What are the Main Symptoms of Hearing Loss?

Hearing loss is a hearing difficulty that can happen to anyone. For example, people with hearing loss may find it hard to hear conversations in noisy places or hear someone speaking against background noise. They also mishear what people say, misunderstand what they mean and often ask them to repeat themselves.

Withdrawal From Conversations

One of the first symptoms that people notice is that they withdraw from conversations. This can happen both in situations where there’s a lot of background noise or no background noise at all. Depending on how advanced their hearing loss is, an individual may seem like they’re simply uninterested in what’s going on.

However, the truth is that it’s difficult for them to follow along with what others are saying if they cannot fully hear what is being said. They also need more time than usual to process thoughts before responding.

Not Hearing Certain Sounds Like Hissing Steam or Frying Food

People will also not be able to hear sounds at certain levels, affecting their ability to do what they enjoy doing most. This is especially the case with social gatherings or family get-togethers where there are multiple conversations taking place.

There can be so much background noise that it becomes difficult to understand anything without asking the speaker to repeat themselves every few moments; however, this kind of defeats the purpose of even attending in the first place.

Asking People to Repeat Themselves Often

When a single person is talking, they should be able to understand them perfectly well. On the other hand, if more than one person is speaking, individuals with hearing loss will only be able to catch every other word. This symptom often leads hearing-impaired people to say that they did not hear or understand what another person said. They may even ask the speaker to repeat themselves if this happens.

Suppose you are experiencing any hearing loss symptoms. In that case, it is important that you visit your audiologist for hearing tests so you can get treatment if necessary and learn about ways to compensate for hearing loss in the future. Hearing aids may help restore hearing, but they come with a hefty price tag.

If you do not feel like hearing aids fit your lifestyle and budget and seek out other options such as:

• Lip reading classes where you train your brain to decipher speech from lip movements by watching another person’s lips as they speak; getting familiar with how different consonants look on the lips before you hear the sound.
• Hearing-impaired people read at their own pace using closed captioning or text transcripts on TV to see what actors are saying.
• Getting a hearing dog that is specially trained to alert its owner by touch cues when hearing specific sounds like doorbells, oven timers, smoke alarms and other potential dangers. These dogs are also skilled at calling 911 in an emergency and fetching hearing aids for their owners.

Have you or your loved one had their hearing tested recently? If not, encourage them to make an appointment today!