4 Impacts of Untreated Hearing Loss

Hearing loss has many detrimental impacts upon your life. If you’ve managed to make sure that you’ve sought out the right treatment, you may find that you can live relatively normally, but if you don’t get the right help, the consequences can be a lot more significant.

Hearing loss often starts out as something that isn’t too bad, and you may just miss certain words in conversation due to these issues. However, if you don’t get treatment from an audiologist as soon as you notice your hearing problems, you could find yourself with one of these four issues as a result.

1. Depression

Hearing loss has been linked to depression for many reasons, and it is much more likely to be an issue if your symptoms go untreated. One of the main reasons for this link is the fact that those with hearing loss are more likely to be socially isolated, and social isolation is one of the fundamental causes of depression.

This is also likely to be the case if you’re used to having an active social life, and good relationships with your friends and loved ones, but you now find it difficult to relate to them, and to communicate your thoughts and feelings. When hearing loss goes untreated, these issues only get worse, and communication barriers are ever-increasing, alongside subsequent depression.

2. Safety issues

Untreated hearing loss is not only linked to a lack of communication socially, but it may also mean that you struggle to understand communication based around various safety issues. For example, if you’re about to step out when crossing the road, and somebody tries to warn you about an oncoming car, there is always the risk that you just won’t hear them.

On top of this, there are issues in the home, such as struggling to hear fire alarms and smoke detectors going off. The main issue is that these alarms emit high frequencies, which may be difficult for those with untreated hearing loss to hear. If you want to protect your safety, seeing an audiologist and seeking treatment is key.

3. Issues with memory

Another impact of untreated hearing loss is memory loss, and this affects people of all ages. The primary reason behind this is the fact that you may be using your cognitive energy to focus upon social interactions, and as such, you can’t use it towards memory functions like you normally would do.

If you seek out treatment for hearing loss, you are a lot more likely to be able to maintain memory functions, as you won’t need to use your cognitive energy for other purposes, so speak to your audiologist if you think that this is an issue.

4. Likelihood of falling

Untreated hearing loss can also mean that you are more likely to fall over, and there are many theories as to why this could happen. One of the reasons may be that you are less aware of your surroundings due to the decreased functioning of your senses, but there are also other theories.

Some people believe that hearing loss could lead to increased risk of falling because of the fact that cognitive energy is, again, used for other tasks. The mental functioning that may be required for things such as balance may be used as energy to understand communication, and this could increase the likelihood of falls.

So, there are many impacts of untreated hearing loss, and it is a good idea to speak to an audiologist if you’re worried about any of these things.