Could anxiety disorders hurt your hearing? Possibly. In a study of more than 10,500 adults in Taiwan, researchers found a greater risk of sudden hearing loss among those with an anxiety disorder.
Extended periods of anxiety can wreak havoc on your health, including your hearing. Tinnitus: The perceived ringing or buzzing in your ears is aggravated by stress and high hypertension, or high blood pressure. Hypertension increases when anxiety takes hold, making the ringing seem louder.
Stress can Cause Hearing Loss
When daily stress builds up day after day it can disturb blood circulation throughout the body and without a constant blood flow, the hair cells can become damaged sometimes permanently.
Although sensorineural hearing loss isn't reversible in most cases, reducing the amount of stress in your life can protect your hearing from loss due to poor circulation.
For those who are constantly stressed, their body doesn't receive a clear signal. This can lead to serious health problems including high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and other illnesses. Your circulation is restricted when stressed; this can lead to permanent hearing loss.
Reduced Hearing, Deafness, Diminished Hearing – Anxiety Symptoms. Medically reviewed by Marilyn Folk, BScN. Hearing loss, reduced hearing, deafness, and plugged ears are common symptoms of anxiety that can be experienced in a number of ways and can vary from person to person.
In certain situations, the ears can feel clogged or blocked (it's amazing what anxiety can do). High Blood Pressure: And then there are some ways that anxiety affects your body in exactly the way you'd expect it to.
It's constantly questioning if you heard something right because sometimes your brain just scrambles everything around. It's the constant lack of accessibility. The pressures to pretend that you're a hearing person and not realizing that is exactly what you're trying to do.
Along with the emotional drain of being constantly anxious, stress can also weaken the immune system, cause headaches, affect heart health, and yes, even lead to hearing loss.
And the link goes both ways; anxiety and depression can also lead to hearing loss.
Anxiety pulsing in the ear common symptom descriptions:
There is a pulsing, throbbing, swooshing, whooshing, or other type of odd sound pulsing in one ear or both ears. For no apparent reason, you hear your heart beating in your ear or both ears.
In fact, hearing loss and depression in older adults go hand in hand. One study showed that older adults with deafness were 47% more likely to experience depression symptoms. For those who already have mental health issues, hearing loss can worsen the problem.
In addition to depression, hearing loss has been linked to schizophrenia. Several studies support the social defeat hypothesis, which proposes that social exclusion and loneliness can predispose people to schizophrenia by increasing sensitization of the dopamine system.
According to research, there is a strong relationship between depression and hearing loss among U.S. adults of all ages (18 and older).
Muffled hearing can occur in one or both ears. When the condition occurs in one ear, it's likely a sign of a single-sided ear infection, a clogged ear or earwax buildup. Muffled hearing due to sinus infections or changes in pressure while flying or changing altitudes typically occurs in both ears.
Symptoms of hearing loss may include: Muffling of speech and other sounds. Trouble understanding words, especially when in a crowd or a noisy place. Trouble hearing the letters of the alphabet that aren't vowels.
If you're concerned about stress-induced hearing loss then look out for symptoms such as blocked ears, an inability to hear sounds at certain frequencies, a sensation of pressure in your ears, loss of hearing in one or both of your ears, sounds seeming more distant than usual, or tinnitus.
Common physical symptoms of anxiety can include rapid heartbeat, insomnia, increased or heavy sweating, muscle twitching, and lethargy. Another common symptom for people who struggle with anxiety is pressure in your head, or headaches, or what some describe as their head feeling heavy.
Health conditions common in older people, such as diabetes or high blood pressure, can contribute to hearing loss. Ear infections caused by viruses and bacteria (also known as otitis media), a heart condition, stroke, brain injury, or a tumor may also affect your hearing.
In a psychosomatic point of view in an overwhelming number of cases sudden deafness is a "response" to strain, which consciously or unconsciously is not assessed as tolerable.
Ringing in the ears (tinnitus) is a common sign and symptom of anxiety disorder, anxiety and panic attacks, and chronic stress (hyperstimulation). Many people who experience anxiety disorder develop ringing in the ears, as do many of those who are chronically stressed.
Anxiety and tinnitus are linked conditions. People with tinnitus often live with high levels of stress and anxiety. Constant tinnitus can disturb an individual's life and cause difficulties sleeping and focusing. It can also trigger worsening episodes of anxiety and depression.