“Excuse me, could you please repeat that again?”
That’s the typical sort of thing you’d expect someone with untreated hearing loss to say. However, just because your loved ones aren’t asking you to repeat yourself doesn’t mean that they don’t have hearing loss. There are many other warning signs that all point to this common problem. If you or someone you know exhibits any of the following four signs, it may be time to book a hearing test.
- It’s difficult to participate in social situations
If you have hearing loss, you may not necessarily want to ask everyone to repeat themselves multiple times. Hearing only fragments of conversations, it can cause you to feel isolated, left out and as such, you’re likely to sit back and not participate as actively in a chat.
Of course, behaving uncharacteristically quiet is not definite of hearing loss, but it’s always better to take precautionary measures to stay healthy.
- You feel tired a lot more
Leading on from the last point, participating in a conversation with multiple speakers can be mentally exhausting. That can contribute to the feelings of isolation also, as your brain is too tired to keep up with distorted speech.
It’s these tiny delicate hairs in our inner ear that are damaged and can’t pick up sounds as well. The signals they send to our brains will be fragmented, and so, our brains will overwork trying to piece together snippets of conversations.
- Your family and friends notice that you’re hearing differently
Hearing loss doesn’t only affect older people, despite popular belief. And so, when friends and family point out that you may have problems with your hearing, it can be hard to believe.
Not only because hearing loss is associated with being ‘old’, but also because you may not realise the differences in your hearing yourself. However, watching things at a louder volume, asking others to repeat themselves or not participating as actively in conversations as you used to, all these are more likely to be noticed by your loved ones.
- You experience tinnitus
You may not have been medically diagnosed with tinnitus, but many ignore the phantom sounds in their ears because they assume it will go away soon.
Tinnitus is when we can hearing continuous ringing, buzzing or humming in our ears, especially after loud exposures to noise. It’s believed that this happens when our brains try to fill the absence of certain sounds with a noise, which we label as tinnitus.
The symptoms of tinnitus fluctuate, and if you do experience these symptoms, it doesn’t mean you definitely have hearing loss. However, getting your hearing checked is the best way to make sure if you are experiencing any changes to your hearing.
What’s the next step?
If you recognise one or two of the above signs, please do not panic. We all experience times where we have trouble hearing. However seeking advice from a hearing care specialist would be recommended, just so you can establish where your hearing levels are at.
If your hearing is within the expected limits, then brilliant. If it is not so good and you might need some help then at least you can find out what options are available to you. You might just be surprised!
For more information about your hearing or to book an appointment please click here to contact us.
