Hearing Awareness Month: The Chronicle’s Fin Ocheduszko Brown shares his hearing loss story

Whanganui Chronicle reporter Fin Ocheduszko Brown shares his story living with a mild to moderate hearing loss as part of March's Hearing Awareness Month. Photo / Eva De Jong

As Hearing Awareness Month come to a close, Whanganui Chronicle reporter Fin Ocheduszko Brown shares his story of living with mild to moderate hearing loss and addresses the challenges he has faced.

OPINION

I was diagnosed with acute hearing loss at 7 weeks old at the Nottingham City Hospital, in England, and was one of the first babies in the United Kingdom to receive newborn hearing screening.

This discovery prompted my mother to get my 4-year-old brother to get his hearing checked and he too had a mild to moderate hearing loss affecting both ears.

From 7 months old, I was made to wear hearing aids and from what I can remember, life was pretty normal.

It wasn’t until I reached the age where self-perception and insecurities crept in that my journey took a drastic turn.

I began feeling very self-conscious about wearing my hearing aids in public and at school, especially after I cut my long hair.

I would find that when talking to someone, their eyes would veer to my ears and would ask about the hearing aids, embarrassing me at the time.

I remember having lots of debates with my parents and the audiologist who would, rightly so, explain the benefits and necessities of wearing hearing aids. However it was all in one ear and out the other.

Embarrassment was unfortunately at the forefront of my mind.

Even worse was the fact that that embarrassment was because of a physiological and uncontrollable thing.

I was also a very physically active and aggressive child who was obsessed with wrestling and rugby so my hearing aids would get bashed.

I would promise the audiologist that I would wear them as they could track the hearing aids’ usage – this seemed like a reasonable compromise, but still I would refuse to wear them.

Years went by and I had won the war; no longer would my parents or others around me make me wear the hearing aids.

To this day, I have not worn my hearing aids; only now, at 22, it is for a different reason.

It’s not because of embarrassment but rather because I have gotten used to hearing slightly less than others and live with it.

Whanganui Chronicle reporter Fin Ocheduszko Brown (right) and brother Dylan Ocheduszko Brown have had mild to moderate hearing loss since their early childhood.

For me, the challenges I faced were mainly self-inflicted, as you can imagine, and they are by far and large not as severe as someone who is deaf or has a higher percentage of hearing loss.

Often I will let people know that I have a slight hearing loss and ask if they could speak up but you’d be surprised how many people don’t change their tone, pronunciation and pitch despite being told this.

This challenge was at its height during Covid-19 when wearing face masks – that period was certainly a long one for me, working in customer service.

The best way I can describe what it is like sometimes is like hearing a hum or monotone foreign language when someone is speaking but hearing the last couple of words and having to decipher what could have led to them.

This naturally leads to assuming the wrong thing and having to lack conviction when responding back.

In most cases, it is easy to ask again what was said, but consciously it is easy to get in your head that it may be annoying for people to repeat themselves and thus you take a stab at answering and face the wincing pain if you get it wrong.

Like I said, these challenges are relatively small in comparison to those with more severe hearing loss, but the truth is that hearing is a spectrum and they all come with unique challenges.

I became a journalist for the Whanganui Chronicle in November 2024 and it has not affected my work at all.

I have found that since I made the decision as a stubborn pre-teen to push through life without hearing assistance, I will only bring up my impairment if it starts to affect things.

It’s not something I need to announce to everyone I meet because a lot of people wouldn’t realise it anyway.

It’s now no longer embarrassing and I have learnt that it is okay to be different.

If I could go back to when I first stopped wearing hearing aids and reverse it, I just might.

Did I take the right path with managing my impairment? No, and it is largely my fault.

My brother is the perfect model of how to navigate a hearing impairment; he constantly wore his hearing aids and still does at 26 years old.

No two journeys are the same for anything in life. There may be a right way, a wrong way and everything in between.

For those with hearing loss, it is a challenge that needs to be navigated, that’s all.

It may not be controllable but you can control your mindset around it.

I feel as if New Zealand is on a solid path towards understanding all disabilities – and with understanding, comes acceptance.

Education and understanding can help future children avoid the questions, staring and insecurities I felt.

According to Bay Audiology, hearing loss affects nearly one million New Zealanders.

The World Health Organisation has predicted that 2.5 billion, or one in four people, will be living with hearing loss in 2050.

If that prediction materialises, there will be a whole lot of “Pardon?”, “Sorry?” and “huhs” in the world.

My story is not the most flash nor warrants sympathy – but I told it to give exposure to the Hearing Awareness Month of March.

I encourage everyone to get take a hearing test as soon as you can; it could provide you with a sense of relief, knowing the cause of your confusion – and help you progress and navigate through life.