When Silence Speaks: Holding the Emotional Journey

 When Silence Speaks: Holding the Emotional Journey

After diagnosis, after information begins to settle, and after decisions start to form, many families find themselves facing something quieter and harder to name: the emotional journey.

Chapter 5 of When Silence Speaks: The Hearing Together Series, Volume 1 turns toward this inner landscape. Not the visible steps families take, but the feelings that move alongside them, often unnoticed and rarely spoken about.

While working on this chapter, I listened to parents describe emotions that did not arrive one at a time. Fear and hope. Grief and gratitude. Doubt and determination. Many shared that they were surprised by how conflicting emotions could exist together, sometimes within the same hour, sometimes within the same moment.

Parents spoke about mourning what they had imagined for their child, while also feeling deeply thankful for support, technology, and moments of progress. They talked about days when confidence felt strong, followed by days when uncertainty quietly returned. What emerged was not emotional weakness, but emotional honesty.

What stood out most was how often parents felt pressure to “move on” emotionally before they were ready. Some felt they needed to stay positive. Others felt guilty when sadness resurfaced. This chapter gently pushes back against those expectations. It reminds families that emotional adjustment is not linear, and it does not follow a timetable.

Working on this chapter alongside Dr. Vie reinforced how important it is for families to have permission to feel without judgment. Emotions do not need to be fixed to be valid. They need to be acknowledged, held, and understood within context.

Parents shared how grounding came not from avoiding difficult emotions, but from recognizing them and finding support through community, shared stories, and small moments of connection. Some found steadiness through routine. Others through conversation. Many through simply knowing they were not alone.

Chapter 5 does not attempt to resolve emotions neatly. Instead, it honors them. It reflects the truth that resilience does not always look like strength or optimism. Sometimes, resilience is the quiet act of staying present, allowing emotions to rise and fall, and continuing forward anyway.

As a cochlear implant user, reading these stories reminded me that emotional journeys are deeply personal, yet rarely isolated. So many families walk similar paths, even when their experiences look different on the surface.

If you are navigating mixed emotions, this chapter is for you. It is a reminder that feeling more than one thing at a time is not a failure. It is part of being human. And within that complexity, many families discover a steady kind of strength they did not know they had.

These are the stories When Silence Speaks exists to hold.
Not just the milestones, but the emotions that shape them.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Couldn’t Explain Then, But I Understand Now: What My Parents Didn’t Know About My Life as a CI User

Image
I Couldn’t Explain Then, But I Understand Now: What My Parents Didn’t Know About My Life as a CI User As a cochlear implant user who grew up navigating an often misunderstood world of sound, I wrote this to help parents and others see the parts we often can’t explain as children. When I was a little girl, I couldn’t explain what I was feeling. I didn't have the words then. I couldn’t explain why I kept saying “huh?” or “I didn’t hear you.” I couldn’t explain why I looked blank, why I didn’t respond, or why I got tired so easily in noisy places. My parents, concerned, suddenly took me to an audiologist to check if there were any problems. I could hear, but I didn't know how to explain my struggles and the barriers I faced, because I didn't know what natural hearing was like. But as I grew up, through countless conversations with friends and dedicated research into the science behind my experiences, I finally began to understand. And I wish my parents knew these things earlie...
Read more

I Act Like I Hear You: The Hidden Toll of Trying

Image
 I Act Like I Hear You: The Hidden Toll of Trying Sometimes, I nod when I didn’t really understand. I laugh when others laugh, even if I didn’t catch the joke. I rehearse responses in my head because I’m not sure if I really heard you right. I act like I’m hearing more than I am. This isn’t lying. It’s survival . In psychology, it’s called auditory-verbal masking or effortful socialization-  a term used to describe what many deaf and hard-of-hearing people do to fit into the hearing world, especially those of us with cochlear implants or hearing aids. It means mimicking behaviors of hearing individuals responding quickly, maintaining eye contact, laughing at the right times even when you’re exhausted, even when you’re lost. We do it to pass. To avoid being left out. To not be the “inconvenient” one in the group. But there’s a cost. 💢 The Psychology Behind the Mask In social and cognitive psychology, this behavior mirrors autistic masking and code-switching in margina...
Read more

When Listening Drains Me: The Side of Deafness No One Sees

Image
 When Listening Drains Me: The Side of Deafness No One Sees People often assume listening is easy. That if you have ears or even a cochlear implant you can just hear, respond, and move on. But for me, listening is work. It takes energy, focus, and emotional strength especially in noisy or social situations. In group conversations , it’s the hardest. If I miss a word, I turn to someone next to me for help. But even that feels risky. They may think I’m disturbing them, interrupting, or not paying attention. But the truth is I’m trying harder than anyone realizes. And when I can’t keep up, it hits me like a storm. A flood of frustration, helplessness, sadness… sometimes all at once. My brain feels like it’s on overload , and I lose control over how I feel. The world becomes too loud outside , and too heavy inside. What I’ve come to realize is this isn’t just personal. It’s actually something psychologists call listening fatigue . People who use hearing aids or cochlear implants have...
Read more