Hello Steemianos friends, as we all know, with the passing of the years our body is suffering biological transformations, own of the aging that are inevitable, but that somehow we can be delaying, with the care of our health, and on the other hand, it is important that when looking at our grandparents, we think that we are also going to that stage of life, for this reason, we must give all the love and care so that they feel happy and can smile.
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Old age an inevitable stage
With the passage of age, they are producing a series of changes typical of aging. The elderly tend more to social withdrawal; they are increasingly lazy to leave the house for a walk, attend cultural events or simply go out to visit their friends, which may be more or less associated with the psychomotor disorders that appear or aggravate with old age; There may be changes in the nervous system and the locomotor system that will progressively make progress difficult, making their movements slower or more difficult.
On the other hand, with the appearance of some diseases, such as the symptoms of this age, the elderly will stay longer in bed or at least without leaving the house, as a consequence of these factors, the elderly decreases their level of activity outside the home and their social relationships will be increasingly limited. Another factor that occurs in the elderly is with senility, thinking becomes slower as language, when senile deterioration is very serious, it is difficult to maintain a conversation with them that is elementary.
Another important problem in the elderly, is the memory, in general terms, the elderly do not usually have too many problems to remember events or their experiences when they were young, they tell very clearly all their anecdotes, however as a strange thing, the More recent events usually have problems to remember them, that is to say, they tend to have diminished the call memory of fixation.
All these disorders that accompany the aging process, make the elderly feel diminished, not only physically, but also on the intellectual level. The decrease in sensory sensitivity, especially in regard to sight and hearing, further hinders communication and intellectual life, which causes many elderly people to feel finished and lead a difficult and sometimes meaningless life.
Loneliness in the Elderly
One of the main problems of the elderly is loneliness; With aging there are a series of changes within the social relationships of each person and that as their age progresses, they can not develop as before, can not go out to visit their friends or family, and little to little are entering a stage of dependence, their children, who care and care corresponds. Generally the elderly suffer from the loss of their partner, relatives, or friends and something stronger that adds to this pain as it is, the death of their own children, which causes in them, a situation of isolation affective. In addition, each death affects them when thinking, that they may soon be the ones who die.
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On the other hand, the links with the children, already adults and independent in most cases, tend to weaken progressively over time, because each of them have to divide responsibilities with work and with their homes, there are cases in which the elderly coexist with their children, coming to feel as if they were a burden. Generally, the elderly prefer to live in their own home, until they move to a child because of their age, and if they have several children, then they go from one place to another, in these cases they feel that they are making the family or the family uncomfortable. home of his children, since it is different when a child decides that he lives with him, where he is assigned a room just for him, where the old man feels that this is his home, unlike, as I said before, walking on one side to another.
The elderly, still living with all the comforts in the home of one of their children, there is something very important so that they do not change their minds, and it is the treatment they receive in that home, and this is where the children play a determining role, since that they should give the best example to all the other members of their family, by giving them love, respect and affection; In addition, let grandparents express themselves freely without limitations and give them the opportunity to participate in the festive activities of the family; In this way we can make them feel at home.
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Affective frustration in the elderly
Nursing homes
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In other cases, when they do not adapt to any of their children's homes, they are practically forced to stay in nursing homes in geriatric residences, where they find it difficult to adapt to norms that they have not followed throughout their lives. As a result of all this type of factors of a social, affective and relational nature, in the elderly will arise quite sad situations, such as loneliness, abandonment, boredom, uselessness and affective frustration, which can lead to hopelessness and failure existential
Life does not end with old age
It is undeniable that in the stage of old age there are significant biological changes that affect our experience and behavior, where a process of deterioration of the effectiveness of biological systems will arise. Although old age is an inevitable stage does not mean that the person to reach this age should feel totally diminished, this is a stage where the person has a large accumulation of experiences and knowledge that despite their physical conditions, we can continue to provide , to solve some problems of daily life through their advice. We should only give them the freedom to express themselves, we can not think that their life cycle has ended.
Grandparents' advice
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Emotions in old age
Apparently, the assessment of our ability to be happy in maturity and the elements that influence that happiness, are distorted by a view that invalidates aging as a valid and satisfactory stage of life. The data show that older people regulate their emotions better.
Old age a stage of experiences to be happy
Old age does not have to be that dark stage, already without desires or enthusiasms, of which everyone would want to do without. The physical energies are inevitable, they will not be the same as always, but that does not mean that life does not continue there, inviting us to enjoy it continuously, to continue knowing it, with the same capacity of amazement of a young person, who also counted on the advantage of experience: the Elder knows, better than anyone, what is worth and what is not.
Old age a stage to rediscover life
An example is at work, when we retire from our profession; Another example is the independence of children away from home, or that friends and family can move away. In spite of everything, that is not the moment to stop advancing. Life in adulthood can also be a time of new and exciting adventures when we allow it. Everyone has different ways of experiencing the meaning and joy of the activities they enjoy, and these can change over time. If the time of retirement has come, or if the children leave home, it is possible to find that we have more time to enjoy other activities. Either way, take the time to nourish our spiritual faith.
"The SOC model" (Baltes, 1990) explains how people can adapt successfully to old age, and "age successfully", through three adaptation mechanisms:
Selection: We all choose a couple, profession, friends, leisure activities, etc. Older people also choose their activities and life decisions according to their circumstances, personal criteria, health, environment, etc.
Optimization: Trying to maintain the best development of our abilities is an important objective throughout our lives but especially in the stage of old age, it is important to maintain an optimal tone of physical activity, intellectual, cultural, sexual, etc.
Compensation: This is a general mechanism in the human being when some of our abilities are affected we compensate, (if I do not see well I wear glasses), this allows us to optimize our functionality. In old age, due to physical deterioration, it is more frequent to need compensations for the development of activities of daily life. This compensation in advanced ages, in addition to the technical means of support (glasses, crutches, taking notes, etc.) is usually brightened by the experience and pragmatic knowledge of life, which has traditionally been called "wisdom".Source
SOURCES:
http://vivirenplenitudlaterceraedad.blogspot.com/2016/03/una-vejez-feliz-algunas-recomendaciones.html
http://www.siquia.com/2014/03/ser-feliz-en-la-vejez-es-posible/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_age