Why Pretending to Hear Doesn’t Help

The following scenario will be familiar to anyone who suffers from hearing loss: Someone with a hard-to-hear voice initiates a chat with you. Perhaps it’s a child or someone with a quiet voice. You know there will be an issue as soon as this individual starts talking. Although you can see a mouth move and read body language, the words do not form in your mind.

You have two choices in front of you at this point. You can either tell the individual that you cannot hear what they are saying or pretend that you have heard and understand what they are saying. If you select the latter, you’ll almost certainly get in trouble. Even if you allow the individual to speak for a brief while, they will almost certainly ask you a question or request your reaction somehow. Awkward interactions will inevitably arise, and you will discover that pretending won’t help.

The social effect of faking it

If you pretend to understand what’s being said, you’ll face many societal repercussions. The speaker may be dissatisfied that they were not heard during the talk to the point where they can tell you are faking it. This individual may even believe they have been duped or fooled.

You may be affected in various ways as a result of social consequences. Your mistake may go unnoticed, resulting in complications down the road. You might get through the talk without any embarrassing moments, but it’s possible that you weren’t hearing everything.

A speaker may be requesting that you do something, agree to do something, or follow through in some other way. When you act as though you listen to what people are saying, you may accidentally consent to things you are unwilling or unable to do.

In these situations, your friends loved ones, and associates may lose faith in you as a communicator and a credible person. You might get lucky and guess the gist from a speaker once in a while, but you can’t bank on it. When you pretend to hear something repeatedly, the odds aren’t in your favor.

The emotional effect of faking it

When social encounters repeat themselves in this manner, it can significantly impact your own emotions. During or after a talk, you may feel isolated. Anxiety may arise at the start of a misunderstood conversation as you anticipate the inevitable moment when it becomes evident that you don’t hear well. In the worst-case scenario, you might be concerned about upcoming social occasions when you’ll have to appear to listen. Anxiety can build up over time, leading to depression, anger, and isolation.

When social situations arise that need you to act as if you can hear, you may feel overwhelmed by the potential for difficulties. The act of faking can sometimes elicit strong negative emotions at the moment. Knowing that you are deceiving your loved ones can cause remorse and shame even in this subtle way. Consider what would happen if the tables were turned. The sensation of deception may be heartbreaking if you were chatting to relatives and friends and they seemed to understand you.

Cognitive problems

Your brain works overtime to fill in the gaps in communication when you pretend to hear repeatedly. You have to make educated guesses about what will be said, and there aren’t enough indicators to help you understand a conversation.

This lack of information can lead to more severe cognitive problems over time. Your brain will develop alternative methods to compensate for the missing meanings if you push your linguistic abilities to their limits, and these associations will grow increasingly irregular over time.

Seek Hearing Loss Treatment

You don’t have to pretend any longer, thankfully. Hearing aids specifically designed for the human voice and conversation in noisy surroundings are among the options available to you. Take advantage of the opportunity to be proactive with your hearing health rather than pretending to hear.

Take a hearing test and consult with us about your options. Pretending to hear doesn’t help, and with the right hearing treatment, you’ll no longer have to pretend anymore.