“It’s Not Denial. It’s Observation” Why People Find it Difficult to Detect Changes in their Own Hearing and Implications for Hearing Care Providers

Hearing health care professionals (HHP) are socialised into the belief that people with hearing loss are “in denial.” This is reinforced when people who later “accept their hearing loss,” use hearing technology, look back at their earlier failure to recognise their hearing loss, and try to rationalise their failure by adopting the explanation of “denial” given by the HHP.