Hearing connects us with family and friends. It makes it easy to have conversations with loved ones and enjoy spending time with friends. Hearing helps you process sounds, understand every word, and respond quickly in conversations.
But what happens when you have hearing loss? Living with untreated hearing loss can be an isolating experience. Social interactions become a lot harder with hearing loss. You might ask people to repeat themselves or get frustrated when you just can’t make out what’s being said. You may get tired of missing all the jokes or feeling out of the loop. The good news is that treating hearing loss helps you stay socially connected.
Are You Socially Isolated?
Hearing loss is closely linked to social isolation. That’s because hearing loss makes it hard to connect with those around us. When conversations become challenging, your relationships may start to suffer. Hearing loss makes it hard for you to understand all the words being said. While you might pick up most of the speech sounds, some sounds may be outside your range of hearing. If you mishear half the consonants, it becomes almost impossible to follow conversations.
This becomes even more noticeable in places with a lot of background noise. That’s because hearing loss makes it difficult to determine which sounds are speech sounds and which sounds are background noise. You’ll hear all the sounds at the same volume, making it even harder to hear what’s being said.
If you’re living with untreated hearing loss, it can be easier to stay home rather than face all the noise and chaos of social interactions. You might feel anxious in groups and worried you’ll say the wrong thing and feel embarrassed. Choosing to stay home can lead to social isolation and weaken your social connections.
Social Isolation Can Lead to Loneliness
If you’ve been living with untreated hearing loss for a few years, some of your social connections may have suffered. Social isolation isn’t just a passing feeling. It sticks around and gets worse over time. After you stop attending events, the gaps between you and your friends can widen. It’s more difficult to pick up where you left off or catch up with all your family and friends.
Social isolation can lead to ongoing feelings of loneliness. You may also feel irritation, frustration, sadness, and even depression. Social isolation is also linked to poor physical health, as well as cognitive decline.
Hearing Aids Help You Stay Socially Connected
If you’re feeling socially isolated, it’s time to treat your hearing loss! Quality hearing aids can help you hear the speech sounds you’ve been missing. You’ll have an easier time following conversations, and you won’t use all your energy straining to hear. Hearing aids also help your brain separate speech sounds from background noise. This lets you focus on what you want to hear and tune out the rest.
Hearing aids help you reconnect with loved ones at home and during social events. Hearing aids can help you communicate and connect with the people that matter the most. You won’t need to ask people to repeat themselves after every sentence or guess at what’s being said. Instead, you can enjoy conversations, and enjoy connecting with your loved ones.
Hearing Aids in a Digital World
Hearing aids also help you connect online. If you maintain friendships on the phone or through video chats, hearing aids can help. Connectivity features let you connect your hearing aids directly to your phone, computer, or any other Bluetooth-enabled device. Audio from your call will go directly to your hearing aids. You’ll be able to hear easily as sounds go straight to your hearing aids and right to your ears.
Find Your Perfect Hearing Aids
Hearing loss can leave you feeling socially isolated, but that ends today. Call us to book an appointment for a hearing test and find out more about your hearing needs. We’ll help you find the perfect hearing aids that match your social lifestyle and help you hear conversations in person and on the phone. Other advanced hearing aid programs include speech enhancement and background noise reduction. Let your hearing aids do all the work and focus on spending quality time with the people that matter the most.