Gael Hannan

Gael Hannan is an author, speaker and advocate on hearing loss issues. In addition to her weekly blog at the Better Hearing Consumer, which has a passionate international following, Gael has written two acclaimed books, “The Way I Hear It: A Life with Hearing Loss”and “Hear & Beyond: Live Skillfully with Hearing Loss”, written with Shari Eberts. She is regularly invited to present her uniquely humorous and insightful work to appreciative audiences around the world. Gael has received many awards for her work that advocates for individuals to become more knowledgeable and successful at dealing with their hearing loss and a more inclusive society for them to live in.

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Tinnitus Head Noise – What Fresh Hell is This?

I come awake but I keep my eyes closed as I wait and listen. For a few moments, there is nothingness—and then it starts. First a hum, low at first but becoming higher in pitch as a deep rumble starts, giving me two sounds that don’t even have the courtesy to harmonize. Then, with a slight shift of my head—or

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How to Irritate People (With Your Hearing Loss)

Some of my personal favorite, sure-fire ways to spark irritation in other people: Choose not to wear your hearing aids or cochlear implant and then struggle to communicate with someone. I’m giving my ears a break and I want to save money on batteries. But c’mon, talk to me, I can read your lips. (Like this ever works.) Bluff.

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When I Say I Want Telecoils…

…I mean it. It wasn’t just an opening line to my hearing aid provider, so that she could come back with, “That’s old tech. Your hearing aid manufacturer has a great in-home kit, and a streamer, and lots of other neat stuff for just a few hundred dollars extra.” Although, that’s pretty much what we said to each other. I

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Why The Stigma is So Sticky

by Kathi Mestayer Years ago, I read that if you lose your hearing (relatively) young, you adjust to it better. That makes sense, given what we now know about declining brain plasticity as we age, and the importance of getting cochlear implants (for those who need them) as early as possible, so their brains are better able to adjust to

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Traveling Without Unraveling

I just returned home from one of my favourite weeks of the year. The annual convention of the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA), held this year in St. Louis, is a fun few days of hanging out with a thousand best friends and learning about stuff that will help me communicate better. This year there was a baseball game

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Their Words Keep Flowing

A couple of weeks ago, in my blog The Joy of Writing (About Hearing Loss), I recommended that people who have hearing loss may want to try writing: “…as a way to deal with the frustrations and anxieties of communication challenges. Write a piece of inspiration that gets you through the hearing loss day and stick it on the fridge.

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The Hearing Loss Competition

We all know competition freaks—those people who have to be first, or the best, or win at everything they do. It’s amazing what people will compete over—who had the most dramatic “I almost died” incident, who lost the most weight and what’s the best way to lose it (dill pickles and coconut water). If you tell a funny story about

Featured image for “The Joy of Writing (About Hearing Loss)”

The Joy of Writing (About Hearing Loss)

Writing—about hearing loss—is on my mind this week. Here I am surrounded by the fabulous scenery of Newfoundland, as far east in Canada as you can go without falling in the Atlantic, but still, writing is never more than a few seconds away from my mind. Firstly, David Kirkwood, the fabulous and beloved editor of HearingHealthMatters.org (HHTM), has retired after

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Selecting What to Hear

My guest writer this week is Robin Itzler, a 40-year marketing and communications professional. Robin is a columnist, public speaker and business owner who has a clear vision of her hearing loss identity. By Robin M. Itzler I have selective hearing, but the truth is that everyone with a hearing loss has selective hearing; it’s just that we’re not

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Hanging Out with the HoHs

There’s nothing like an intimate gathering of 150 people with hearing loss. A little bit on the noisy side, but that’s what exhilaration sounds like: people—whose sole, mutual goal is to communicate—connecting to and understanding what’s being said, regardless of who’s saying it. I’ve almost completed 72 hours of recovery from the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association’s (CHHA) annual conference,