Have you ever tried to ignore a toothache? It can be very hard. Sooner or later, you’re unquestionably begging to go see a dentist. The same thing occurs when your eyesight starts to blur. When you have difficulties reading street signs, you’ll likely schedule an appointment with an ophthalmologist. But the problem is, when your hearing starts to go you might not have as much urgency.
This would probably be a mistake. There are considerable health problems (particularly mental health problems) that can happen due to untreated hearing loss. Naturally, you can only neglect your diminishing hearing if you’re actually aware of it. And there you have the second challenge.
You May Have Hearing Loss if You Notice These Symptoms
We commonly don’t appreciate our hearing. A loud concert? No worry. Blaring ear pods? You like to listen to your podcasts this way. But your overall hearing will be significantly affected by every one of these choices, particularly in the long run.
Unfortunately, those impacts might be hard to detect. Hearing loss can sneak up on you gradually, with symptoms that progress so slowly as to be essentially invisible. That’s why it’s a smart idea to be familiar with some basic red flags (and to deal with them sooner than later):
- You can’t maintain a set of earbuds because you keep blowing the speakers
- When you’re in a crowded noisy environment you have a hard time following conversations
- Speech of those near you (family, co-workers, friends) sounds muffled or distorted
- You find yourself asking people around you to repeat themselves quite often
- Your short term memory tends to suddenly fail now and then
- You feel an unexplained sense of fatigue or have excessive difficulty falling asleep at night
- You keep cranking up the volume on your car stereo, television, or your cellphone
- You have an especially difficult time hearing consonants when listening to everyday speech
It’s fairly well recognized what these red flags and symptoms indicate. If your loss of hearing comes on especially gradually, your brain will instantly start compensating for any hearing loss that develops, making you rather oblivious, at first, to your symptoms. That’s the reason why all of these warning signs should be taken seriously, which means you should schedule an appointment to see your hearing professional.
If You Neglect Your Hearing Loss, What’s Going Happen?
Indeed, some people are very obstinate. Or they simply don’t like the concept of wearing a hearing aid. They believe that wearing hearing aids makes them appear old. But in reality, most contemporary hearing aids are practically undetectable (and it doesn’t hurt when you can hear and take part in conversations).
Still, it’s worth talking about what might occur if you neglect your hearing loss:
- You could have tense relationships: When you have a difficult time understanding what your friends and family are saying, something can change in the relationship: you give up talking to them. You stop saying hi, you quit checking in, you distance yourself. And that can ruin some of those relationships, specifically if no one has any idea that the underlying cause is hearing loss (and not because you’re mad at them).
- You could cause your hearing to worsen: Without a hearing aid or enhanced hearing protection, You’ll keep turning up your devices. Or you’ll keep intending to rock concerts without any earplugs. Which means you’ll keep doing damage to your ears and your hearing will almost certainly keep declining because of it.
- You could go through cognitive decline and depression: You might start to detect symptoms of depression as your relationships falter and going out becomes more challenging. You might also start to experience some cognitive decline without the auditory activation your brain is used to, your neural physiology begins to experience certain changes. This can bring about long term cognitive difficulties if your hearing loss isn’t managed.
Hearing Loss Shouldn’t be Ignored
Unmistakably, neglecting your hearing loss can cause bigger and more significant issues down the road. But the opposite is true: acknowledging and treating your hearing loss can improve your quality of life significantly. Your daily life is more full and your relationships get better when you start to hear better. And your overall health will be enhanced by seeing a hearing specialist or at least downloading a noise monitoring app.
You absolutely shouldn’t ignore the health problem of hearing loss. The sooner you find the proper treatment, the happier you’ll be. Deal with your hearing loss before it gets too severe to ignore.