There are two types of anxiety. There’s common anxiety, that feeling you get when you’re dealing with an emergency situation. Some people experience anxiety even when there are no particular situations or concerns to attach it to. They feel anxious regularly, regardless of what you happen to be doing or thinking about. It’s just present in the background all through the day. This second form is generally the type of anxiety that’s less of a neuro-typical reaction and more of a mental health issue.
Both types of anxiety can be very damaging to the physical body. It can be especially harmful if you experience prolonged or chronic anxiety. Your alert status is heightened by all of the chemicals that are released during times of anxiety. It’s a good thing in the short term, but harmful over a long period of time. Over time, anxiety that can’t be dealt with or brought under control will start to manifest in certain physical symptoms.
Anxiety Has Distinct Bodily Symptoms
Some symptoms of anxiety are:
- Bodily pain
- Feeling as if you are coming out of your skin
- Melancholy and loss of interest in activities or daily life
- Nausea
- A feeling that something terrible is about to happen
- A racing heart or shortness of breath commonly connected to panic attacks
- Physical weakness
But chronic anxiety doesn’t necessarily appear in the ways that you would predict. Anxiety can even effect obscure body functions such as your hearing. For example, anxiety has been connected with:
- Tinnitus: You probably understand that stress can cause the ringing in your ears to get worse, but did you realize that there is evidence that it can also cause the ringing in your ears to progress over time. This is known as tinnitus (which, itself can have numerous other causes too). 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. In this case, we’re talking about elevated blood pressure. Known scientifically as hypertension, high blood pressure often has really negative effects on the body. It is, to make use of a colloquialism, not so great. High blood pressure has also been recognized to lead to hearing loss, tinnitus and dizziness.
- Dizziness: Prolonged anxiety can sometimes make you feel dizzy, which is an issue that may also be related to the ears. Keep in mind, your sense of balance is controlled by the ears (there are these three tubes inside of your inner ears that are regulating the sense of balance).
Anxiety And Hearing Loss
Since this is a hearing website, we typically tend to give attention to, well, hearing. And how well you hear. With that in mind, you’ll forgive us if we take a little time to talk about how anxiety and hearing loss can feed each other in some slightly disturbing ways.
The solitude is the first and foremost issue. When someone suffers from hearing loss, tinnitus or even balance issues, they often pull away from social interactions. You might have seen this in your own family. Perhaps a relative just stopped talking as much because they were embarrassed by having to constantly repeat what they said. The same goes for balance problems. It could affect your ability to drive or even walk, which can be embarrassing to admit to family and friends.
There are also other reasons why anxiety and depression can result in social isolation. When you do not feel like yourself, you don’t want to be with others. Unfortunately, this can be somewhat of a circle where one feeds the other. That feeling of isolation can set in quickly and it can lead to a number of other, closely associated issues, including decline of cognitive function. It can be even harder to combat the effects of isolation if you’re dealing with hearing loss and anxiety.
Choosing The Appropriate Treatment
Tinnitus, hearing loss, anxiety and isolation can all feed on each other. That’s why getting the proper treatment is so key.
If hearing loss and tinnitus are symptoms you’re dealing with, obtaining correct treatment for them can also help with your other symptoms. And when it comes to anxiety and depression, interacting with others who can relate can be really helpful. Certainly, dealing with these symptoms can help with the sense of isolation that might make prolonged anxiety more extreme. Consult your general practitioner and hearing specialist to explore your options for treatment. Depending on what your hearing test shows, the best treatment for hearing loss or tinnitus may be hearing aids. The most appropriate treatment for anxiety may involve therapy or medication. Tinnitus has also been found to be successfully treated by cognitive-behavioral therapy.
Here’s to Your Health
We recognize that your mental and physical health can be seriously affected by anxiety.
Isolation and cognitive decline have also been shown as a repercussion of hearing loss. Coupled with anxiety, that’s a recipe for, well, a challenging time. Luckily, treatments exist for both conditions, and obtaining that treatment can make a huge, positive effect. The health impacts of anxiety don’t have to be permanent. What anxiety does to your body does not need to be long lasting. The sooner you get treatment, the better.
