Wearing my hearing aids is becoming increasingly hard and frustrating.
I am a 36 years old late-deafened woman, I started losing my hearing when I was in high school and for a long time it was in the moderate range.
In my mid twenties I rapidly lost hearing in my left ear (90 decibels of loss as of now), and a later on my right ear followed the same path, over a period of 4 years and is now in the severe range (76 decibels of loss on that side).
As you might guess I have been using hearing aids for years now, but only recently has it started to be more of a pain than a helpful tool. Everytime I use the hearing aids for a whole day, said day ends with me having a pretty bad headache and feeling mentally exhausted. My audiologist adjusted them but it changed nothing, and to add a bit of salt to the wound I was lowkey scolded for not wearing them "as often as I should".
For context I depend on the aids to communicate with a lot of people (my kids' teachers and therapists, my grandparents and my ex husband), I have a conversational level of LSF (I can understand and communicate just fine but I wouldn't call myself fluent just yet), and so do my kids (except for my youngest daughter who is 5 years old, autistic and not-speaking), my parents and siblings bless them are slowly learning LSF for me, but for now we still use a live transcribe app to communicate when I don't wear my hearing aids.
I am confused as to what approach to adopt, I feel that I am reaching my limits with hearing aids as even when I force myself to use them I still need to rely on lip-reading, concentration and guesstimations to understand what I'm being told. The aids also amplify sounds other than speech that are going on in the room which can make things even harder depending on where I am.
My grandparents urge me to consider CI as my aids are causing trouble now and not helping me as much, I am not 100 percent opposed to the idea, but I fear that I may face similar issues with the implant.
I need advice from people who've been there or know people close to them who have, is what I am experiencing a sign that hearing aids are no longer the proper solution for me ? How do I explain to others that my hearing breaks aren't a whim but a necessity for my well-being and sanity ?
It's gotten bad enough that I have already felt anger on occasion upon the mere thought of putting the hearing aids in in the morning, so any advice or insight will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.