If we truly want to understand hearing loss, we need to understand both the physical side, which makes hearing progressively difficult, and the psychological side, which includes the lesser-known emotional responses to the loss of hearing. In conjunction, the two sides of hearing loss can wreak havoc on a person’s total well being, as the physical reality brings about the loss and the psychological reality prevents people from addressing it.
The numbers tell the tale. Even though virtually all instances of hearing loss are physically treatable, only around 20% of individuals who would benefit from hearing aids make use of them. And even among people who do seek help, it takes an average of 5 to 7 years before they arrange a hearing test.
How can we explain the considerable discrepancy between the possibility for better hearing and the commonplace resistance to achieve it? The first step is to acknowledge that hearing loss is in fact a “loss,” in the sense that something valuable has been taken away and is ostensibly lost forever. The second step is to figure out how people generally respond to losing something valuable, which, by way of the scholarship of the Swiss-American psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, we now understand extremely well.
Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’ 5 stages of grief
Kübler-Ross observed 5 stages of grief that everyone dealing with loss appears to go through (in incredibly consistent ways), although not everyone does so in the same order or in the same time period.
Here are the stages:
- Denial – the individual buffers the emotional shock by denying the loss and imagining a false, preferable reality.
- Anger – the individual recognizes the loss but becomes angry that it has happened to them.
- Bargaining – the individual reacts to the feeling of helplessness by trying to regain control through bargaining.
- Depression – understanding the weight of the loss, the individual becomes saddened at the hopelessness of the circumstance.
- Acceptance – in the last stage, the individual accepts the circumstance and presents a more stable set of emotions. The rationality associated with this stage leads to productive problem solving and the restoring of control over emotions and actions.
Individuals with hearing loss progress through the stages at different rates, with some never reaching the last stage of acceptance — hence the gap between the potential for better hearing and the low numbers of people who actually seek help, or that otherwise hold off a number of years before doing so.
Progressing through the stages of hearing loss
The first stage of grief is the most difficult to escape for those with loss of hearing. Seeing that hearing loss develops gradually through the years, it can be very difficult to detect. People also have the tendency to make up for hearing loss by turning up the TV volume, for instance, or by forcing people to repeat themselves. Those with hearing loss can persist in the denial stage for many years, saying things like “I can hear just fine” or “I hear what I want to.”
The next stage, the anger stage, can express itself as a form of projection. You might hear those with hearing loss claim that everyone else mumbles, as if the issue is with everyone else rather than with them. People persist in the anger stage until they recognize that the problem is in fact with them, and not with others, at which point they may transition on to the bargaining stage.
Bargaining is a form of intellectualization that can take various forms. For instance, those with hearing loss might compare their condition to others by thinking, “My hearing has gotten a lot worse, but at least my health is good. I really shouldn’t complain, other people my age are dealing with genuine problems.” You might also come across those with hearing loss devaluing their problem by thinking, “So I can’t hear as well as I used to. It’s just part of getting older, no big deal.”
After passing through these first three stages of denial, anger, and bargaining, those with hearing loss may go into a stage of depression — under the mistaken presumption that there is no hope for treatment. They may persist in the depression stage for a while until they recognize that hearing loss can be treated, at which point they can enter the last stage: the acceptance stage.
The acceptance stage for hearing loss is surprisingly evasive. If only 20% of those who can benefit from hearing aids actually wear them, that means 80% of those with hearing loss never get to the final stage of acceptance (or they’ve reached the acceptance stage but for other reasons choose not to act). In the acceptance stage, people recognize their hearing loss but take action to improve it, to the best of their ability.
This is the one positive side to hearing loss: as opposed to other forms of loss, hearing loss is partly recoverable, making the acceptance stage easier to reach. Thanks to major innovations in digital hearing aid technology, people can in fact enhance their hearing enough to communicate and participate normally in daily activities — without the stress and difficulty of impaired hearing — enabling them to reconnect to the people and activities that give their life the most value.
Which stage are you in?
In the case of hearing loss, following the crowd is going to get you into some trouble. While 80% of those with hearing loss are trapped somewhere along the first four stages of grief — struggling to hear, harming relationships, and making excuses — the other 20% have accepted their hearing loss, taken action to amplify it, and rediscovered the joys of sound.
Which group will you join?