Learn the warning signs of hearing loss and the stages of grief that can accompany the onset of hearing loss.
There are many people around the world living with undiagnosed hearing loss. Unfortunately, a great number of people with hearing loss do not understand their condition and are in denial of any medical problem. In a number of cases, a simple visit to a hearing professional can correct the hearing loss. In these cases, the hearing loss is caused by an unknown build up of earwax in the ear canal. Any blockage in the ear will cause hearing loss to some extent. Even if the problem is more serious than a simple blockage, your doctor can prescribe therapy or hearing aids to alleviate the hearing loss.
People Experiencing Hearing Loss Often Avoid Crowds Or Noisy Situations
With most types of hearing loss, there is a lack of ability to distinguish sounds when there is background noise present. Many patients experiencing the beginning stages of hearing loss will avoid crowds and loud social situations because of their inability to hear. Often, the avoidance of social situations is due to embarrassment or a fear of making an unacceptable response to a question. Without the fine tuned ability to distinguish many different sounds, such as in a crowded stadium or party, questions are not easily understood.
Unrecognized hearing loss in children can result in slower development than hearing children
It is critical for children to hear the world around them. The ability to hear provides children with sound cues, language, fine speech patterns and education for the rest of their lives. Children with undiagnosed hearing loss will often be withdrawn and isolated from other children in their age group. They also tend to develop speech at a slower pace than a hearing child.
In most hospitals in the United States, an infant hearing test is given to provide early diagnosis of congenital hearing loss. Often, those most sensitive to congenital hearing loss are premature infants or infants who are given life sustaining respiratory treatment after birth. Certain medications given to pregnant women can cause congenital hearing loss; as can certain viral infections in the mother, such as Rubella and toxoplasmosis.
Only About 20% Of People Who Need Hearing Aids Get Them
According to Better Hearing Institute only about 20% of the 36 million people who need hearing aids wear them. There is a large number of people who could greatly benefit from the simple purchase of a hearing aid. The reasons generally cited for not purchasing hearing aids are expense, vanity and age.
There are many people who experience hearing loss but will not purchase a hearing aid because they believe it will cause them to look old or disabled. It is often a misconceived notion that only the elderly lose their hearing and use hearing aids. This is not the case, as any prolonged exposure to loud noise can cause someone to lose their hearing. Often this hearing loss from sound exposure happens very early in adulthood. Hearing loss can also be medically caused, due to viral infection or nerve damage, and can happen at any age.
Denial and Depression with Hearing Loss
There are several widely accepted stages of grief associated with loss. Loss can identify the death of a loved one or friend, a physically disabling injury or even something as seemingly simple as hearing loss. One of these stages is denial and can last from hours or days to months and years.
Denial is a person’s inability to accept a situation and deal with the situation openly. Someone in denial of any physical problem, including hearing loss, cannot be pushed through the denial and into acceptance. People in denial of their hearing loss cannot be talked into seeing the doctor or getting hearing aids. They will argue, fight, kick and scream all the way until they are totally deaf and cannot hear at all without hearing aids.
People Experiencing Hearing Loss May Withdraw From Family And Friends
There is a vast difference between the world of hearing and the world of hearing loss. While those who can hear perfectly move through the world with no trouble understanding others, enjoying social events and taking time for the little pleasures in life. It is simple for those who hear to take a walk through a park and listen to the birds sing or the breeze move through the trees. The birds may still sing and the breeze may still blow around patients with hearing loss, but they will never be able to identify the sounds.
Anger, Frustration and Resentment Often Accompany Hearing Loss
There are many elements to the feelings experienced by those diagnosed with hearing loss. Anger, frustration and resentment are often at the top of the list and can affect relationships between the diagnosed patients and their families and friends. If the emotions that come with a hearing loss diagnosis are not recognized and worked with, they can isolate and alienate the patient from those they love.
Anger is an emotion felt for a number of reasons and can range from mild irritation to outright rage. Anger felt toward hearing loss can span the same range, from mild irritation at a minor loss to outright rage of full hearing loss in both ears. The anger can be directed outward, toward others close to the patient. It can also be directed inward or at a higher power, for the failing of the body and the loss of the essential human sense of hearing.
Hearing Loss Is Often First Recognized By Others
It is a rare thing for a person experiencing hearing loss to be the first to recognize the problem. In most instances the loss is recognized by friends or family, either a spouse or children, who are close to the person losing their hearing. In some cases the fact the hearing loss is not instantly recognized is due to denial, the patient being unwilling to admit there is a problem with their hearing.
Hearing Loss Symptoms Can Cause Feeling of Grief
Grief is a healing process that can be induced by the loss of a loved one, loss of a limb, even the loss of something as simple as a job. There are five widely accepted stages of grief that an overwhelming majority of people go through when they experience a loss. A person’s life is dependent on what they hear and how they react to sounds and speech, making hearing loss just as dramatic as the loss of a loved one.
The first stage of grief is denial. The person experiencing hearing loss will deny there is a problem. The more friends and family insist there is a problem, the more a person with hearing loss will withdraw from contact and avoid social situations that may expose their hearing loss to others.
Denial Of Hearing Loss Comes In Many Forms
Denial of a medical condition, such as hearing loss, is common and may actually happen more than people think. Denial of such a condition comes in many forms, including irritation and frustration, even anger and rage. Frequently with hearing loss, the person experiencing the loss will complain that others are not speaking clearly enough to be understood or are speaking too quietly.
Some of the first signs of hearing loss can include an inability to follow conversations, difficulty hearing in a noisy or crowded environment and misunderstanding what people are saying. It is not uncommon to become frustrated or irritate with the need to continually ask people to repeat themselves. This frustration and irritation may cause unwarranted accusation of mumbling against family members and friends. It can be socially embarrassing and personally difficult when the person speaking is not understood, causing responses that may be entirely inappropriate.
