Mental & Emotional Health

We’re getting towards the end of series on depression in the elderly, and today I’d like to address something that not many people realize occurs; depression without sadness.

There are quite a few people in the world (many of them elderly) who live their lives depressed, but not sad. They may, however, complain of a lack of energy, no motivation and physical problems. These physical problems and the complaints that they bring (arthritis pain increasing, headache pain becoming more frequent) may be the predominant symptom of depression in the elderly. These elderly individuals are more likely to show signs of anxiety and irritability when they don’t feel sad. These individuals may wring their hands, pace rooms, fret obsessive about money, their health or even the state of the world. You can’t tell me that you don’t know an elderly individual who always is concerned about the state of the world. They may be living with depression and not recognize it.

There are certain clues to look for in adults who don’t say that that they’re sad but they’re still living with major depression:
*unexplained and/or aggravated aches and pains - like I mentioned before maybe Gram’s arthritis is acting up continually and Gramps always has a backache, or maybe they are depressed
*hopelessness and helplessness - no positive outlook for the future is a HUGE symptom of full-blown depression, and the elderly individual feeling as though they can’t do anything is right below that
*being overly anxious or incredibly worried about things
*memory problems not associated with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia
*loss of feelings of pleasure in previous enjoyable activities
*slowed movement, whether due to those physical ailments or just a general slowing down of an elderly individual’s mental state
*irritability above and beyond the regular “grouchy old man” state
*a lack of interest in personal care such as skipping meals, neglecting personal hygiene or purposefully forgetting medication

You will notice that NONE of these signs has anything to do with being sad, but when you look at them in a broader sense, you would immediately see depression in a person.

mental and emotional health, depression, elderly, depression without sadness, signs & symptoms of depression