Nearly 20% of the global population lives with some degree of hearing loss. If you have hearing loss, you may have experienced frustrations including but not limited to:
- Difficulty participating in conversations
- Cognitive overload or listening fatigue from an increased effort to understand speech and other sounds
- Ringing in your ears (tinnitus)
- Diminished job performance
These frustrations from untreated hearing loss can significantly affect your mood, leaving you feeling irritable, anxious or depressed. Sometimes, it can feel impossible to crawl out from under these moods, but treating your hearing loss is an excellent first step.
Let’s take a look at a few ways in which treating your hearing loss with hearing aids can ease frustrations and create a sense of joy in your life.
Ease of Communication
Hearing aids collect and amplify speech sounds while suppressing background noise to make participating in conversations with coworkers, friends and family much more accessible. This ease of communication will help prevent withdrawal from social activities and feelings of loneliness.
Decreased Cognitive Overload and Listening Fatigue
Not only will improved communication ease help you interact with your loved ones, but it can also help decrease cognitive overload and listening fatigue.
When you struggle to understand the specials at Jeffrey’s Restaurant or interact with your loved ones, you may find yourself mentally drained and physically fatigued by the end of the day. Hearing aids help sound reach the auditory center of your brain without extra mental effort, leaving you with more energy to enjoy time with your loved ones.
Tinnitus Masking
Tinnitus affects more than 50 million people in the United States. While tinnitus can arise from a variety of conditions, hearing loss is one of the most common causes. The presence of ringing in your ears in the absence of an external source can leave you exhausted and irritable. Many hearing aids come equipped with tinnitus masking features. By amplifying external sound or playing white noise, your devices can drown out the internal ringing, helping to alleviate feelings of exhaustion and irritability.
Improved Job Performance
Whether you’re misunderstanding a request or struggling to keep up in work meetings, hearing loss can have an adverse impact on your job performance. Hearing aids make understanding your coworkers accessible and prevent missed career opportunities from spoiling your mood.
In addition to hearing aids, don’t feel afraid to request accommodations in the workplace. Whether you need a qualified notetaker or assistive listening devices, your employer is ADA-required to provide you with the reasonable accommodations you need to do your job effectively.
While hearing aids may not be able to cure a bad mood completely, they are an effective treatment option for hearing loss. If your hearing loss is causing you to feel frustrated and irritable, contact All Generations Audiology, PLLC today to make an appointment with one of our trusted specialists for an individualized treatment plan.