Sadness is part of life and no one escapes it, however, there are stages in which it is easier to be overwhelmed by this emotion, one of these stages is old age, a period in which we begin to see youth as a distant horizon left behind. Many wonder how to help an older person who is sad and caught up in this recurrent emotion.
There are many reasons to feel sadness in old age, it is like adolescence, when the body changes and leaves our control, also changes the relationship with the family and the social environment, many stop working regularly at this stage and others. face the loss of your partner, friends and dreams that you probably will no longer realize.
- Helping a sad old man is not as complicated an intervention as it may seem in some cases.
- It is true that physical limitations are greater.
- Which reduces the range of possibilities.
- However.
- The margin is wide and there are often alternatives.
- Plans and projects that can deceive the person.
“The art of getting older is the art of maintaining a little hope. “Andre Maurois?
The best way to help an older person cope with depression is to know their level of vulnerability and report factors that can increase the risk of developing depression. Consider that at this stage of life losses tend to be frequent and gains more sporadic. unlike childhood.
There are other circumstances that could contribute to an increased risk of falling into depression at this stage of life, these are mainly:
Knowing these risk factors, we also see the first clues to learn how to help an older person who may be sad, the important thing is, first of all, to evaluate these aspects, always with the interested party, and to look for ways so that they do not end up causing depression.
Helping an old man who is sad is not taking her sadness for herself. What a depressed man needs is not to “adopt” him, let alone sympathize with him. You need motivation, affection, follow-up and support. Above all, she needs respect.
We have to accept your time, your decisions, your preferences. Advise, encourage, but let her make the decisions. That way, any changes that occur will be more likely to be maintained.
Help, in addition to being better when it is intelligent and adapted to the person, is also more positive when it comes to honesty and heart. When we do it because the person means a lot to us, not because, for example, it stops. bothering us.
Now, what can be done to help an older person who doesn’t feel well emotionally?Here are some specific measures:
Aging is a process in which emotionally complicated moments often exist, we earn a lot when we discover that supporting the most vulnerable is also a way to do good, to fill our lives with meaning and to make more sense of who we are.
Editorial note: Sadness is an emotion and, as such, cannot last long. In this article, with the term ?Sadness ?, we mean a state in which melancholy, despair and sadness predominate more than mere emotion itself.