Coping is an active, purposeful process that includes behavioral, emotional, and cognitive attempts to manage the demands imposed by a stressor. Coping strategies heavily influence how individuals experience both hearing loss and the subsequent social and emotional challenges relating to hearing loss. Some of the coping strategies include:
Avoidance
- Helpful avoidance strategies: briefly removing oneself from stressful situations or emotions so as to regain energy, is generally driven by cognitive decision-making.
Scenario: I would like to say I have only had a mild problem, but I do notice that sometimes in a big gathering it gets very tiring and so you could call it withdrawing, but I will stop mingling with everyone and trying to keep up with everything. And I might take a coffee and go and sit outside for a while, but when I do that it doesn’t feel bad for me because it’s my choice and it’s sometimes a relief.
- Solution-focused:
– Controlling the listening environment: improving ones hearing capabilities so as to reduce the unwanted emotional distress that occurs when not hearing well. However, controlling the listening environment comes at a cost such as the fatigue associated with always having to plan ahead or the push-back received from communication partners when trying to control the listening environment.
Scenario: I love going out for dinner where there’s max four people at a table, any more than that and you think you can wipe half the conversation off because you can’t hear them.
– Humour: Making light of themselves or the situation, is used to disarm or cope with emotionally volatile situations. Humour can be used as a coping strategy to ease discomfort with an unfavourable situation, it can also be used by adults with hearing loss to conceal their true emotional state from others.
Scenario: I totally misinterpret the origin of the sound. Its good fun, you’ve got to maintain your sense of humour, if you don’t do that then you’ve got a real problem.
Seeking support
- Assertiveness: Being assertive in social situations, for example, asking for repeats, letting it be known that they have a hearing loss and need extra support, or calling out bad behavior from communication partners (such as ridicule or exclusion) in an attempt to prevent possible emotional distress.
Scenario: We shouldn’t be leaving ourselves out, we should be saying, look, include us and the only way you can include us is by recognizing what we need.
- Use of communication repair strategies: such as asking for others to repeat themselves or slow down their speech, is described as an important skill for maintaining inclusion. This also applies for those who wear hearing aids.
Scenario: The number of times I’ve had a phone call and I say can you please slow down because I simply cannot understand a single word you are saying.
- Accepting support from significant others: plays an important role in providing understanding and support.
Scenario: I have got five grandchildren and they don’t treat me any different to anyone else. When I went down to Grandparent’s Day at the school, I could’ve cried. My grandson took my hand and took me in and said, this is my grandmother. She can’t hear very well so you’ll all have you speak loud.
- Support groups: are raised as a means of seeking social support, especially people with similar experiences (see Group Aural Rehabilitation).
Acquisition of practical and accessible information about hearing loss Increases sense of social belonging leading to personal transformation. It also allows a sense of accomplishment and purpose associated with helping others (described as “paying it forward” in the form of advocacy work to benefit people with hearing loss in their communities.
Scenario: I’m in a lot of Facebook support groups, single-sided deafness groups, it’s a worldwide thing.
Cognitive reappraisal
is used in an attempt to reinterpret a difficult and disturbing situation in such a way that it is understood differently and the emotional impact is lessened. Cognitive reprisal strategies mainly focus on accepting that leaving is not suitable and change is not possible, and instead non- judgmentally allowing the situation to be.
Scenario: I don’t find it exhausting or challenging. I accept it as part of my lot in life or whatever you want to call it. To me, sitting complaining about it doesn’t help the problem, so this is where you’ve ended up, get on with life, be happy. So that’s how I feel about it.