The most obvious symptom is inability to hear. However, hearing loss sneaks up on people most of the time. Hearing loss has slow and silent entry. Often family members and friends are aware of hearing problems before the hearing-impaired person learns about his own difficulty. Most of the people have some mild degree of loss or it can be frequency specific. In other words one can hear all environmental sounds but would miss out some words.
The common features can be described as –
Asking people to repeat themselves more frequently
Offering inappropriate answers because they have misheard a conversation or question
These people often experience withdrawal from social situations , and giving excuses like ,” I don’t like to watch movies.” , “ The music is not the same as good old days nostalgic music”
People may experience going out less and socializing less
There are many other symptoms that may be related to hearing loss:
Increased levels of frustration and irritability are common.
Sometimes difficulty in understanding speech is more of a problem than an inability to hear speech. Naturally person ends up reacting inappropriately as he he /she misses out some information from the continues discourse of speech.
Feelings of ear fullness or pressure, ear noises (ringing, buzzing, crickets, seashells, steam, and others), and dizziness.
Hearing loss is not always slowly progressive and stable from day to day. It may be sudden, rapidly progressive or even fluctuating (good times and bad times). All such conditions may very from person to person. Hearing loss has no age bar.