@anne23anna I encourage you to have your hearing checked by an audiologist as soon as possible. The appearance of cognitive issues related to hearing loss is often the result of poor hearing rather than cognitive decline. People with hearing loss, in most instances can 'hear', but have difficulty 'understanding' speech. That can easily lead to responding out of context in a conversation. It is embarrassing to be told what you said was totally 'off the wall'. When that becomes a person's reality, it is easy for them to stop doing things they've always enjoyed.

It is typical for a hard of hearing person to need up to 5 seconds to respond to a simple question, especially one that is not expected since the brain has to consider the options for response in that question. 5 seconds feels like 5 minutes to the person who is waiting for an answer. This is frustrating for both parties.

Psychologically, when this happens frequently, the person with HL often pulls away from socializing in settings where there is background noise like other conversations in the same area. Social isolation can lead to depression. Everything can go down hill. The fact that hearing loss comes with a whole set of stigmas often keeps people from using hearing aids.

Most of the current research on this issue suggests that cognitive decline may occur when the hearing loss goes untreated.

Do you know that the National Institutes of Health estimates that nearly 50 million people in the USA have some degree of hearing loss?