Are you amazed to learn that hearing loss is more than just your ears? Ears are the means of hearing, so the damage done to them due to aging, trauma or illness is why someone can’t hear, but did you know there is more to it than the loss of one’s hearing bleeds into a number of other facets of their life. It’s a dramatic change for someone who has always had the ability to hear. Consider some ways that hearing loss has a significant impact on more than just the ears.
Earning Capability
A 2006 report published by the Australian company Access Economics states there’s a link between salary potential and hearing. They discovered that an individual with hearing loss could possibly make about 25 percent less than those that do listen, but why?
There are many things that could impact earnings. Someone who works with no hearing assistance device like a hearing aid may miss out on weighty material. They might appear for a company meeting at 4 if it was actually at 2 pm, for example. Employers tend to value those with keen attention to detail, and that’s a challenge when you can’t hear the specifics.
Work environments can be noisy and chaotic, too. A individual with hearing loss can quickly become confused with all that sound around them. They will struggle to speak on the phone, to listen to clients and to understand what colleagues are saying because in a loud environment the background sounds like clicking keyboards or an air conditioner engine become pronounced.
Relationships
Some of the same problems at work become a problem at home. Hearing loss has the potential to cause conflict, particularly when the individual with the problem continues to deny it. Little things such as saying “what” a lot during discussions and turning the TV up too loud irritate friends, family members, and spouses.
They may attempt to intervene and encourage this individual to recognize their hearing loss, and that leads to friction, also. It’s extremely common for someone with hearing loss to isolate themselves and refuse to go out and spend some time with others. They struggle to keep up with conversations, so that they so what the can to prevent them.
Mental Health Concerns
The issues at work and house take a toll on mental health over time. A 2014 study performed by the U.S. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders found a cause and effect relationship between hearing loss and melancholy. Their study suggests an increased risk of depression, particularly among girls and individuals under the age of 70. Their risk of depression goes from 5 percent to about 11 percent with hearing loss.
A second study by the Senior Research Group indicates that the chance of mental health problems including depression, anxiety and paranoia goes up when a individual with hearing loss doesn’t use hearing aids. The study participants who didn’t wear hearing aids reported everything from feelings of sadness to sudden fits of anger more often than those that did wear them.
Safety Issues
Security is always a concern for the hearing impaired. Most security systems, whether it is a smoke or carbon monoxide detector or a perimeter alarm, work based on sound. They emit a high-frequency noise when there’s a danger. Even people with minor hearing loss can have trouble hearing high pitched tones.
Personal security becomes a problem when a individual with hearing loss spans the street or drives a car, too. Sound serves to signal problems like a car coming down the street or a horn honking.
Cognitive Functioning
Medical science has made a link between cognitive decline and hearing loss. It isn’t clear why people with hearing loss have a greater risk of dementia. The current theory is that the mind struggles to listen and to compensate, it robs other vital functions like short-term memory.
A 2011 study conducted by Johns Hopkins Medicine discovered that even someone with minor hearing loss is twice as likely to develop dementia. Moderate hearing loss increases the risk by three times and an individual with severe hearing impairment is five times more likely to have Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Hearing health is just one factor in memory loss conditions, but it is an important one.
When someone has hearing loss, it is true there is probably something wrong with their ears, but that’s just where it begins. The good news is that getting help in the kind of hearing aids and other treatment options lowers the risk of mental health issues, dementia and the various issues associated with hearing decline.