About Hearing Loss

The Impact of Untreated Hearing Loss

The ear is a small but very delicate organ on a human that, if interfered with or neglected, can disrupt daily life. Hearing loss can be caused by a variety of factors, including damage to the ear drum, inner or outer ear, prolonged exposure to extremely loud music, and even psychological and emotional stress. According to Ataabadi, Yousefi, and Moradi (2013), there has been good documentation of research on various causes of hearing loss, but very little study on psychological causes of hearing loss has taken place. Untreated hearing problems are the cause of the psychological issues like depression, low self-esteem, anxiety, or guilt that even further end up completely damaging the ears.

The Impact on Different Age Groups

It is an assumption that older folks are the ones who deal with the issue of hearing loss, but the issue has proven otherwise in recent times as the young are also affected (Mohanraj & Selvaraj, 2013). There is a sense of stigma that people with hearing loss problems fear, like how people will look at them if they had a hearing aid. This feeling brings about anxiety to be in the midst of other people and depression from feeling like less of a person for the hearing problem. Patients who are not willing to face the problem of hearing loss head on end up withdrawn and even deaf if not guided into medication properly. Impaired hearing hinders the quality of life. Wallhagen (2013) found out that the mental stress that comes with hearing loss needs to be a priority by encouraging patients to seek medical attention and even physical rest as fatigue is a major factor that worsens the hearing. Consequently, rest plays a significant role in ensuring that the body is not strained both physically and psychologically to avoid hearing complications among patients with hearing impairment.

References

Ataabadi .S. Yousefi, Z. & Moradi .A. (2013). Investigation of the multiple relations between

emotional intelligence, social skills and self-esteem with family communications among deaf and hard of hearing adolescents. International Research Journal of Applied and Basic Sciences, 6(11), 1600-1608.

Mohanaraj, B. & Selvaji, I. (2013). Physical issues among hearing impaired adolescence.

Education Science and Psychology, 2(24).

Wallhagen, I. M. (2013). Hearing loss: policy implications and future directions. Journals of

Gerontology Series, 1-24.