Whether you have experienced hearing loss due to age, overexposure to noise, or a medical condition, learning to adjust to your new normal can be challenging. Social gatherings can be especially difficult, as they often take place in noisy settings that make hearing difficult. Adapting takes time, but there are strategies you can use to decrease frustration.

Reshma is a young woman from India in her early 20’s who was attacked by her former brother-in-law as a teenager in 2014. Pretty and cheerful like all girls her age, she was hoping to finish school soon and get a good job. In 2014 she traveled to see her sister in northern India, and as the two girls were on their way to the train station, they were stopped by her brother-in-law and his friends and relatives. That morning the two sisters had exchanged burqa’s, and her brother-in-law mistook her for her sister. He pinned her to the ground and threw acid on her.