Self-isolation

Difficulty hearing conversation, and the fear of not making appropriate responses, often causes those with hearing loss to self-isolate.

Due to her inability to clearly hear speech, a woman started to withdraw from activity and interaction with others. She began isolating herself because it felt more comfortable. Even during family conversations, she chose to sit quietly and did not participate. Her worried daughter expressed concern that she was depressed and was perhaps mentally slipping. Upon getting fitted for hearing aids she literally sat up taller in the chair and was joking with her daughter and her son. She wasn’t beginning to slip mentally; she just couldn’t hear what people were saying so she just kind of checked out. She said that getting hearing aids had added color back into her world.