Understanding Depression in Elderly People - Causes, Signs and Treatments

While you are running from the one place to other believing you will never ever again have enough time to do everything that needs to be done, there are many elderly people counting the minutes before lunch or dinner and bed time. They once might have felt the same and now suddenly they don't know what to do with all the time they have on hand.

Causes of Depression

Not having enough to do to fill the hours in the day is one of the biggest reasons for depression in elderly people.

Loss and depression can go hand in hand. Losing a partner after so many years of being together will obviously cause heartache and sadness. In older people this sadness can easily turn into depression. Health problems and medication can also be a cause. Some prescribed medication has depression as a side effect.

Older people easily feel they have no purpose in life anymore and stop attending social activities or loose interest hobbies they use to love. Sometimes they might not be able to do the hobbies they did before and that can be very depressing. Keen golf players that are not mobile anymore will have to give up this once beloved activity.

Signs of Depression

Constant sadness, fatigue, loss of appetite, the use of drugs or alcohol and sleep disturbances can all be signs of depression. Depression can sometimes be without sadness but they will show other symptoms such as irrelevant concerns about money, health, the safety of family members or even world related problems.

Depression is unhealthy and will have a negative effect on the life quality of the elderly person which is not at all necessary. Depression can also manifest in physical illnesses or illnesses the person already suffer from, can be aggravated.

Ways to Assist Elderly People Suffering From Depression

Getting out of the daily routine and their environment will almost always lift the spirits. Take the person to a place he or she enjoys, may it be a restaurant, a park or even a shopping center. If they find walking difficult borrow or rent a wheel chair for the day.

Arrange an activity with other people of their own age. This can be friends, family or people from the community. Seek treatment if you feel that is the only way they will get passed the depression. There are many ways the elders in a community or family can still make a contribution and they should be allowed doing so.