World Mental Health Day is a good day to talk about the impact of hearing loss on our quality of life, and potentially our mental health.
Depending on the causes and extent of your hearing loss, there is an obvious immediate emotional impact. You’re dealing with a profound change in one of our key means of interacting with the world around us – your hearing – and you may have practical questions about your career, financial implications etc.
All of these things generate stress and anxiety. However facing up to hearing loss, getting the most from your audiologist and your hearing technology and accessing the right emotional support will all help.
Not dealing with your hearing loss and ignoring, or not understanding what’s happening to your hearing could potentially have an even greater impact on your mental health. Following conversations or important business meetings can become so difficult that you are left increasingly exhausted. Difficulty in social situations can cause someone to retreat from them and become isolated.
This wonderful blog article by young hearing loss sufferer Cristina Lisk is really worth a read.
https://www.hearinglikeme.com/mental-health-and-hearing-loss/
If you do feel overwhelmed about hearing loss or you feel your mental health is becoming affected, there is a wealth of support out there. Talk to your GP or take a look at the following link for more information.
https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/
