Do you have any fun vacation plans for the summer? Don’t let untreated hearing loss slow down your getaway. If you’ve noticed any of the following signs of hearing loss, get your hearing checked before you go.
Untreated Hearing Loss on Vacation
You’ll certainly want to hear the sound of waves crashing on the shore, birds singing in the woods or any other lovely sounds from the locale to which you’re traveling, and of course, you’ll want to be able to converse with your fellow travelers, too. You could miss out on all of this if you have untreated hearing loss.
Untreated hearing loss is a major public health concern. It’s estimated that only 20% of people who notice signs of hearing loss seek treatment, and some individuals wait 10 years or more before doing so. There are many possible reasons for this: hesitancy about a major life change, embarrassment at needing hearing aids, denial that they have hearing loss or underestimating how much their hearing loss has progressed.
Signs You May Have Hearing Loss
If you suspect you’re in the beginning stages of hearing loss, look for these common yet sneaky signs.
Difficulty Understanding Conversations
A well-known indicator of hearing loss is asking people to repeat themselves often, frequently saying “what?” when trying to follow a conversation. This is because, with hearing loss, the frequencies of sound that are common to human speech are the frequencies you lose first. However, it goes beyond repeating “what?”; you may experience feeling like everyone is mumbling, and you may especially struggle to hear women, children and other people with high-pitched voices. You may also find yourself nodding along, pretending that you understood. This reflexive pulling back could indicate an underlying hearing problem.
Feeling Overly Tired
When the brain receives a decreased amount of sound information, it needs to work harder to fill in the gaps. This overtaxes your mental energy, so you may feel more easily distracted or frustrated by background noise or struggle to comprehend what someone is saying, even though you audibly heard them. All this extra mental energy will leave you feeling exhausted after trying to follow a long conversation or lecture.
Turning the TV Up
This one may be hard to notice on your own at first, as we often raise the volume on our televisions and entertainment devices without a second thought. If, however, the people you live with start complaining that the TV is too loud, or if you take note that the volume level is higher than you remember, it’s a pretty good sign that you’re not hearing as well as you used to.
Missed Phone Calls
As mentioned above, the first frequencies you lose with hearing loss are high frequencies. This means you may not hear the phone ring, even at full volume. If there’s been an uptick in missed calls lately, it’s time to consider getting your hearing checked.
Additionally, phone calls can be particularly difficult with hearing loss. The digital sound quality coming through the phone speaker may sound distorted, or speech might not sound as clear as it does in person. It’s common for people to hear the phone ring but decide not to answer it because they want to avoid the difficulty of talking on the phone.
How to Find Help
Your first step in your hearing loss treatment is to have your hearing tested at an audiologist’s clinic. They will determine the severity of your hearing loss and the best treatment plan for you.
Act now, before your vacation; don’t miss out on the wonderful opportunities that come with traveling in the summer because you can’t hear them. Call SH Audiology today to make an appointment for a hearing screening.