Surviving the Senior Citizen Years

    Everyone gets sad and melancholy at some point in their lives. Maybe it’s a parent who has passed away. Or perhaps a relationship ending happens to everybody. Most folks usually move on and recover. Depression is a little different. It’s a feeling that can come out of nowhere and stay with you. This often happens to older folks who find it challenging to deal with the senior citizen years, isolation, and then deal with depression.   Depression is a disorder that isn’t always accepted by people who don’t understand what it means to be depressed. Today, the public is more understanding than in years past. They considered that depression was just a bad attitude or a weakness.   In years past, some tried to self-medicate by drinking, which made it worse. Alcohol is a depressant.   In my own case, I felt something was not quite right in high school. I came from a typical family. I had friends, and most of the time, things appeared all right...

What did you say?  This must be one of the most exacerbating things that have happened to me over the last few years. Due to my Meniere’s disease problems, I have lost about 80 percent of my hearing. I can no longer talk on the phone or have a normal conversation without asking someone to repeat what they said.   I went to my ENT about five years ago when things started to get bad, and he told me there wasn’t much he could do. We tried a bombardment of steroids. It didn’t work. The next step was a hearing aid. I was stunned when I learned my wife’s insurance paid for it. The only one they paid for was the cheapest one, and it didn’t work. It was more of an amplifier than a hearing aid.   It's discouraging because I can’t listen to music and watching TV or movies with closed captions doesn’t always work.   My son suggested that I learn sign language. But who would I communicate with since no one in my family knows sign language either?   ...

  Not everyone has a large family or many friends to share time with. Isolation is a problem for senior citizens. I have many relatives, but they live far away from me. I see some of them on Facebook, but that’s it.   I’ve always been a bit of a loner, so I don’t have friends in the Atlanta area. (I know this is sounding a little whiny) It’s a problem because isolation ties into developing dementia . I’m not sure how I can change this. I am lucky that my wife and son are supportive of me. So that is a positive. Human interaction is powerful in the fight against health issues for senior citizens. Many places have activity centers for senior citizens. You should investigate that or even go to church if you’re comfortable with religion. It’s always good to talk to someone about anything, really. As I might have mentioned, I’m also hearing impaired. But that’s enough complaining. Here is an excellent link from the National Institute of Aging. Loneliness and Social Isolat...