Does anyone else find wearing a mask means they can't hear?

[QualityChecked]

I suppose it makes sense, when others are wearing a mask, it's harder to hear them and/or you don't have the facial cues that help you understand what people are saying.

However I find that when I'm wearing a mask I feel strangely disorientated and find it harder to understand others, even if they don't have their face covered.

I'll comply with any requirements as I always have, I'm still wearing it in shops and on public transport but I have a couple of theatre trips coming up and having to wear a mask will spoil my enjoyment. It might be a price I'll have to pay but I wouldn't have bought the tickets knowing I'd have to wear a mask and I I won't be buying any more if they are compulsory (the PM doesn't yet seem sure which indoor spaces will be affected).

@penguinwithasuitcase

Do you hook your mask elastics around your ears, OP, or have you tried one of those mask hooks that sit at the back of your head?

If you think the elastics are affecting your hearing (which I imagine is the only thing that CAN be making the difference, unless you're wearing your mask over your ears instead of your mouth ) then maybe bypassing your ears entirely would help?

It is nothing to do with the elastic, it's about voices being muffled and about not being able to lip read.

OP have you had a hearing test/earwax check? You might be unconsciously relying on lip reading.

No. I wear it over my mouth and nose though ?

I can’t hear and I’m quietly spoken so nobody can hear me either. I’m also autistic and asthmatic. Can get very stressful and if I’m nearing a meltdown / sensory overload then I become claustrophobic too 🤣

Never mind though! We gotta do what we gotta do!

Yes. And with a visor too I feel almost out of body

I can’t hear well, I can’t see well, I can’t feel where I am in space

I am a danger to others

I rely on lip reading so yes, you have a point

I find I'm clumsier! Like wearing a mask messes with my spacial awareness which isn't great at the best of times

I have very slight hearing loss and really struggle with them (the hearing loss isn't anything which bothers me in day to day life except for having to use the phone on my better side etc.).

I'm always a bit bemused by people who say that masks are no fuss etc. because I find it impossible to have a conversation with someone wearing one anywhere with background noise. I can manage in a quiet room one to one but in a supermarket, soft play, ordering at a cafe etc. I have to shout to make myself understood and can't generally understand more than one word in two of what the other person is saying. They don't seem to understand much of what I'm saying either so I don't think it can just be my hearing which is the issue.

I think there's also a disorientating affect where you feel in your own little world and your own voice is muffled which makes interaction harder, though maybe that's something you get used to if you wear one a lot.

I'll probably avoid shops other than to dash in and out of places now they're back as they also make my morning sickness horrendous.

@AnyFucker

Yes. And with a visor too I feel almost out of body

I can’t hear well, I can’t see well, I can’t feel where I am in space

I am a danger to others

You're in healthcare, I think? I really feel for you.

I'm the same and they make my glasses steam up so I can't hear or see. Horrible

@50ShadesOfCatholic OP said she notices it when SHE'S wearing a mask, even if the other person isn't.

@visitingagain

No. I wear it over my mouth and nose though ?

Another posting being facetious. Did you really think that was worth posting? Not least because you're about the 4th. It wasnt.

Thanks, Daisy

Yes! I'm teaching a lot of seminars this year and really struggling with hearing, balance, focus, not walking into things, going up and down stairs. I have an office to myself so don't wear a mask in there, but do for walking around the dept/campus/ teaching/commuting and I swear it's like a chunk of my brain switches off with a mask on. I would never not wear one, but it does put me off going to town/supermarket at the weekends as I enjoy not having to be discombobulated for a whole day.

Yes! Wearing a mask definitely affects my hearing. And my sight (because it obscures part of my field of vision) - I find stairs incredibly difficult to navigate in a mask. Plus I’m constantly walking around with steamed-up glasses. I hate not being able to see or hear properly.

Ummmmm....... I don't wear sunglasses for the same reason. What did you say ????

Yes, for sure. But then again, I have to turn down the radio in order to smell properly 🤷‍♀️ (like if I think I smell burning for example, I have to turn the radio off so I can have a proper sniff )

@ViceLikeBlip

Yes, for sure. But then again, I have to turn down the radio in order to smell properly 🤷‍♀️ (like if I think I smell burning for example, I have to turn the radio off so I can have a proper sniff )

No way - that's really interesting! Is this a kind of synaesthesia, do you think?

@penguinwithasuitcase

Yes I turn down the radio to do certain things like turn out of my driveway or on slip roads. I guess it's so I can hear sirens or I dunno? Just helps me see better!

@penguinwithasuitcase hhhm, quite possibly. I do remember watching a documentary about synaesthesia when I was a teenager, and being totally shocked because I didn't realise that everyone else DIDN'T have it!

But I think it's quite common that people need to turn the radio off to park the car for example? (I do that as well!)

[quote 50ShadesOfCatholic]@penguinwithasuitcase

Yes I turn down the radio to do certain things like turn out of my driveway or on slip roads. I guess it's so I can hear sirens or I dunno? Just helps me see better![/quote]
Cross posted about radio off when driving!

It affects my special awareness. Something I read the other day suggested that one theory about people who have vertigo is that they rely more on visual cues about where their body is in space rather than sensing it internally, could be a similar thing (I get vertigo too).

The turning off the radio thing is that your brain only has a limited amount of energy in it at any time, so if it's being used somewhere else then it's not available for the thing you want to focus on. It's the same as if you're caught up in emotion and can't think.

Yes I really struggle to hear with a mask, that’s why I get so frustrated when people say it’s no biggie to wear a mask, it really is difficult for some of us, it must be absolutely awful for deaf people.

Yes. Plus I feel I loose all my peripheral vision.