Have you ever felt in a crap mood for days? Maybe for weeks or longer? Or maybe you'd just like to sleep really late and take naps.
I find frustration and loss of control over my life causes anger to simmer and some level of depression to raise its head. I don't have real depression that needs medication.
Women are taught to control anger, so we can't always, or maybe ever, yell at the people who are at the cause of our frustrations. Family and friends often do things to frustrate us, and because they are family or friends we can't yell at them about or throw things at them. Women are peace keepers and moms and "nice" people who hold things inside.
One frustration for me comes from my hearing loss. Friends have even asked why I don't just get a new hearing aid so they wouldn't have to deal with my problem. That's mean of me. They felt my pain and thought a new aid would let me hear better and feel less left out and confused. See? I have to try to put a positive spin on things.
When I don't hear or understand what a person says, I hate to ask that person to repeat what I didn't get. Maybe I heard most of a comment or explanation but not all of it.
Do you know someone who makes you repeat everything you say? Love it don't you? The eye rolls and heavy sighs aren't because you find repeating things once or twice or more a pain, a bother, are they? Of course they are. We people who can't hear should just get help. I've had hearing aids for around fifteen years and they aren't cheap. They sometimes whistle and chirp and some people won't wear them once they get them.
Once I decided I'd need to get a hearing aid for the ear I had considered my good one, I researched the cost of a pair or one to give me one good hearing ear. After finding several so expensive I wanted to throw up on the salesmen's desks, I found a better price at a discount club, a hearing aid that didn't cost as much as an economy car. Good, cause I needed two aids.
I went for a hearing test, prepared to order a set. Now I HATE having anything in my ear, so wearing one for the past fifteen years hasn't been a picnic. The decision to have a plug for both ears wasn't easy. That raised my crap mood but I figured hearing better would improve it.
That led to two visits to one ENT doctor before the hearing aid tech would make test my hearing.
This gave me more time to let the world around me fade when I became frustrated with people who mumble and whisper to keep me from hearing things. Just kidding.
Once I sat through the hearing tests the tech sent me back to the ENT doc to see if there might be a surgery to help me hear a little better. He sent me to another specialist. We're talking weeks to think about possibilities and costs and get appointments and think about possibilities and costs some more. Well, after more than a month I ordered two instruments of torture that should let me hear better again.
Here's hoping when I finally get the new gadgets in ten days and learn to use them my mood will be less crappy.
Oh, since I was raised to think that no matter what my problems are there are people with worse ones. That means my mood has to be better.
Remember, if you know an old man who can't hear thunder, he might have hearing aids he hates at home or he might prefer the world quiet with fewer people complaining. His battery might be dead or the aid might be old or...
Just tap him so he will face you and speak slowly so he can hear better. Flatter him, too since men hear what they want to. Those techniques work on me, too, except the selective hearing.
I'll add a link for my article on hearing problems and how to work with people with them.
Have a great day and speak slowly and loudly. People who hear well will think you've lost your mind.
