Hearing loss is more than just finding it hard to understand speech and sounds. It also makes you extremely tired; listening takes a lot of effort and energy. People with normal hearing don’t really think about the fact that listening can be fatiguing and frustrating. The Better Hearing Institute estimates that the costs of untreated hearing loss are around 92 billion euros in Europe. This was said to be due to lost productivity at work, much of which is due to fatigue caused by just dealing with hearing loss on a day-to-day basis.
A survey by the Danish Institute for Social Research found that as many as one in five people suffering from hearing loss give up on the job market due to the challenges posed by their issues, and for those who do work, almost 15% are so fatigued by the end of the day they have no energy left for hobbies and social events.
Ian Noon, Head of Policy and Research at the National Deaf Children’s Society in the United Kingdom, paints an accurate picture of what listening fatigue is like in his blog looking at concentration fatigue.
"It’s about the energy involved in lip-reading and being attentive all day long. Processing and constructing meaning out of half-heard words and sentences. Making guesses and figuring out context. And then thinking of something intelligent to say in response to an invariably random question. It’s like doing jigsaws, Sudoku and Scrabble all at the same time."
All of the above makes it important to maintain routine hearing checks and make sure that everything is as it should be. At Noble and Reading Hearcare, we come to your home to complete hearing tests, wax removal and even supplying you with hearing aids or hearing protection. Why not give us a call or contact us via our website (www.nobleandreadinghearcare.com) for more information on how we could help you.
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