Hearing Impairment and Mental Health

They give them... stress management stuff and it says 'listen to music, sounds crashing onto the beach, etc'. It's not modified to suit deaf or hearing impaired people.' (Briffa, 2001).

The onset of a hearing loss can cause stress, anxiety and mental health issues for people. This is the same for children and adults.

Sometimes it is being hard of hearing that can cause anxiety or panic. Other times someone who is hard of hearing might also have a mental illness or disorder like Bipolar or Schizophrenia. Being both hard of hearing and having an illness is called dual diagnosis.

In Briffa's (2001) first mental health report, interviews with hard of hearing people found experiences of -

a sense of loss,
depression,
decreased self confidence
and, anxiety with regard to hearing loss.

The causes of these feelings varied from person to person: - some said life experiences, - also, parent's attitudes to the deaf child and the child's deafness, - choosing a child to grow up orally, rather than learn Auslan.

In Briffa's (2001) study, the group of deaf people who didn't use sign language had some experienced relationship breakdowns due to behaviours such as direct eye contact, sitting closer, and touching to get attention. These behaviours were often seen as inappropriate within the hearing community.

Hard of hearing participants said they had felt:

Loss of self confidence;
Low self esteem;
Depression;
Greater anxieties than usual;
Serious behavioural problems;
Substance abuse;
Suspicion and paranoia; and
Feelings of isolation.

In addition to this, people didn't find counsellors understood deafness, and often inappropriate techniques were given to people. Listening to music or sounds of the ocean are not appropriate for the hearing impaired client.

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