If you haven’t spent time with someone who suffers a hearing loss, it can be hard to understand what living with hearing loss is like. Even people who are close to someone with a hearing loss can find it hard to imagine.
Yes there are the obvious things. A person with hearing loss may turn the TV up really high, miss the doorbell, phone, or conversations. They get confused quite a lot.
Of course, it’s not hard to understand these obvious things when you know they can’t hear what’s going on. This video can give you an idea of what it sounds like:
However, there is more to hearing loss than meets the eye. It’s the less obvious things that can cause problems too. Suffering with a hearing loss can be confusing, isolating, tiring and dangerous. People often experience lots of associated symptoms as a result of being unable to hear well. Here are just a few of the related symptoms that can come up:
- Confusion
- Mental exhaustion
- Feelings of isolation, embarrassment and frustration
- High stress levels
- Sleep disorders
- High blood pressure
- Depression
- Cognitive decline
- Altered sense of time – things take longer than before
- Chronic head, neck and back aches from strained concentration.
Hearing loss is hard to live with, everyday, every hour.
Technology saves the day
Luckily, the world we live in now provides great options for treating hearing loss. Hearing aids using modern technology are smaller and more discreet than ever. They can hook up to devices, like your cell phone, TV or audio links out in public spaces.
Ultimately, they can make a huge difference to quality of life for a person suffering with hearing loss.
Why is it then that so many people leave their hearing loss untreated? Fear, embarrassment or cost can stop people from doing something about their hearing loss.
Perhaps they only know the old-fashioned styles of hearing aids that are highly visible and they don’t want to wear them.
If you know someone suffering with a hearing loss, be supportive and encourage them to go for a hearing test. This is the first step to enjoying a better quality of life with improved hearing.
When you consider the long-term associated symptoms list, and the advances in hearing aid technology it becomes hard to find a reason not to go for a hearing test.
Here at Selective Hearing, we have seen the amazing benefits hearing aids can have for our happy patients. Seeing someone smile, or even cry with happiness when they put their hearing aids in and hear sound better than they have in ages, confirms how important it is to treat hearing loss.
Contact us at Selective Hearing to arrange a hearing test for someone you know, or for yourself. That test can be the beginning of a better quality of life for the future.
