If we genuinely want to understand hearing loss, we need to understand both the physical side, which makes hearing progressively more challenging, and the psychological side, which includes the lesser-known emotional responses to the loss of hearing. In concert, 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 statistics tell the story. Although almost all instances of hearing loss are physically treatable, only around 20% of individuals who would benefit from hearing aids use them. And even among those who do seek help, it takes an average of 5 to 7 years before they schedule a hearing test.
How can we explain the massive discrepancy between the potential for better hearing and the commonplace hesitancy to attain 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 seemingly lost forever. The second step is to determine how individuals typically respond to losing something valuable, which, owing to the scholarship of the Swiss-American psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, we now understand extremely well.
Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’ 5 stages of grief
Kübler-Ross identified 5 stages of grief that everyone dealing with loss appears to go through (in surprisingly consistent ways), although not everyone does so in the same order or in the same period of time.
Here are the stages:
- Denial – the individual buffers the emotional shock by denying the loss and imagining a false, preferred reality.
- Anger – the individual acknowledges the loss but becomes angry that it has happened to them.
- Bargaining – the individual responds to the feeling of helplessness by trying to take back control through bargaining.
- Depression – understanding the weight of the loss, the individual becomes saddened at the hopelessness of the predicament.
- Acceptance – in the last stage, the individual accepts the situation and demonstrates a more stable set of emotions. The rationality associated with this stage leads to productive problem solving and the recovering of control over emotions and behavior.
Individuals with hearing loss progress through the stages at different rates, with some never arriving at the final stage of acceptance — hence the gap between the opportunity 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 hardest to escape for those with loss of hearing. Considering that hearing loss advances slowly over time, it can be very hard to detect. People also have the tendency to make up for hearing loss by cranking up the TV volume, for example, or by forcing people to repeat themselves. Those with hearing loss can stay in the denial stage for years, saying things like “I can hear just fine” or “I hear what I want to.”
The next stage, the anger stage, can show itself as a form of projection. You may hear those with hearing loss declare that other people mumbles, as if the problem 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 proceed on to the bargaining stage.
Bargaining is a form of intellectualization that can take different forms. For instance, people with hearing loss might compare their condition to others by thinking, “My hearing has gotten much worse, but at least my health is good. I really shouldn’t complain, other people my age are coping with real 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 growing old, 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 assumption that there is no hope for treatment. They may persist in the depression stage for a period of time 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 reach the final stage of acceptance (or they’ve reached the acceptance stage but for other reasons decide not to act). In the acceptance stage, people acknowledge their hearing loss but take action to restore it, to the best of their ability.
This is the one positive side to hearing loss: compared with other types of loss, hearing loss is partially recoverable, making the acceptance stage much easier to reach. Thanks to major advancements in digital hearing aid technology, people can in fact strengthen their hearing enough to communicate and engage normally in daily activities — without the stress and frustration 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 stuck somewhere along the first four stages of grief — struggling to hear, damaging relationships, and making excuses — the other 20% have accepted their hearing loss, taken action to amplify it, and rediscovered the pleasures of sound.
Which group will you join?