How Treating Hearing Loss Improves Your Relationships

How Treating Hearing Loss Improves Your Relationships

The modern world we live in today is a world of constant communication. Now more than ever it is so easy to contact most of your friends, family and coworkers at the touch of a button. The presence of smartphones and Internet virtually everywhere is rapidly changing how we communicate through text, memes, group chats and more. Information is everywhere and a simple search can give us the answers to almost anything we can even think to ask. Even with this constant buzz of information, communication is still the foundation of a healthy relationship, out and about, at work or at home. When there is a breakdown of communication relationships become strained and this is certainly the case for those of us who are living with hearing loss and have not treated it.

Struggling with Speech Recognition

As hearing loss progresses the ability to hear and comprehend speech will begin to suffer. It is common to misconstrue what is being communicated in conversations that include many speakers but this can become even more exaggerated when living with hearing loss. Understanding what is being said becomes frustrating as hearing loss weakens our ability to interpret between multiple voices speaking simultaneously. This comes into play at parties, gatherings, busy restaurants and sporting events. It is common for people struggling with hearing loss to ask others to repeat themselves, but often after this becomes normalized in a person’s life, they grow tired or embarrassed and refrain from asking people to repeat themselves at all. This can lead to a person isolating and socially withdrawing. Because speech and communication are key to our relationships work and fun, it is imperative to restore your understanding of speech in cases of people living with untreated hearing loss.

The Benefits of Improved Communication

Any relationship will suffer when you cannot clearly communicate whether you are at work or at home with the closest people in your life.  Fortunately, treatment with hearing aids can improve relationships in so many ways after an extended to living with strained communication due to hearing loss.

  • Improved Intimacy – Hearing loss can create a divide when people cannot understand each other.
  • Improved Independence –Hearing aids can give you the independence to go out on your own again with out having to rely on others to interpret what is being said.
  • Reduced Arguments – When miscommunication becomes a regular staple of the day conflict is not far off.

Not only is do hearing aids help your relationships but untreated hearing loss also greatly affects a person’s social life, with increased stress, anxiety, and depression. Untreated hearing loss has also been linked to risk of dementia, falls, and hospitalizations. By treating hearing loss with hearing aids, people are able to re- engage socially as they once did before hearing loss was present.

What to Do if You Are Living with Hearing Loss

Hearing loss can develop slowly over time, making it not so easy to identify right away. It can creep up on you and before you know it you are having trouble hearing even in the best of listening situations. However, if you know the common signs of hearing loss then you have the tools necessary to admit you have a problem and get your hearing tested.

Hearing Aids and Your Relationships

Once you start using hearing aids the way you interact with the world often changes drastically. You can be more connected to the people you love, feel more engaged in social situations, navigate a crowded room of conversation and even stay more connected at work. Sadly, people living with hearing loss often wait an average of seven years before they decide to take the leap and take a hearing exam. Don’t be part of this statistic. If you are noticing that you are asking people to repeat themselves more than before if is most likely not that people are not speaking clearly but an issue with your hearing. Fortunately hearing tests are quick and painless and once you know the out come, you can have the information to seek the help you need to keep your self involved with the relationships in your life that make life worth living.

Treating Hearing Loss Helps You Stay Socially Connected

Treating Hearing Loss Helps You Stay Socially Connected

If you are finding yourself asking people to repeat themselves or having trouble following conversations in a noisy environment with many people speaking at once you might not want to admit it but you are probably living with untreated hearing loss.  While no one wants to deal with hearing loss, not treating the condition can have far worse complications. Living with hearing loss doesn’t only mean having to ask people to repeat themselves or having to turn the volume on the television or radio louder than before. The affects of hearing loss bleed into every aspect of your life, including your mental health, physical health, professional success and your most precious relationships.  All of this ultimately can have major negative consequences on your social life, causing higher occurrences of depression, anxiety and social isolation.

Hearing Loss and Social Isolation

When you can not follow the conversation in group settings or have to ask people to repeat themselves over and over again it can seem like a more alluring scenario to avoid social situations all together.  This however only makes your struggle more acute. Humans are social creatures and we rely on social life to keep us engaged and satisfied with life. When you social isolate due to hearing loss your mobility becomes limited. You become be reliant on others to navigate your everyday needs impacting your self-esteem, you self-confidence and independence in navigating the world.

Being social keeps us connected to the people we are closest to and ultimately it’s these relationships that make us feel excited about life and our projects. If you cannot hear what your loved ones are trying to tell you or you feel constantly misunderstood it can have a major impact on your priceless relationships.  Not only that but if you can not hear and participate in professional setting this will have major consequences on how much your bosses and co-workers rely on you. This creates less opportunity to succeed and earn and work.

Most hearing loss develops slowly through out your life so it can often become very acute before we or our loved ones begin to notice the severity of the condition. When it becomes a challenge to hear on the phone people my often choose to stop making phone calls and reaching out as they once did. Once these social patterns become established it can become a huge hurtle to reconnect with friends and loved ones, if a hearing loss stays unaddressed and untreated.

Hearing Loss and Anxiety

Anxiety sadly can become associated with untreated hearing loss as the stress of not being able to engage in social situations becomes more and more of an issue. Not only that but traveling out into the world can be nerve racking when you can’t hear what people are saying to you or cues in traffic are harder to hear.  In this case untreated hearing loss can become a major safety concern. It’s not wonder why untreated hearing loss can cause major anxiety.

Hearing Loss and Depression

When you become socially isolated due to hearing loss depression is not far behind. When you feel Hearing loss compromises our ability to connect with others. When we aren’t able to understand others, we tend to avoid conversation all together. It is just so important to not let untreated hearing loss progress to this point. Depression is no small matter and can be detrimental to an individual’s health, especially as we age. Fortunately treatment for hearing loss is painless and easier than you might believe.

Seeking Treatment

If the people closest to you are telling you that you might have a hearing loss or you are suspecting it yourself now is as good of a time as any to seek help, before the symptoms of hearing loss progress to a heightened stage. The first step is to schedule a hearing test.  Once the audiologist or hearing health care professional has helped you understand exactly the nature of your hearing loss then you can take the leap to using hearing aids. Why delay treating hearing loss when it can mean losing so much of what we enjoy in life?  Hearing aids can improve your connectivity and restore your ability to communicate again. It is too big of a deal to ignore any longer when the benefits of treatment are so easily attainable.

Treating Hearing Loss Helps You Stay Socially Connected

Treating Hearing Loss Helps You Stay Socially Connected

If you are finding yourself asking people to repeat themselves or having trouble following conversations in a noisy environment with many people speaking at once you might not want to admit it but you are probably living with untreated hearing loss.  While no one wants to deal with hearing loss, not treating the condition can have far worse complications. Living with hearing loss doesn’t only mean having to ask people to repeat themselves or having to turn the volume on the television or radio louder than before. The affects of hearing loss bleed into every aspect of your life, including your mental health, physical health, professional success and your most precious relationships.  All of this ultimately can have major negative consequences on your social life, causing higher occurrences of depression, anxiety and social isolation.

Hearing Loss and Social Isolation

When you can not follow the conversation in group settings or have to ask people to repeat themselves over and over again it can seem like a more alluring scenario to avoid social situations all together.  This however only makes your struggle more acute. Humans are social creatures and we rely on social life to keep us engaged and satisfied with life. When you social isolate due to hearing loss your mobility becomes limited. You become be reliant on others to navigate your everyday needs impacting your self-esteem, you self-confidence and independence in navigating the world.

Being social keeps us connected to the people we are closest to and ultimately it’s these relationships that make us feel excited about life and our projects. If you cannot hear what your loved ones are trying to tell you or you feel constantly misunderstood it can have a major impact on your priceless relationships.  Not only that but if you can not hear and participate in professional setting this will have major consequences on how much your bosses and co-workers rely on you. This creates less opportunity to succeed and earn and work.

Most hearing loss develops slowly through out your life so it can often become very acute before we or our loved ones begin to notice the severity of the condition. When it becomes a challenge to hear on the phone people my often choose to stop making phone calls and reaching out as they once did. Once these social patterns become established it can become a huge hurtle to reconnect with friends and loved ones, if a hearing loss stays unaddressed and untreated.

Hearing Loss and Anxiety

Anxiety sadly can become associated with untreated hearing loss as the stress of not being able to engage in social situations becomes more and more of an issue. Not only that but traveling out into the world can be nerve racking when you can’t hear what people are saying to you or cues in traffic are harder to hear.  In this case untreated hearing loss can become a major safety concern. It’s not wonder why untreated hearing loss can cause major anxiety.

Hearing Loss and Depression

When you become socially isolated due to hearing loss depression is not far behind. When you feel Hearing loss compromises our ability to connect with others. When we aren’t able to understand others, we tend to avoid conversation all together. It is just so important to not let untreated hearing loss progress to this point. Depression is no small matter and can be detrimental to an individual’s health, especially as we age. Fortunately treatment for hearing loss is painless and easier than you might believe.

Seeking Treatment

If the people closest to you are telling you that you might have a hearing loss or you are suspecting it yourself now is as good of a time as any to seek help, before the symptoms of hearing loss progress to a heightened stage. The first step is to schedule a hearing test.  Once the audiologist or hearing health care professional has helped you understand exactly the nature of your hearing loss then you can take the leap to using hearing aids. Why delay treating hearing loss when it can mean losing so much of what we enjoy in life?  Hearing aids can improve your connectivity and restore your ability to communicate again. It is too big of a deal to ignore any longer when the benefits of treatment are so easily attainable.