Why Your Mood Can be Improved by Having Your Hearing Checked

When it comes to the link between your hearing quality and your mood, there’s a link that many people fail to realize is there. However, in 2014 a new study highlighted the fact that there is a strong correlation between hearing loss and mood, particularly mood disorders – the study came from The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.

What this study suggests is that for anyone who has developed hearing loss, is that the reduction in their hearing levels may have a direct impact on their mood and how they are feeling. With this study in mind, you can assume that once you have seen an audiologist and had your hearing checked, your mood should begin to shift. If your audiologist is able to offer you a hearing aid device to improve and enhance your hearing, this should lift your mood.

Your mood can be impacted by your hearing – or a lack of hearing, so taking the time to get your hearing checked by an audiologist is important. Let’s dig a little deeper into why having your hearing checked has the potential to improve your mood – read on for everything that you should know.

What Does the Research Tell Us? 

The study from The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders tells us that there’s a direct link between untreated hearing loss and low mood. It also highlights that, for people with good quality hearing, depression rates were around four percent. Whereas, for people living with any level of hearing loss, these rates equated to 11.4%.

The study also showed that the rate of depression increased as the level of hearing loss increased over time.

The research also shows that for women over the age of 70, feelings of depression and low mood were common. However, for men over the age of 70 who were living with hearing loss, this did not appear to be the case. While younger adults living with hearing loss were far more prone to low mood and depression as a result of a reduction in the quality of their hearing.

Why Can Hearing Loss Impact Mood? 

There are a number of answers to this question, but the main and most important one is also the simplest one: living with a loss of hearing can have an impact on the quality of your life and therefore can have an impact on your mood. So, why is this?

A loss of hearing or a reduction in your hearing levels can impact your mood for a number of reasons. For many people it’s the fact that most hearing loss tends to be permanent. Once your hearing is damaged, either through age, an accident or an illness, the damage has been done and it’s usually not possible to repair it. The concept of a loss of hearing being a permanent thing can be extremely depressing and difficult to understand and live with.

There’s also the fact that it’s common for a loss of hearing to isolate people. Once hearing loss becomes an issue, many people choose to step away from most of the social situations that they once enjoyed. Social isolation can have a big impact on mood and feelings of depression.

In addition, hearing loss can also lead to a lot of stress because every aspect of your life has changed and needs to be adapted to. Stress can easily lead to feelings of low mood and depression.

Can Having Your Hearing Checked Help?

The good news is that choosing to have any issue with your hearing checked and diagnosed can help when it comes to your mood. A hearing test probably won’t fix the issue completely but it can help to alleviate feelings of low mood, because it can offer a range of solutions to improve your quality of life.

Another study found that when someone with hearing loss sees an audiologist and gets a professional hearing test and chooses to wear hearing aids to compensate for the hearing loss they have developed, they are 50% less likely to have low mood or depression. Having hearing aids can help to improve and enhance quality of life, which can make living with hearing loss easier to adjust to, in addition to making living with hearing loss easier to cope with on an emotional level.

A hearing aid can have a big impact on your mental wellbeing when you’re dealing with hearing loss.

To learn more on how your mood can improve by having your hearing checked. Brentwood Hearing Center will be happy to help. Contact us today at (615) 866-0431.