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When
I'm Sixty-four
Gazing
at the world through the eyes of youth it seemed to make sense
that anyone who looked old and had a lot of wrinkles, would
have to be miserable. That perhaps old age is about misery.
When your social life appears to be catching up with your
friends at funerals, and talking about the ‘good old
days’, and living with the reality and anxiety of growing
old alone. Where retirement becomes a convenient euphemism
for redundant, and a generation is left questioning; “who
will still feed me, who will still need me when I’m sixty-four?”
In
a society that appears to place no value on the contribution
of it’s elders, is it surprising that historically the
suicide rate for old people has been much higher than for
younger people. There is of course significant focus on youth
suicide rates, yet the issue of depression in older people
has been for the most part unrecognised.
Again in this chapter there are well researched and validated
checklists that you can utilise to assess what your loved
one maybe experiencing. As well as they types of help that
are useful. There is also a very moving story of an elderly
man telling of his experience of being depressed and the impact
on himself and his family.
REMEMBER people do get tired of living and that’s healthy,
but old age is not about being preoccupied with death –
that’s depression.
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