You aren’t really certain why, but you’ve been feeling cranky lately. Well, it was frustrating earlier this morning when you felt left out of the meeting at the office. The other night your daughter seemed annoyed with you when you asked her to turn up the volume of the TV over and over again leading to her abruptly leaving the house. What’s the deal with that?
Perhaps the real issue is hearing loss!
As you get older hearing loss can take you by surprise and over 40 million individuals in the US suffer with it. And, the problem doesn’t end at your ears, either. Even mild hearing loss puts you at risk of depression, memory loss, and even dementia, according to some research. What you may believe is merely an indication of age, could actually be a treatable medical condition. Maybe, you missed essential conversational cues and your coworkers didn’t actually exclude you from the meeting after all. The truth is, if you can’t hear properly during your everyday life, it can become extremely frustrating.
Get the facts about hearing loss
A good place to start is learning more about what you’re coping with. Hearing loss does happen to many individuals due to the aging process. But years of exposure to excessively loud sound can also be the cause for others. Noise-related hearing loss can be a result of lots of noise sources, including mowing the lawn and leaf blowing, listening to loud music, and driving in loud traffic with the window down. The delicate mechanisms in your ear can be damaged by lots of noises in the world.
Another possible cause of hearing loss is chronic disease that becomes more prevalent with age. When you have disorders that cause issues with your blood pressure, your inner ear can become damaged.
Recognize the signs
People often take their hearing for granted, so when it begins to fail they don’t detect the signs:
- You regularly feel like you are being left out of the conversations
- You regularly say “what” and often need people to repeat themselves
- Struggling to comprehend words when there’s background noise like a fan or the AC
If you detect any of these hearing loss symptoms, it’s no wonder you’re cranky! Depression and social solitude can be the result of feeling separated from your world.
Develop a plan to treat hearing loss
One of the very first things you can do is ask family and friends if they have noticed you having a difficult time hearing. It may seem like a challenging conversation but it’s a really worthwhile one. If the answer is ‘yes’ then scheduling a hearing test should be your next move and will clarify things for you. Try to get a loved one to accompany you to your exam. A supportive, calming presence can be extremely helpful.
Your hearing examination will not only help to verify your hearing loss but it will also gauge the extent of it. Depending on the results of your test, we will be able to figure out your best plan going forward. In the majority of instances, that will entail getting hearing aids. Don’t stress, there are so many options and features that you’re certain to get hearing aids that fit your lifestyle!
Picking out quality hearing aids
We’ll have recommendations that will be best suited for your unique type of hearing loss. Take some to time determine the correct brand and model for your needs, this could require testing a few styles and models. Hearing aids don’t just amplify sound nowadays. They can block out background noises, link to smartphones and computers, and even determine the direction of a sound. Do some research to determine which brands and models come with the features that will best fit your lifestyle and requirements.
And, don’t forget to consider styles. They come in various fashionable colors or with no color at all, so they’re nearly invisible.
Schedule a hearing test with our qualified hearing specialists today if you suspect you may be suffering with hearing loss. It’s time to get out of that cranky mindset and we can help!
References
https://www.ncoa.org/adviser/hearing-aids/hearing-loss-america/