5 Ways To Help Seniors Fight Loneliness

 In our stressful times, that need is even greater. Regrettably, though, depression in older ones often remains undiagnosed or is misdiagnosed.

Because of prevailing misconceptions that people become more dejected and moody with advanced age, symptoms may be viewed—by others as well as the elderly themselves—as a normal part of aging. “However, this is not the case,” states the book Treating the Elderly.

“Depression among the elderly is not a part of the normal aging process.”

Prolonged clinical depression—in contrast with normal sadness or a bout of the blues—is a serious illness with potentially serious consequences and should not be ignored. Untreated depression can worsen and become so entrenched that some despairing  patients resort to suicide. The tragedy of depression in older patients, explains Dr. Levy, is that “the most treatable of all psychiatric illness is also potentially the most lethal.” If the depression persists, the patient may need to be treated by a professional with experience in mood disorders.

Depressed individuals can be assured that Jehovah “is very tender in affection and compassionate.”  He “is near to those that are broken at heart.” Indeed, he is pre-eminently the one “who comforts the depressed.”