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CHAPTER ONE The Emotions of Losing Hearing and A Bridge To Healing Richard Carmen, Au.D.
As Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, lay dying in the arms of the beautiful gypsy girl La Esmeralda, a tear rolls down his cheek. On his dying breath, he realizes his greatest torment—the pain of feeling. He whispers to Esmeralda, “Why could I not have been made of stone?” There is nothing wrong with feeling emotions. After all, they are what characterize us as human. Emotional experiences may be wonderful, painful, and sometimes perplexing. Yet, more than our physical body, feelings are the substance of our identity. Each of us reacts differently toward the varied experiences of our lives. For centuries, fields of study have been devoted to exploring this fascinating phenomenon, but the search seems to have yielded as much controversy as knowledge. . . Much of reality (what little we understand of it) is based on our very delicate sensory systems. Impairment to any one of our five senses does result in an altered state of reality. If you miss portions of communication and perhaps do not realize it, you are experiencing one thing while something else entirely may have been intended. When you experience auditory deprivation, your natural instinct is to avoid social situations because… not many people like living in an altered state of reality. Furthermore, there is now reliable scientific evidence to document the fact that untreated hearing loss can lead to a variety of unhealthy emotional conditions. The Hearing Instrument Association in conjunction with the National Council on Aging ran a study with over 2,000 hard of hearing adults and over 1700 family members.2 (Dr. Kochkin will discuss this further in Chapter 4.) This study concluded that people who suffer from hearing loss were more likely to experience increased anger, frustration, paranoia, insecurity, instability, nervousness, tension, anxiety, irritability, discontentment, depression, being temperamental, fearful, more likely to be self-critical, suffer from a sense of inferiority, social phobias, be perceived as confused, disoriented or unable to concentrate. Experiencing only one of these would seem enough to inspire one to seek help, but unfortunately, many people with hearing loss tend to experience a variety of these unhealthy emotional states. In addition, research has shown that failure to stimulate hearing (the auditory portion of the brain) by not wearing hearing aids may result in a more rapid decline in speech recognition.3-4 These reports were based on a substantial number of subjects who possessed at least a moderate degree of hearing loss in both ears but received only one hearing aid. As a result of auditory deprivation in the unaided ear, a reduction in speech recognition occurred. In some cases, this was reversible by adding a second hearing aid. If hearing loss is not addressed as a major health issue, the risks of negative emotional impact are far too great. These are consequences that can be avoided, but often are not because people do not realize the influence of untreated hearing loss. What follows will give you a sense of this impact. . . |
