The symptoms of hearing loss depend on the type of hearing loss you have—and the severity. A person with mild hearing loss in both ears, for example, experiences sound differently than a person with a profound hearing loss in just one ear.
General symptoms of hearing loss
For adults with any kind of hearing loss, these are all indicators that you may not be hearing as well as you used to. You may experience all or just a few of these scenarios:
- Friends or family say you turn the television or radio up too loud.
- You struggle to understand speech, especially in noisy environments.
- You have difficulty hearing people on the phone.
- A feeling that you can hear, but not understand.
- You are not sure where sound is coming from, known as localization.
- You often ask people to repeat themselves.
- You’re dependent on a spouse or a loved one to help you hear.
- You find yourself avoiding social situations.
- You feel exhaustion after attending social events, known as listening fatigue.
- You notice tinnitus, or ringing in the ears.
- Paradoxically, some sounds seem too loud, known as “recruitment”