Effect of hearing loss on mental health
Watch a movie with the sound muted for 30 minutes. You will find it agonizing to follow the lip-sync to decipher the dialogue that the actors speak. If you cannot bear this for even half-an-hour, imagine how tormenting it would be for the hearing impaired when their entire day spins out like a silent movie? Yes, hearing loss does affect the mental health of the patients.
Most people don't realize this fact and seem to ignore the difficulties of the hearing-impaired individuals. But not anymore. With October being the "Protect your Hearing" month and October 10 being the "World Mental Health Day", let us make this an effort to spread awareness that hearing loss causes mental health issues.
What are the mental health issues that hearing loss causes?
Hearing loss causes a host of mental health issues like
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Schizophrenia
- Dementia
- Anger outbursts
- Suicidal tendencies
How do individuals with hearing loss suffer from mental health?
Individuals with hearing loss exhibit these behavioural symptoms that show that they are mentally affected.
Hearing-impaired individuals find it difficult to carry on a conversation normally and might
- Interrupt or intrude into a conversation abruptly
- Talk off-topic
- Dominate the conversation by shouting as they think talking covers up for listening
Hearing loss and depression
In a study of 2300 hearing -affected people by the National Council of ageing, 60% developed depression. The University of Colorado attributes this to "brain reorganization" where the hearing centres shrink and are replaced by other task centres. This leads to a loss of short- term memory and problem-solving skills, ending in depression.
Hearing loss and schizophrenia
Since the society mostly excludes and isolates hearing-impaired individuals, they tend to suffer from loneliness and depression. This increases the sensitization of the dopamine system causing schizophrenia. Due to this social exclusion, hearing-impaired patients tend to become psychotic with hallucinations and delusions leading to schizophrenia.
Hearing loss and dementia
Studies at the John Hopkins University have found that hearing loss leads to memory decline in aged adults followed by dementia. The reduced social engagement of the hearing-impaired patients and the cognitive stress they face in having to deal with hearing loss can make them lose their memory very quickly. This mental illness can be easily resolved by the use of simple hearing aids which will automatically increase the brain's function by hearing.
All these mental health issues can be easily remedied by consulting an expert ENT doctor and undergoing hearing loss treatment. Sometimes, hearing aids are enough to improve the situation and must be procured only from an ENT hospital.
Tinnitus
Tinnitus is a hearing condition where the individual suffers from a "loud ringing in the ears". This may be caused due to age, excessive noise exposure or some ear injury. But this ringing persists causing fear and anger leading to mental health disorders like anger, anxiety, depression and even suicidal ideation.
Meniere's disease
Meniere's disease is an inner ear disorder that results in pain in the ear, vertigo and Tinnitus. Due to these severe symptoms, the patients experience anxiety, stress and even have insomnia and panic attacks. This hearing problem can be resolved using cochlear implants, thereby giving the patient relief from mental stress.
Partial or total hearing loss cannot be taken lightly and must be attended to, at once as it may have severe repercussions on the mental health of the patient. Head to an expert ENT hospital and undertake the right ENT treatment to safeguard both your hearing and mental health.
