Hard-Of-Hearing Relationships

 Is it possible for someone with a hearing impairment to be in a relationship?

As a hearing-impaired person, I find it possible to make friends, and coming from a conservative culture it's easier with females. However, when it comes to relationships, I haven't had much success.


When I think about it, friends don’t spend time with me 24\7. We don’t live together. They're not around when I face daily difficult situations due to my hearing loss. Actually, all my friends are far away. Messages and calls are our go-to way of communication. Calls are not an issue as long as I’m not in a noisy place and they speak clearly.
With the streaming feature in my new hearing aids, I can follow the conversation much better than before.

I think this is why they tolerate me. What if they were around here and we were able to meet now and then? I imagine that some of them would lose their composure and they wouldn’t be able to patiently deal with my hearing loss time after time. I might have lost them already, as result.


It's why I think it will be extremely challenging to be in a relationship. To put it simply, no one will bear all the requirements I need them to apply to hear better all the time. Getting my attention before talking to me, having to repeat what they say quite often, no whispering, no talking from a distance, struggling to hear in noisy places, mishearing etc.


I can’t help but think of my only relationship which definitely failed. My ex said that our communication wasn’t working and my mood was low, which I agree with. We had a problem with communication and with me opening up and speaking and I was down in the dumps.
That was something fixable. I believe I could have worked on those issues because this was what I did right after the breakup. It was late but better than never. There was always the potential to improve communication but he didn’t want to.


Yet, my hearing loss will never be fixed. In actuality, I will lose it over time and I’m already qualified for a cochlear implant for my left ear. I believe he asked himself whether he could put up with my mishearing and not-hearing in the long term and his answer was, “No, I can’t and I don’t want to be in a relationship like that.”


He wasn’t the right person for me but is there even a right person for me? Could a relationship like that survive? I wanted to seek answers from you, the readers, but I think unless you’ve been in a similar situation, you can’t provide me with objective answers.


I know that because I saw the other side of the coin. A few months ago, my nephew had a period when he couldn’t hear well and I had to repeat myself more than once. He couldn’t understand me unless he saw my face. I whispered in his ear one time and he asked me to raise my voice. I could see how much effort, equanimity and self-control it takes in these situations. Unless you love that person, you will lose your temper quickly, and I love my nephew. And love sometimes happens instantly for no reasons and other times, softly for reasons.


Could I find love one day? Could I find someone who would embrace my hearing loss without making me feel dumb or giving up on me so fast?