Effects of Hearing Loss
Hearing loss can significantly reduce your quality of life impacting many aspects of your daily living. It can restrict your ability to interact with others, prevent you from hearing vital information, cause misunderstandings, heighten stress, trigger unnecessary fatigue, and could perhaps lead to shorter life expectancy.
Hearing loss can isolate a person from society and their families -- straining relationships, and causing or aggravating emotional disorders.
In some cases, untreated hearing loss has been falsely diagnosed as Alzheimer’s disease because of the symptomatic similarities. A 1996 University of South Florida study of memory disorders found that 94 percent of respondents suffered from untreated hearing loss. The study found strong evidence that hearing aid use, combined with effective follow-up care, may alleviate many of the symptoms commonly attributed to Alzheimer’s disease.
Early identification plays a vital role in limiting the adverse affects of hearing loss. It starts with a simple hearing evaluation and a few words of encouragement from family and friends.
According to Sergei Kochkin, Ph.D., Executive Director, Better Hearing Institute, Alexandria, VA:
- Irritability
- Tension
- Stress & Depression
- Avoidance or Withdrawal from Social Situations
- Loneliness
- Negativism
- Reduced Alertness
- Impaired Memory
- Reduced Job Performance & Earning Power
- Anger
- Fatigue
- Diminished Overall Health
- and much more……………!
According to Helen Keller:
“When you lose your eyesight, you lose contact with things. When you lose your hearing, you lose contact with people.”
According to Diane Kubler-Ross 1997 it is very common for individuals living with hearing loss to go through the stages of grief:
- Denial – “I can hear just fine. I wasn’t interested in what she was saying”!
- Projection – “Everyone mumbles”!
- Anger – “They are so rude. I tell them to talk louder, and they do for a few words then drop their voice again.”
- Depression – “I can’t understand anything they say. I might as well stay at home”.
- Acceptance – “I’m tired of missing out on things. I think it’s time for me to get my hearing checked”.
Pulling back from normal every day activities:
- No longer joining friends for dinner because the restaurant is too noisy
- No longer attending church because the minister can’t be heard
- Avoiding meetings and family gatherings because everyone talks at once
