National Mental Health Awareness month isn\u2019t until October, but this was on my mind now. I\u2019ve been doing a lot of work with Communication and Communication Strategies training lately. This quote by George Bernard Shaw made me stop and think. \u201cThe single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.\u201d It truly is sad when people think they are communicating, and they aren\u2019t. Communication, for the most part, is facilitated through the sense of hearing. When one suffers a hearing loss, he or she consequently suffers a loss of communication. A loss of communication leads to damaged relationships. Damaged relationships lead to feelings of isolation. And, now we\u2019ve come full circle back to mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clinical studies have shown that untreated hearing loss compounds the effects of depression on individuals affected. It also induces behaviors that could be attributed to depression or lead to depression in others. Here\u2019s an example: Jo finds it extremely difficult to hear in a group situation. So, she finds excuses to stay away from those events. Since most of her friends take part in those group events, Jo doesn\u2019t see her friends. She is forced to choose between enjoying her friends or enduring the fatigue brought on by the constant concentration needed just to follow a simple conversation. Over time, she chooses to stay home more often. She convinces herself that if her friends want to see her, they will make the effort to come visit. If they don\u2019t, the friendship must not have been as good as she thought it was. These thoughts very often lead to thoughts directed inward. Jo may start to believe she is no longer worthy of friendship. She withdraws further and her friends wonder where she has gone. This reminds me of another quote. Helen Keller said, \u201cBlindness cuts us off from things, but deafness cuts us off from people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is light at the end of this bleak tunnel of untreated hearing loss. With treatment (testing, counseling, hearing aids, communication training) Jo can get back into the lifestyle she left behind. And, we\u2019re here to help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you have a Jo in your life, don\u2019t let her just fade off into the sunset. Reach out to her. Make sure hearing loss doesn\u2019t steal a friend. If you don\u2019t know how to start the \u201chearing loss\u201d conversation, give us a call. We have resources to share.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
National Mental Health Awareness month isn\u2019t until October, but this was on my mind now. I\u2019ve been doing a lot of work with Communication and Communication Strategies training lately. This quote by George Bernard Shaw made me stop and think. \u201cThe single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.\u201d It…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hearing-loss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hearbetterevansville.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hearbetterevansville.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hearbetterevansville.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hearbetterevansville.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hearbetterevansville.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hearbetterevansville.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1466,"href":"https:\/\/hearbetterevansville.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463\/revisions\/1466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hearbetterevansville.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hearbetterevansville.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hearbetterevansville.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hearbetterevansville.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}