The results of untreated hearing loss

Millions of people around the world suffer from hearing loss, and it's not just a serious ear issue, it also affects their health and quality of life.

Are you reluctant to admit you have a hearing problem? Perhaps you simply try to compensate by asking people to repeat themselves or turning up the volume on the TV. But along with the inevitable tension this puts on relationships, there are a number of serious consequences of untreated hearing loss. Here are the most common:

• Anxiety and depression
• Cognitive decline
• Increased risk of dementia
• Mental exhaustion
• Social withdrawal
• Reduced work performance
• Safety risks

Hearing loss can be embarrassing and distressing and have a substantial impact on your psychological well-being. As your hearing deteriorates, you may struggle to locate and interpret the sounds around you. This can cause you to feel more insecure about where you are and who you are with, resulting in you becoming more withdrawn. When your hearing loss goes untreated, you are more likely to experience anxiety, depression and even paranoia.

Do you struggle to remember what you’ve just heard? It can be difficult to understand and remember what’s being said when you can’t hear properly in the first place. The extra cognitive resources required to listen, reduce what resources you have for understanding and memory. A study by John Hopkins Medicine discovered that people with hearing loss experienced cognitive decline up to 40% faster than those with normal hearing.

Hearing loss can at least double your risk of developing dementia. When you struggle to hear, your brain has to work overtime just to understand what people are saying. Straining to hear all the time, drains your mental energy and vital brain power that you need to perform other vital functions, such as thinking and remembering. When the hearing section of your brain becomes inactive, it results in changes to the brain structure and tissue and causes your brain to become overwhelmed.

Do you feel particularly tired after you’ve spent time with a group of people? Listening requires more effort and energy than you probably realize. Struggling to hear specific words and constantly having to always fill in the blanks can be exhausting. When you can’t hear properly, you are forced to dig deeper into your cognitive reserves. This is why you may find yourself struggling at social events or in a crowd of people where you have to concentrate harder to understand what’s being said.

If you no longer want to take part in social activities then it’s not surprising, because conversations take so more effort and energy when you have difficulty hearing. It’s common for untreated hearing loss to cause people to withdraw from socializing. This can eventually lead to isolation and depression if you don’t seek help for your hearing loss. But your hearing problem isn’t just frustrating for you – it can impact on those around you, too. Relationships with friends and family can also suffer because of your untreated hearing loss.

Is your work suffering because of your hearing? Hearing loss can cause communication issues, so it’s inevitable that this can lead to mistakes at work. When you don't hear clearly, you risk missing key information in meetings or important instructions from a colleague or your manager. In severe cases, untreated hearing loss can even lead to unemployment.

If there was a fire, would you be able to hear your smoke alarm? You may not realize just how much you rely on your hearing to keep yourself out of harm’s way. You will often hear a car before you see it, giving you a few valuable seconds of warning that a car is coming around the corner. But what would happen if you didn’t hear that car? If you have untreated hearing loss, you may not be able to hear warnings telling you to get out of the way quickly. If you can’t hear these warnings, you are putting yourself and other people at a greater risk of harm whether at work, home or out in the community.