Old Age and Mental Health

Mental health is especially important when old age is creeping in. The body is more fragile and its systems aren’t working as efficiently as before, especially the brain. It’s important that you learn how to deal effectively with the problems of aging and see them in the perspective of a lifetime and not as a hardship confronting you now. There are reasons for your insight— or the lack thereof— the problems of fault finding, the problem of being misunderstood, the problem of being less mentally active than you would like to be. You are passing on and are gradually leaving the world you once knew behind.

Those younger than you have firmer grasp of the present world than you do and it would be to your credit to give them more credit for their abilities than you probably do. Admit you are slowing down and are not quite as agile and able as you once were. Assist them with help when asked and learn from them when you have questions only they with their expertise can answer.

It’s not necessary to argue over misunderstanding. Generational gaps in communication are normal and it shows the world is moving forward. Often times, for the elderly to fully embrace this notion, it takes effort. They must keep an open mind to all possibilities and not be rigid and unrelenting. Look forward and contemplate the future and if at all possible see it as an adventure yet to be. Understand that death, at least to those who have accepted themselves and their place in the order of things, is a next step in life, and not a sentence to dread. Granted, this may take some readjustment, but look, what choice is there when the inevitable is staring you in the face?

In fact the problems confronting the elderly are those that confronted them when younger but now are often overblown and out of control. The solutions no longer fit. As an example, how you as a younger person saw the elderly is much different than the way you see them now, now that you are a living example. Truth is the problems facing the elderly are so immense it’s hard to tell where to begin. And against the better advice of many of the younger folk who haven’t experienced this life style yet, drugs are not often the choice of treatment. They are for last resort and are for those who have lost all control of their thoughts and their coping mechanisms. (That depends, of course, on the illnesses you face and is not what this article is all about.)

The best way to deal with old age is recognize it as a blessing. So you’re approaching ninety, more or less, and rather than waste a minute of this precious time moaning and groaning and feeling sorry for yourself, thank your creator for keeping you so long alive. You must understand it was his decision and not yours, and as a way to show how appreciative you are of the privileges you were given, you count your blessings every day. You start by understanding why you are hard of hearing, why your sight is failing, why your back hurts, why your fingers are riddled by bumps that make writing and holding a fork difficult. Your system is reacting to the wear of a lifetime of use. That means your body, your mind and your soul are all reacting to the shortcomings of your system and each helping the other as best they can.

Reality versus what you make of it

You are not hearing as well as you used to. You turn the television up and think nothing of it, but when people talk to you, you must constantly ask them to speak louder. If you can afford this luxury, hearing aids are available. If you live alone and are conversations are few and turning up the television is not a nuisance to others, you may do very well living with your lack of hearing. Hearing aids are not only about volume, but they reign in on tones and enhance the nerves that are doing their job properly.  The good thing about hearing aid, you wear them when you want to, and leave them off when you prefer the silent world. And believe it or not, at times silence is golden. Old folk especially often don’t want to be bothered trying to figure out a noisy world they are no longer a part of.

If buying hearing aids are out of the question, you can learn to live in a noiseless world. It has its rewards. As you hear less of what the world is shouting at you, the more you are able to hear the messages of heaven that are silently spoken. They reside along with the heavenly pictures you see when you think of your creator lovingly. It’s quite true that when one thing is taken away from you, others senses’ compensate.  The sense of touch becomes all the more important when your sight and your hearing is lessened.

What’s truly important at any age is mental health. With it you can cope; without it you are handicapped. Therefore it makes good sense to prioritize in favor of keeping your mental faculties up to date. Use your sense of reality: old age means your body is slower, less functional and from that realize that you won’t be as sharp on some issues as you once were, don’t allow it to turn you sour on life. Embrace the future even when that future is unknown. Dwell on heavenly possibilities but don’t make yourself an old fool by lashing out at younger folk who are still enjoying the frivolities the world offers. Their turn will come and try to become a mentally healthy reminder to them of the beauty of old age. Whatever you do, don’t give in to perpetual youth by imitating them, it will show you up as the fool most older folk understand themselves to be. (Mentally healthy old people don’t mind at all at being misunderstood, they’ve given up the fight and now are free to be themselves.)