Fear and Anxiety prior to and during hearing tests

Above, mikeinarvada mentioned slow, deep breathing. He is quite correct and I wish to add a name and process that might help.

I am not a doctor or any sort of medical professional. Retired engineer.

There is a technique called “4-7-8 breathing” that is useful for relaxing and lowering BP and anxiety. You can google it but basically it involves slowly inhaling through your nose - inflating your abdomen rather than chest (diaphragm breathing) for a count of four. Hold that breath for a count of seven, then let it out through your mouth (some say - with your tongue tip behind your eye-teeth) for a count of 8 - without forcing, just allowing it to escape.

If you do this 2, 3, 4 times (not to get light-headed) you will find your anxiety flowing out with the breath you are releasing. It sounds corny, silly, stupid, and crazy - but it works.

My hearing is poor enough that I avoid interpersonal interaction as much as possible. Many people speak too rapidly, fail to enunciate, do not face the person to whom they are speaking (no lip reading) and generally are too difficult to understand for the effort to be worthwhile. When forced by circumstances to interact with them, I do a lot of 4-7-8 breathing and it saves me no end of heartache and anxiety.

If you watched a TV show called Saturday Night Live in the '60s, you may recall a skit in which the interpreter for hard-of-hearing people did not sign, he simply shouted - repeating what had been said at a ridiculously high volume as if speaking louder was what was required. If you can laugh, you can survive.

I think it was the QuickSIN test that knocked my self-esteem the most. I had expected the pure-tone profile to show severe high-freq loss and indeed it did. But somehow not being able to distinguish words in QuickSIN made me feel stupid, as if my brain should have been performing better. This thread has been most supportive and empathetic, thank you to earlier posters.

The reason I searched out this forum a year or so ago is that I was feeling very apologetic about my loss and how it inconvenienced others. Reading about others’ experiences helped me learn to accept it and advocate for myself. We are not stupid, we have a hearing disability. It’s not our fault.

I did this yesterday and am finding it quite helpful, thank you!!!

@SayAgainPlease said:

But somehow not being able to distinguish words in QuickSIN made me feel stupid, as if my brain should have been performing better.

Depending on the level it was presented, many of the critical speech sounds may have been literally inaudible to you. You can’t blame your brain for being unable to recognize something that it actually cannot hear.

I get a bit anxious & unconsciously find reasons to avoid test updates. My biggest issue I guess is my unrealistic hope or expectation that “one” day it won’t be a case of relative, unscientific, “tell us what you hear” & more of a case of attach a few wires & “you” tell me what my hearing audiogram is… Beyond that maybe even wave a tricorder over my head

Many years ago I read some advice that seemed wise to me, and I’ve generally followed the advice ever since:
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." (Matthew 6:25-34)