The psychological and physical systems of your body are closely linked, so if you struggle with anxiety, you may notice a change in your hearing, too. One affects the other, creating a vicious cycle that impacts your quality of life. Understanding how anxiety and hearing loss influence each other will help you manage your symptoms and put your mind at ease.
How Anxiety Affects Hearing
Anxiety is your body’s natural response to stress, but extended periods of anxiousness wreak havoc on your health, including your hearing. That’s especially problematic if you have an anxiety condition that makes you feel uneasy without an apparent cause.
It’s common to notice a change in the following if you live with chronic anxiety:
Tinnitus: One of the most common auditory effects of high anxiety is tinnitus. Stress can raise your blood pressure due to the release of the stress hormone cortisol. That often aggravates the perceived ringing or buzzing in your ears, making it seem louder or more persistent.
Balance: Your vestibular system is a network of tube-like mechanisms in your inner ear that help maintain your balance. Anxiousness can overstimulate them, resulting in dizziness, vertigo and difficulty walking or driving.
Perceived hearing loss: Anxiety interferes with cognitive functions including your ability to focus. If your brain is preoccupied with stressful thoughts, it won’t have the cognitive bandwidth to process sound effectively. As your brain devotes more energy toward your fight-or-flight instinct, tasks like following conversations could become more difficult.
Hypersensitivity to sound: Heightened stress puts your senses on edge, leading to hyperacusis or an increased sensitivity to sound. Noise may seem louder or more overwhelming than usual if you have anxiety and hearing loss.
How Hearing Loss Creates Anxiety
Just as anxiety can affect auditory issues, hearing loss contributes to increased stress, perpetuating anxiety. You may experience social and emotional difficulties if you can’t hear properly, leaving you feeling stressed and isolated.
You may experience:
Embarrassment: The perceptions often associated with hearing loss might leave you hesitant to participate in conversation if you feel embarrassed asking others to repeat themselves. Misinterpreting conversation is also frustrating, especially in professional and social settings.
Fear: A fear of social settings or encountering new situations is common if you have hearing loss. You may also worry about missing auditory cues like alarms and sirens that affect your safety. That heightened awareness raises your anxiety, in turn.
Isolation: The anxiety created by embarrassment and fear could result in an aversion to social interaction altogether. It’s not uncommon to isolate yourself as you lose your hearing, but that can lead to feelings of loneliness. Social withdrawal also increases your risk of anxiety, depression, and cognitive decline, which are linked to increased hearing loss.
Cognitive overload: Living with untreated hearing loss means your brain has to work harder to process sounds and speech. That increases your cognitive load and mental exhaustion. Heightened feelings can amplify that tiredness, further impacting your brain’s ability to concentrate on sound.
How To Break the Cycle
If you suffer from anxiety and hearing loss, treating one typically improves the other.
Treat your hearing loss: Hearing aids improve your ability to socialize and reduce the frustration and isolation associated with hearing loss. If you have tinnitus, some hearing aids offer sound therapy programming to mask the ringing and ease emotional discomfort. White noise machines are another effective tool for soothing anxiety caused by hearing issues.
Manage your anxiety: Talk with your primary care physician about medication and therapy options that could help you cope with anxiousness. Cognitive-behavioral therapy allows you to learn coping mechanisms to manage how you respond to hearing loss. Deep breathing exercises, meditation and mindfulness practices can also calm your nervous system, lower anxiety levels and reduce hypersensitivity to sound.
Stay socially active: Social engagement is an important step in reducing anxiety. Connecting with your loved ones provides you with support to reduce feelings of isolation. There are a variety of emotional and hearing support groups where you can connect with others who share similar experiences, which may make you feel accepted and understood. Consider using assistive listening devices like tabletop and handheld mics that pair with your hearing aids.
Hearing Health Services in Northern Iowa and Southern Minnesota
The team at Hearing Associates is committed to supporting you on your journey toward better hearing health. In addition to testing and hearing aid services, we offer aural rehabilitation to help you learn better communication strategies and hearing aid care techniques to optimize your listening experience. Call 888.760.2032 or schedule your appointment online.