Highly Sensitive People are inherently aware of darn near everything. They have the basic five senses and then some and register incoming data at superpower levels. But have you ever wondered how the diminishment of a primary sense affects HSPs? Specifically, for this article, how does hearing loss affect HSPs? And what can be done to accommodate and be sensitive to their sensorial needs?

The Unique Nervous System of the Highly Sensitive Person

Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS), the technical name for high sensitivity,is rooted in both genetics and neurology. And familial, social, and developmental factors also play a role, especially when it comes to differential susceptibility.

Clinical research involving fMRIs has shown that the highly sensitive brain is unique in several ways.

First, it has heightened activity in the areas involved in awareness, empathy, and sensory processing. Think:

• No/fewer filters (i.e. a lower threshold for perception and reactivity) for incoming information, including visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, and taste.
• Ability to perceive and feel others’ emotions.
• Keen awareness of inner sensations, thoughts, and emotions.
• Deep processing of sensory and emotional information.

Second, the HSP’s brain also has a higher number of mirror neurons compared to the non-HSP brain. 

And third, it has gene variations for serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine – neurotransmitters and chemicals that affect mood, stress, and sense of reward.

HSPs and Sound Sensitivity

To sum up the high-sensitivity experience, we might say: A little goes a long way.

We HSPs have a lower threshold for just about everything. And it doesn’t take a lot to register as too much. Bright/flashing lights, loud/sudden noises, extreme auditory frequencies, strong smells and tastes, textures, you name it. It’s A LOT.

And that doesn’t even touch on the emotional stimuli that make us steer clear of horror films and depressing news.

We can be kind of Goldilocks-y that way. 

When it comes to noise and hearing, sound sensitivity is one of Dr. Elaine Aron’s defining characteristics of high sensitivity.

HSPs are naturally wired to pick up on subtleties that most of the world unconsciously filters out. And, when it comes to sound, their antennae don’t just pick up the loud and obvious. Instead, they grab vibrations right out of the cosmos.

Revving and honking in traffic. Shouting, clapping, and intercoms in stadiums. Mechanical and electrical sounds of devices and appliances like air conditioners. Wind, thunder, incoming/outgoing tides, crickets in the attic, snoring, chewing, people talking to themselves. Sudden, loud noises that trigger the startle reflex.

These are only a sampling of sound stimuli that can quickly cause overwhelm for an HSP.

But the difference between those who are highly sensitive and those who aren’t doesn’t end with the mere intake of information. There is all that deep processing that follows.

So, while the rest of the world has the convenience of built-in filters that allow for enjoyment in loud environments, HSPs don’t. 

They’re bombarded with information from all their senses. 

HSPs are going to take it all in and try to make sense of it.

They’re going to care enough to give meaning to it.

And they’re going to be overstimulated and exhausted at the end.

Hearing in Noise

There is a term in auditory neuroscience called hearing in noise (HIN). It is the expectation, the need, the effort to make sense of sound in a noisy environment.

Let that sink in for a minute.

Think of the times you’ve been in a noisy place and have tried to have a conversation. Even for someone with unimpaired hearing, teasing apart sound data and making sense of it in a noisy environment is stressful.

Dr. Nina Kraus says, “Hearing in noise is one of the most difficult jobs the brain has to do on a daily basis.” 

The process requires rapid integration of complex neural mechanisms, from structural to cognitive. Not only does auditory data have to be delivered to the brain. But the brain then has to separate, assign, and make sense of it.

And, in noisy environments, consonants that put boundaries around vowel patterns get muffled or obliterated. That means the brain now has to quickly fill in the gaps using context and language aptitude.

It’s stressful for even non-HSPs and those without hearing impairments. (That assumes, of course, that the person even cares enough to hear what’s being said. But that’s another discussion altogether.)

Imagine being an HSP – a highly aware, deeply processing, empathetic HSP – trying to make sense of conversation with distracting background noise.

Now imagine being an HSP with hearing loss, whether sensorineural, conductive, or mixed.

Hearing Loss in HSPs: Too Much and Too Little All At Once

On the surface, deafness or hearing loss in an HSP may sound like Heaven-on-earth: one less source of incoming information to worry about.

To the contrary, hearing loss can actually increase sensitivity to certain sounds and volumes through a phenomenon known as auditory recruitment/distortion.

And it can take the hearing-in-noise challenge to a whole new level. Background noise becomes dominant, and the listener has to strain that much harder to hear, especially in conversation.

There are two important things to keep in mind:

• We all have a limited mental and emotional bandwidth.

  Think of having a bunch of pages open on your phone or computer. It drains the battery and slows down the functioning and efficiency of the device

  HSPs always have multiple pages and files open in their brains. And there’s only so much they can process before overstimulation and overwhelm set in.

• Hearing loss (or any other sensory loss) doesn’t negate high sensitivity.

  It won’t magically stop the HSP’s innate depth of processing. It will, however, make the HSP more vulnerable to frustration, anxiety, isolation, exhaustion, and depression.
  
  Hearing loss in and of itself can lead to any or all of these problems. But, for HSPs with hearing loss, they are exacerbated. And the emotional component cannot be overstated.
  
  Remember, one of the four pillars of high sensitivity is emotional sensitivity (empathy). HSPs are remarkable, even coveted, listeners. They are masters of assimilating and integrating diverse cues – visual, auditory, behavioral – into an intuitive and emotional response.
  
  An HSP with hearing loss will inevitably strain to hear, separate sounds, fill in blanks, and process all the information. Even without a pause in the conversation or surrounding noise.
  
  And that means one of the most important facilitators of an HSP’s empathy – hearing – is thwarted. Now the HSP has to work that much harder to capture all the relevant data through all the senses.

How an HSP with Hearing Loss Describes It

A friend and fellow-HSP recently wrote to me to describe a difficult, overstimulating, anxiety-ridden day that she had just had. 

She had lost her hearing in one ear as a young child and has age-related loss in the other. So sound sensitivity tips the scales in her HSP life.

Here’s how she described the two hours that led to the spiraling of her entire day:

“I am taking a five-week class with about 25 other adults. The classroom is set up in a tight room, tables all facing the front, about four rows deep. I sit in the front so I can see the instructor and augment my hearing with lip-reading.

Well, it’s apparent to me that English is not the instructor’s first language. Even though she speaks it well, she speaks very rapidly and with all the tonal flavor of her native tongue. So, when she gets impassioned, I feel as if I’m in a foreign-language immersion class.

(Challenge number one.)

The second challenge came from the other participants in the class.

Whenever someone would share a thought or story, I would have to turn around and try to locate the speaker. 

And, inevitably, none of the speakers were enunciating or projecting. It was as if they were with a best friend in a quiet restaurant, not talking to a full room of people.

I was leaning in, scrunching up my face, straining to hear and piece together what people were saying. And inside I was screaming, “Speak up! Enunciate! Look up! Stop mumbling!”

I was working so hard to capture anything that anyone was saying, and no one else seemed challenged at all. They weren’t even turning around to track the speakers visually. Could they hear everything? Or did they just not care if they missed something? Was I placing too much value on what others were saying?

Of course, I was also picking up all the background “hum” that always seems to exist in the distance between speaker and listener. And I was feeling angry because, in my mind, I was doing all the work. I was trying to listen to and respect what others were contributing to the class. But no one else was thinking about their responsibility as a speaker.

Challenge #3

Meanwhile, I was feeling all the triggering signals of my high sensitivity’s overstimulation. My heart started to race and pound, I couldn’t concentrate, my head hurt, and I desperately wanted to flee. I literally started to shut down: I closed off my listening and forced myself to “just exist” until the class ended.

But the anger and racing thoughts…wow!

And I was exhausted. Overstimulated, frustrated, defeated, anxious…and exhausted.

When class ended, I walked out of the room and stood by myself, shaking and crying.

When I got home, I walked the dogs, then went to bed for several hours in the middle of the afternoon. And I slept for 12 hours that night.

But for the next two days, all I could think about was how cruel and inaccessible the world feels. I place such a high value on communication, and I feel as though others just don’t think about it. And asking people to observe common courtesies of communication just draws blank stares.

Sadly, I may decide to drop the class or elect to do self-study. It was all just too much.”

Tips To Help the HSP with Sound Sensitivity and/or Hearing Loss

We hope those around us will observe basic courtesies of communication and interpersonal behavior.

But, no matter how well-intended people may be, not everyone has the same level of awareness or communication skill.

The heightened awareness of HSPs can be both a blessing and, at times, a curse. The rest of the world simply may not think about accommodating all the details you inevitably perceive.

It’s therefore your responsibility as an HSP to make sure your needs are known and to provide for your own best interests whenever possible.

Here are some self-help actions for the HSP with sound sensitivity and/or hearing loss:

• Be proactive.
  
  Tell those with whom you are communicating that you have some special needs and requests.
  If you are in a class or group setting, for example, make it clear that you need strategic seating to hear.
• Think about the environment in which you plan to work, socialize, or otherwise spend time.
  
  Is it noisy? Is there a lot of background noise? How long will you be there at any given time? Is it possible to request accommodations to make your experience less stressful?
• If you know you will be straining to hear, consider your options.
  
  Can you put boundaries around your time in that setting? Would you be better off opting out of an event or setting altogether if the noise will be overstimulating?
• Consider purchasing a good pair of noise-cancelling headphones.
  
  These can be a great comfort on a long travel day. But they can also be a godsend when you just need to retreat from sound stimulation altogether.
• Not all hearing loss can be helped with hearing aids.
  
  But there are a number of options, depending on the type of hearing loss, to at least assist.
  
  Many hearing aids, however, simply amplify the volume of sound sources, without discriminating the type of sound. And they don’t necessarily make speech patterns crisper.
  
  For an HSP with sound sensitivity, this can be more problematic than helpful.
• Consider one of the several speech-to-text apps that pick up surrounding speech in real time and translate it to text on your phone.

And here are some helpful, courteous tips for all of us to remember when communicating, especially with those with hearing loss:

• • Get the listener’s attention before speaking.

    A good rule of thumb: Don’t speak to me until you see the whites of my eyes.

  • Be mindful not to speak over a large physical distance.

    There are always vibrational, electrical, and other environmental sounds that “fill the gap” between a speaker and listener. This makes “hearing in noise” especially challenging, especially for an HSP who is already picking up on every bit of stimuli.

  • Enunciate and don’t mumble.

    As a society, we have become progressively lazier in our speech. We abbreviate, mumble, look away, fade off in volume, talk without eye contact, and talk to ourselves.
    
    While we all develop workable patterns of communication with those closest to us, they’re not always effective across the board.
    
    Enunciation is about putting clear boundaries around words, and specifically around vowel patterns.
    
    Speak your words clearly and intentionally.

  • Remember that communication is much more than just words being spoken and heard.

    

    It involves facial expressions, body language, and lip-reading cues. And, to those with hearing loss, especially if they’re highly sensitive,  visual cues are essential to full comprehension.

• • Don’t cover your mouth, wear a mask, or turn your back on the listener.

    Deaf and HoH (hard of hearing) people will often say, “If I can’t see you, I can’t hear you.” And by “seeing” they mean having full access to all the visual cues needed for comprehension.

• • Make sure only one person speaks at a time.

• • Set up your environment to facilitate ease of conversation:

    well-lit, free of background noise, participants able to face each other.

  • Check in with your listener periodically to make sure s/he is able to hear and understand you

    Don’t be afraid to ask if you need to repeat anything. If your listener repeatedly has to ask, “What?” you’re both going to end up frustrated.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Although research specific to sense loss in HSPs is limited at best, the topic is worth consideration and discussion. 

Now that high sensitivity has become a more familiar and understood subject, it’s appropriate to consider it in even greater depth.

After all, the prevailing characteristic of high sensitivity is ultra-awareness through all the senses. It therefore makes sense that a physical impairment in any one of those senses would affect the HSP in unique ways.

Whether you are an HSP with hearing loss or know someone who is, the topic gives us all the opportunity to examine our communication. 

Self-protection on the part of the HSP and mindful courtesies on the part of others will go a long way toward deeper connection.

And isn’t that the heart of communication?

Dr. Elayne Daniels is a psychologist, consultant, and international coach in the Boston area whose passion is to help people celebrate their High Sensitivity…and shine their light.

To read more about High Sensitivity, check out some blogs here.