I looked around the empty patio area and seeing nothing, returned my attention to the food in front of me. It was lunchtime, and I was enjoying a peaceful moment at a small deli in the middle of nowhere, waiting for my family to join me outside.
Bok it, bok ok. There it was again. My family approached. “Who is talking so loudly?” I asked them as I looked around the empty patio once again. “Is it coming from inside?”
They chuckled and said, “That’s just the chickens!” And I laughed too! (Hearing loss can be funny!)
But it also got me thinking. This experience is a perfect example of how my brain is always working at full capacity, seeking to give meaning to whatever incomplete sounds I hear. Does that noise indicate danger approaching? Something interesting to see? Speech?
In this case, it was just a flock of chickens wandering in the field nearby. Harmless. Once the sound was identified, I could ignore the squawking and focus on the real conversation happening right in front of me. But, until the mystery sound had been categorized, my brain cycled around and around, working to solve its latest auditory puzzle.
The Hearing Loss Brain Is Always on Overdrive!
Everyone’s brains are always working—scanning their surroundings for possible danger. For most people, an unfamiliar or sudden sound catches their attention, but it is easily dismissed once categorized and deemed safe.
For people with hearing loss, it is more complicated. We may not always hear a sound fully or recognize its meaning right away. Many questions flood our brains, all at once!
What visual cues can help decipher the sound? Do I see motion? How are others reacting to the sound? Does it sound like a warning? Is it speech? Is the speech directed at me?
No wonder people with hearing loss can be exhausted at the end of the day! It’s not just from the listening effort we expend when trying to pull speech from a noisy soundscape. It’s a constant monitoring of our surroundings. In an unfamiliar or new setting, the mental effort can be even more taxing.
Self-Care Critical to Living Well with Hearing Loss
All this mental activity can be stressful, keeping people with hearing loss in fight-or-flight mode for more time than is healthy.
In fight-or-flight, our sympathetic nervous system takes charge, releasing stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol that increase our heart rate and blood pressure, boost muscle tension, and heighten our senses. All the things the body needs when facing danger.
Conversely, when we are relaxed, we enter our parasympathetic nervous system, slowing the heart rate and lowering blood pressure. Blood flows to essential organs, especially the brain, and muscle tension eases, leading to a sense of calm and well-being. It is in these moments that the body focuses on metabolic processes like digestion and healing.
Everyone needs to wind down at the end of a long day, but for people with hearing loss, it may be even more critical, given our constant state of alertness. Yoga and meditation help me relax. For others, it could be reading or spending time in nature.
Whatever the method, when we prioritize rest, we give our bodies time to recover, leaving us better prepared to take on whatever mystery sounds lie ahead.
Shari Eberts is a passionate hearing health advocate and internationally recognized author and speaker on hearing loss issues. She is the founder of Living with Hearing Loss, a popular blog and online community for people with hearing loss, and an executive producer of We Hear You, an award-winning documentary about the hearing loss experience. Her book, Hear & Beyond: Live Skillfully with Hearing Loss, (co-authored with Gael Hannan) is the ultimate survival guide to living well with hearing loss. Shari has an adult-onset genetic hearing loss and hopes that by sharing her story, she will help others to live more peacefully with their own hearing issues. Connect with Shari: Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter.
