might not find as difficult to hear, particularly group conversations or pubs.

It can difficult for instance when you grasp what people are talking about and want to say something or contribute to the conversation.

I found waiting for the pause in the conversation and speaking up a good way to take part and be heard.

Sometimes it can feel everyone is talking amongst themselves and you feel completely alone despite being present.

Having the patience to focus and listen is a one method I found that can help.

No matter how stressful or alone you can feel, just taking that second longer to wait and listen can make the difference.

It might of quieted down enough and become clear to a point you can hear a conversation taking place.

How do you cope in noisy situations like this?
 
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In noisy situations, I often don't say anything however I will try my best to follow the conversation and give the occasional gesture (facial expression, body language- nod, shrug). In most cases, I will try to get out of the conversation if it is heading to noisy.

I find that I am fearful of saying the wrong thing in case I have missed or misheard parts of the conversation. However, I have started using my FM system in more contexts and situations outside the study environment and I have found that it has been an enormous help.

Additionlly, I have found it works better meeting with at most 2/3 people a time and having a conversation with them.
 
I stay focused on the speaker who is the most important, and do a lot of lipreading. Yesterday I had lunch with a cousin I hadn't seen for many many years. I chose a restaurant that was guaranteed to be quiet. One of our subjects was family history, I am sure the Asian waitresses caught on to that. :)
 
I don't. I just accept that I can't here and I don't bother trying....

Laura
 
I can lipread... barely but not in a large group due to my wonky vision.

I pretty much keep to myself even in family dinners...it's not uncommon for there to be at least 2-3 different conversations going on. Once in a while I'm able to catch what's going on. SOMETIMES my sister will fingerspell or sign(she knows a little just not conversational) to me. Same with groups of friends. Oddly- it's even true with ASL/signing groups of people though not as bad as I can and do participate (as long as the locale isn't dark).

It's definitely noticeable to some as evidenced from a note from one relative a few months back lol... they had it right... I "endure it".
 
Depends. In the pub I lip read and follow conversations where I can. If I have to ask people to repeat most of my friends are used to it. Anywhere else I tend to assess the difficulty of lipreading enough to understand and decide whether I'm going to join in. I also try to take regular brakes from my HAs so I don't get overwhelmed.
 
In noisy situations, I often don't say anything however I will try my best to follow the conversation and give the occasional gesture (facial expression, body language- nod, shrug). In most cases, I will try to get out of the conversation if it is heading to noisy.

I find that I am fearful of saying the wrong thing in case I have missed or misheard parts of the conversation. However, I have started using my FM system in more contexts and situations outside the study environment and I have found that it has been an enormous help.

Additionlly, I have found it works better meeting with at most 2/3 people a time and having a conversation with them.

Do you have an FM system of your own? Do you have other people wear it? I've only used it in school and it belongs to the school.

I hate noisy environments, too much noise gives me HA bad feedback and I just get a headache. Even in class when too many people are talking I have a hard time.
 
Yes, I have an FM system of my own. The schools I went to did not have funding for me. However, in Australia, we have an organisation called Australian Hearing which is where I received funding for majority of things to do with my hearing loss.

I have had other people use my FM, my friends think it’s a great idea as I’m more involved in the conversations now.

Are you allowed to use your FM during break times?

Noisy environments are a pain. I often feel drained afterwards struggling to listen to and lip read people in those situations.
 
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