The key word to remember is loss.
People dealing with hearing loss are also dealing with grief and denial. This can explain why it is often a long process between the onset of hearing loss and the decision by the hearing loss sufferer to seek treatment.
The average time between the onset of hearing loss and getting help is five to seven years. As natural hearing begins to wane, many people compensate by trying to change the people, places and things around them. They turn up the volume, ask people to repeat themselves, avoid talking on the telephone and rely on their family members to interpret for them. The cycle can lead to isolation for the sufferer and resentment and frustration for family members.
1. Detection
The first stage in the hearing journey is when you realize or someone suggests you may have hearing loss.
2. Denial
Nobody wants to lose the vital sense of hearing. And for many reasons, getting help with hearing loss is much more involved than getting help for vision correction. So instead of reaching out, many people deny hearing loss and resist medical intervention.
3. Adaptation
When change is warranted, it is a unique human trait to try to adapt our environment to ourselves rather than the other way around. People who resist hearing help begin to turn up the TV and radio volume despite complaints from their family members. They make educated guesses about speech, depend more on facial movements and expressions and ask people to repeat themselves. They avoid talking on the phone and noisy social situations.
4. Co-dependent behavior
When hearing loss goes untreated, family members often play the role of translator or go between—doing for the person with hearing loss what he or she should be doing himself. This adaptive behavior can cause others to feel resentful.
5. Emotional changes
Hearing loss is a “stressor” with psychological and social impacts. A person with untreated hearing loss may develop social phobias—a form of anxiety in which a person fears social or performance situations in which embarrassment may occur.
6. Frustration and defeat
For many reasons—including embarrassment, mistaken beliefs, and the perceived stigma of wearing hearing aids—it takes an average of seven years for people with hearing loss to get help. Untreated, many people with hearing problems withdraw into their own world and begin to believe nothing will help.
7. Sensory deprivation
Loss of hearing creates some of the same symptoms reported by people who have been deprived of sensory stimulation—like people in solitary confinement. Over time it diminishes tolerance to social interaction. In addition, failure to stimulate the auditory portion of the brain can result in a rapid decline of speech recognition.
Silman S, Selfand SA, Silverman CA (1984), Journal of Acoustic Society of America
8. Getting help
When you’re ready to get help, the family doctor, in the quiet of the exam room says, "Your hearing loss is minor." The truth of the matter is hearing loss has far reaching effects and less than 20 percent of physicians screen for hearing loss. It’s important to get a hearing test by an audiologist or other hearing professional for an accurate assessment of your hearing impairment and explanation of hearing solutions.
9. Retraining your brain using hearing instruments
Hearing aids are not like eyeglasses. When you first use them, sounds you haven’t heard for a long time will seem strange and foreign. It will take time for your brain to adjust and to remember how to tune out background noise. For those who stick with it —who are motivated and positive about adapting to digital hearing aids—the success rate is nearly 90 percent.
10. Continuing to adapt
The most successful hearing aid wearers employ additional listening strategies, recommended by their audiologist or hearing professional to improve hearing. These simple communication strategies—like asking the speaker to face you and attending to the context and message of the speaker—help everyone benefit from interaction.
Successful wearers also return to their hearing professionals for questions, regular retests and adjustments.
Finding this information helpful?
Create
My Saved Files to save and share
facts, figures, and personal survey results.
Get Started Today »