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Have you noticed any early signs of hearing loss? You may have a hard time following conversations, or struggle to hear over background noise. While this might not seem like a big deal at first, untreated hearing loss can have some major implications. For example, untreated hearing loss can affect your social life. Here’s how.
Hearing Loss Makes Conversations More Difficult
One of the ways we connect with family and friends is through communication. You look forward to sharing breakfast with your family or spending the evening socializing with friends. However, if you have hearing loss, communication starts to break down.
Hearing loss makes it hard to hear. You may have trouble hearing the TV, or hearing all the sounds around you. But one of the biggest challenges with hearing loss is following conversions. If you haven’t treated your hearing loss, it can be much harder to understand speech. It may seem that everyone is mumbling. Even if you think you heard all the speech sounds, you still can’t quite make out what was said.
And it’s even worse in places with background noise. You can’t seem to separate all the background sounds from the speech sounds you so desperately want to hear. you may ask your friends to speak up, talk into your good ear, or repeat themselves. But you still have a hard time following the conversation.
Hearing Loss is Linked to Social Isolation
Untreated hearing loss leads to a breakdown in communication. You still want to share all the special moments with your family and friends but it’s just so hard to understand what’s being said! On top of that, you’ve had some experiences where you misheard a question or answered in a way that didn’t make sense. You may have felt embarrassed that you answered inappropriately, and you worry what your friends think about you.
For adults living with untreated hearing loss, facing all these barriers to social interactions can be exhausting. It might be easier to stay home or even avoid seeing friends. Hearing loss is linked to social isolation as adults with hearing loss withdraw from social events or avoid meeting with friends.
Social Isolation Goes Deeper than Loneliness
Social isolation can make you feel very lonely. But it goes much deeper than that. Social isolation can have a huge impact on your emotional health and even your physical health. If you’ve been feeling disconnected from your friends or you’ve been avoiding family events, you’ll start to feel more and more disconnected. You may feel out of touch with what’s going on and it’s even harder to motivate yourself to go to the next dinner party.
If you’ve been feeling socially isolated from loved ones, this goes beyond feeling lonely. You’ll have a higher risk of anxiety and depression. This can become a mental health issue that leaves you feeling even more lonely and isolated.
Treating Hearing Loss Helps You Stay Socially Connected
Hearing aids are a game-changer. Modern hearing devices do more than just amplify sounds. They’re calibrated to your exact hearing needs, so you’ll get an extra boost on sounds you have a hard time hearing.
Have conversations been lacking clarity? Maybe it feels like you’re listening underwater. Hearing aids are designed to make conversations easy. They’ll give you back that clarity so you can hear every word. Hearing aids have sophisticated programs that reduce background noise, help you focus on the sounds in front of you, and make it easier to follow conversations at every social event.
Wearing hearing aids helps you stay socially connected. You won’t ask people to repeat themselves and you won’t spend the whole conversation trying to fill in the blanks. Instead, you can focus on what’s being said and enjoy developing deeper relationships with your loved ones.
Do you spend a lot of time connecting with friends on the phone? Check out the latest connectivity features that stream audio straight to your hearing aids for a better connection.
Book a Hearing Test
Don’t let hearing loss get you down! Book a hearing test and find out more about your hearing needs. Try out some of our advanced speech enhancement programs and see what a difference they can make. We’ll show you just what hearing aids can do for you.