What Anxiety Does to Your Hearing

Hearing loss and tinnitus don’t always mean you have anxiety. But for many people, anxiety, hearing loss, and tinnitus go hand-in-hand. Understanding this means you can get the help you need to protect your mental health.  

Your ears are sensitive to changes in your brain, body, and environment. Changes in the body’s stasis, like hearing loss, can cause ringing, buzzing, or hissing in one or both ears. This is tinnitus. Tinnitus can cause a cascade effect where the condition gives you anxiety, and in turn, the anxiety makes the condition worse. It’s a vicious cycle. 

Anxiety is a mental issue that affects your mind and body detrimentally on many levels. Let’s discuss anxiety, hearing loss, and tinnitus.  Let us explore how we can reduce stress, anxiety, and tinnitus symptoms and protect your hearing

What Is Generalized Anxiety Disorder?

If you worry a lot, usually without any reason, you may have GAD or generalized anxiety disorder. GAD means that you worry often and can not control it. This condition is diagnosed when excessive worrying happens on most days and lasts up to 6 months. 

Excessive stress and anxiety will affect your body negatively and can lead to permanent hearing loss. 

How Are Anxiety And Hearing Connected?

Anxiety is the overall response of one’s body to constant stress. Anxiety symptoms can make you feel uneasy without any apparent reason. Anxiety for long periods can wreak havoc on your health, including hearing. 

This is the reaction chain in your ears as your body responds to stress. 

1. Your body produces excess adrenaline that reduces the amount of blood flow to your ears, impacting your hearing. Without the constant flow of blood through the inner ear, the hair cells will not receive the correct amount of nutrients and oxygen.
2. The lack of blood flow causes damage to the hair cells, which can result in permanent hearing loss in some cases, but the impact on hearing in the short term can be immediate.

We are generally aware of how terrible anxiety can make us feel and how debilitating it can be, but we overlook the possibility of it affecting our hearing. This is a natural consequence of anxiety; hearing loss can snowball into more anxiety and depression. Recognizing the signs and seeking treatment will make a huge difference long term.

Hearing Loss, Anxiety, and Tinnitus

There is no doubt that the link between anxiety and hearing loss exists. There are also other links between anxiety and our physiology. Four main manifestations of the body’s reaction to anxiety are impaired focus, unusual sounds, hallucinations, and tinnitus.

Impaired focus and Listening Skills

When you are anxious, it becomes challenging to stay focused. This means paying attention to conversations or sounds around you is much more difficult.

Without the ability to focus, it puts you in awkward situations with those around you and could also put you in danger. Your hearing might not be fully impaired, but your listening skills definitely are.

Unusual sounds

Anxiety can also leave you prone to a heightened sense of hearing. You become acutely aware of the sounds you usually wouldn’t notice. Anxiety can cause you to focus on the slightest sounds, which may even worsen anxiety in many cases. 

Hallucinations

The word hallucinations might seem scary, but stress and hearing loss may result in auditory hallucinations. This isn’t very common, but some who suffer from anxiety have reported hallucinations. 

Tinnitus

Tinnitus, the phantom ringing or rushing sounds only the sufferer can hear, isn’t created by anxiety. But many researchers have found that anxiety can increase the loudness of the ringing and cause more distress. That distress goes beyond the annoying effects of tinnitus, giving way to depression and, in some cases, suicidal thoughts.

How To Lessen Anxiety-Related Hearing Loss and Tinnitus

To avoid anxiety-induced hearing loss and worsening of tinnitus, you can practice these relaxation tips:

• Meditation, yoga, or gentle stretching. 
• Walking, even at a gentle pace, can relax the mind. Walking in nature is especially helpful.
• Breathing exercises can help.  Breathe in through your nose to a count of 4 and breath out a count of 7 through your mouth. 
• Try a hobby like painting, drawing, cooking, or sewing.
• Listen to calming music. 
• Step away from your phone, TV, and computer for an hour to decompress. 
• Visit Hearing Associates of Las Vegas’ Tinnitus Relief Studio, where we help you reenergize in a peaceful oasis to alleviate stress. 
• Consult with your doctor to see if medication or therapy can help.

How We Can Help

Suffering from anxiety-related hearing loss can be distressing, but there is hope. Treating one issue can typically improve the other. Treat the anxiety, and your hearing may improve. Treat your hearing, and it may very well lessen your anxiety.

Being fitted for hearing aids can improve your hearing and your ability to socialize normally. This will be a significant boost to your outlook and mood. Being socially engaged can help reduce many anxiety symptoms.

If you’re ready to take back the hearing that anxiety has robbed you of, contact one of our hearing specialists at Hearing Associates of Las Vegas. We can evaluate the level of your hearing loss and help guide you toward the healing you need.