When you are feeling your best, social connections may come naturally. Whether you are spending time with your family, involved in community activities, or making social calls with your friends, some of these activities flow naturally in life. Whether you are introverted or extroverted, connecting with others is essential to your health and wellbeing. You most likely feel good when you know you are connected to others who could care for you if you needed and who also need your care and support.
On the other hand, when we are not at our best, social connections can become fragmented and even lost. Whether it is poor physical health that limits our mobility or poor mental health that makes social engagement seem too difficult, our connections with others can suffer when we are not at our best. Another condition that has been linked to problems with social engagement is hearing loss.
As you might expect, trouble communicating can make some people recede from social life, including not only big community gatherings but even relationships with family and friends. The good news is that treating hearing loss can help to restore those social connections. There are even positive effects for your health when you are socially engaged, so treating hearing loss is part of a bigger picture of your wellbeing.
Hearing Loss and Social Connection
The path from hearing loss to social disconnection is easy to imagine. If you have hearing loss, conversations can become frustrating. The constant need to ask others to repeat themselves can become annoying to all involved, and you might even find yourself getting angry that others aren’t speaking in a way you can understand. This frustration and anger can lead to relationship conflicts and a general negative feeling after interacting, making all involved tend to avoid future conflict. On the other hand, some people blame themselves for the inability to communicate. They can become anxious at the prospect of conversations where they are expected to understand what is going on.
When a family gathering or party is approaching, these people mind find themselves growing increasingly nervous about the embarrassment they will feel when others notice that they can’t communicate very easily. When frustration, anger, and anxiety become part of the process of social engagement, some people become depressed. They find it difficult to summon the energy to attend these events, and they might recede from social engagement more generally. In the worst cases, some people with hearing loss avoid going to public places altogether, knowing that others will expect them to communicate. Without even the regular trips to the grocery store and post office, this feeling of social isolation can have a profound effect on mental wellbeing and even physical health.
Treatment and Social Reconnection
When a person receives treatment for hearing loss, it’s as if this process goes in reverse. The simple tasks such as going for groceries no longer seem like such a challenge, and the prospect of running into an old friend at the store can even become appealing once again. Once these simple tasks become less daunting, those who have hearing aids will be ready to brave bigger social events, like parties, group dinners at restaurants, and holiday gatherings.
Connecting with loved ones is essential to our wellbeing, but community involvement also instills a feeling of identity and belonging. When we can find our place in the world, we remember that others benefit from our help and that we can trust others to be there in our time of need, as well. These benefits of social connection are waiting for those who take the step toward hearing assistance.
The first thing you can do is to schedule an appointment for a hearing test. With that diagnosis in hand, we can make sure to connect you with the right hearing assistance for your individual needs. If you have someone in your life who seems to be experiencing social disconnection, why not have a conversation about hearing loss, as well? It might be that hearing loss is operating behind the surface to make social engagement more difficult, and we can offer assistance that repairs not only hearing ability but also social connections.
