Many people aren’t aware that they have hearing loss until a loved one brings it up. This is especially true with age-related hearing loss, or presbycusis, which happens gradually and naturally as we get older. Therefore, if you’re an older adult who lives alone, it can be hard to track the progression of hearing loss. Let’s discuss how you can be proactive about your hearing health while maintaining your independence.

When you search for “signs of hearing loss” online, you’re presented with several social-oriented signs: difficulty following conversations, asking people to repeat themselves, loved ones complaining about the TV or radio being turned up too loud or simply bringing up their worries to you. Of course, living alone doesn’t mean that you’re always alone, but it does make hearing loss cues such as these less common. Here are some other signs you might watch for:

• Fatigue at the end of listening. This is a phenomenon known as listener’s fatigue. Hearing loss causes your brain to work harder to process and perceive sound, expending valuable mental energy in the process. If you were watching a movie, attending a lecture or doing some other activity that involved vigorous listening for an extended period of time and feel exhausted afterward, that’s listener’s fatigue.
• Feeling overwhelmed in noisy places. Does going out to get a latte at The Coffee Movement or grocery shopping trigger a feeling of sensory overload? This could indicate that your brain is spending a lot of energy trying to hear in a noisy setting.
• Missed phone calls. With progressive hearing loss, we typically “lose” higher-pitched hearing first. The classic phone ring sound is high-pitched, so you may miss an incoming call. Alternatively, listening to voices over the phone can be difficult for people with hearing loss, and if that’s the case, you may instinctively shy away from phone calls. If you have noticed that you are letting it ring, consider a hearing test.
• Increased clumsiness. This is a subtle one, because you may not immediately associate balance issues with hearing loss. However, our hearing and balance systems are intrinsically linked, as they’re both housed in the inner ear. Also, hearing is important for our situational awareness; when that decreases, we struggle to perceive our bodily position in relation to our environment.
• Missing background sounds. This one may be harder to detect, but we want to include it because it’s still useful. Our brains are very adaptable and will become acclimated to receiving less sound information without you even realizing it. In short, you often don’t know what you’re missing. But some people will realize they have hearing loss when they notice that they can’t hear sounds they used to take for granted anymore, like birdsong, the sound of food cooking on the stove or their own footsteps.

This isn’t dissimilar to how you get your vision and teeth checked often, or visit your primary care provider to check your vitals (blood pressure, blood tests, mammograms, etc.). Whether you already have a hearing loss diagnosis or not, you should check in with an audiologist every three to five years (or one to three years if you’re over age 65) to monitor any changes in your hearing.

By age 50, you should establish a baseline hearing ability with a full audiogram from an audiologist. You’ll use this as a benchmark for years to come.

Again, living alone doesn’t mean being alone, and you probably already know that. Staying socially connected is vital for our overall health and quality of life. Being socially connected doesn’t just mean having a lot of friends and attending a lot of parties. It means having meaningful interactions with other humans. Waving to your neighbors, joining a club or group sport at the local senior center, attending local events and even chatting with your barista are all ways to be socially connected. Building a network like this can help you monitor your hearing health and keep you feeling fulfilled.

If you have any questions about your hearing health or need to schedule a hearing test, call us at SH Audiology.