- It could mean
not hearing the doorbell ring or your spouse call you from another
room.
-
- It could mean
missing key information in a business meeting or avoiding seeing
friends for fear of being “found out.”
-
- Hearing loss
can interfere with the quality of your life, restricting your
ability to interact with others, causing misunderstandings and
fatigue, heightening stress and filtering out the myriad of sound
experiences that give pleasure and meaning to life.
-
- And not incidentally,
hearing loss can be a safety issue. What happens when you don’t
hear the smoke detector ?
-
- Yet most people
hesitate to act when it comes to treating a hearing loss. Part
of the problem is that onset is gradual (and virtually invisible).
-
- In fact, it
can take years for hearing loss to develop. Part of the problem
is denial. Hearing loss may be a natural part of the aging process,
but few of us want to admit to growing older.
-
- But perhaps
the biggest problem is how we view hearing loss, both as a culture
and as individuals. Hearing loss has always carried something
of a stigma in comparison to failing eyesight, for example—and
as a society, we even tackle hair loss or impotence before hearing
loss.
-
- Fortunately,
that’s changing, fueled in part by your search for knowledge
at sites like this one. So, congratulations on taking a step
towards making hearing loss not just another topic in the healthcare
forum.
-
- In this section,
read on to learn how to spot the signs of hearing loss, in yourself
or someone close to you.
|