Senior Rentals Life | Anger Management For Aging Senior Citizens

There are several recognizable stages of grief. Some of those stages include denial, anger, negotiation, depression and acceptance. But one that many of us experience and recognize is anger. While we most often associate grief with the emotions that we feel when a loved one passes away, we can also go through grief over a lot of other things. People go through grief when their house burns down or when they lose a job or a pet. Another loss that we don’t often characterize as grief is the physical decline of aging.

We can detect in ourselves, or in senior citizens we know, by the comments we make, when we are experiencing grief from loss of youth. It is common to talk about looking back with remorse at lost youth and with the loss of functionality and strength that happens when we age. As a senior citizen notices strength decline and perhaps go through one of the many natural ailments of aging, such as arthritis, or problems with elimination, it is not uncommon to see a response of anger as a result of impatience with these problems.

Nobody aims to get old. And I am sure that if we could put it to a vote, aging would lose continuing to be part of our lives. As much as senior citizens themselves hate to grow old, your loved ones also hate to see it happen to you. And while you as senior citizen may not see it happen, your family is grieving the loss of the “young mom or dad” as much as you are.

The problem with being angry about growing old is there is nothing productive about it. The result is often we lash out at those closest to us because the frustration with our aging bodies causes our temper to flare up spontaneously and a loved one or caregiver is the one who is handy to get mad at. You know this isn’t fair and when it happens, you are sorry. So it would be good with finding ways to cope with the anger about aging in a more productive way.

This kind of coping is necessary so you don’t lash out at the innocent. But it is also healthy for you to learn to cope with the aging process because getting stuck in the grieving process will create tension in your emotional system, which can cause physical problems such as ulcers or problems sleeping. So how do we get rid of the anger we naturally feel at seeing our bodies decline?

A wise saying is that we get angry because of a false sense of entitlement. It comes when our expectations do not line up with reality. A false sense of entitlement comes when we come to the conclusion that we do not deserve to get old. The best way to confront and put aside that sense of entitlement is to recognize it. It seems simplistic to just come out and recognize that everybody grows old and we are not entitled to be exempt from the changes that come with aging but if you can recognize that consciously then it will help take anger out of the loop when you are coping with the affects of aging.

Resolution of grief comes when our expectations line up with reality. The attempt to deny the advance of years is the sole cause of midlife crisis in your younger days and that emotional response to aging can create devastating results as the one in crisis tries to behave as though they are not growing old and makes bad decisions based on that concept.

So too, if you can recognize that these problems are the natural result of aging and the best thing to do is to take care of yourself to try to minimize their impact, you will live with a much healthier attitude toward aging. By focusing on your diet, your exercise, a wise use of substances and doing all you can to stay rested and emotionally sound, you will see the negative effects of aging become minimized. Moreover, you will be a happier person and that shift in your emotions can go a long way toward keeping you young at heart. And that is the best way to turn back the effects of aging from the inside out.

Related posts:

1. Living Alone Is Not a Lonely Senior When you are raising your kids in your adult years, it seems you will never know a minute’s peace. Each day was another explosion of yelling, running and wild activity in the house from the moment the kids are born until they are grown and moving out. It was when...
2. Senior Rentals Transitions To Elderly Home Care When you have a senior parent, the concern for their ability to maintain their lifestyle can be a significant worry.  Almost without exception, senior citizens resist the idea of moving out of their house and into an assisted living facility or nursing home.  As a child of a senior citizen...
3. Senior Rentals Citizens Life At School For most of us, our senior citizen years are a time to relax, maybe pursue a hobby, travel or just relax and let life go by.  But, for many, retirement isn’t just a time to lay down the goals of life.  It is a time to look back over life...
4. Independent Senior Rentals Living Most people in this day and age consider that they can be totally independent. Modern society is built on the interaction of cooperative exchange of skills and goods so that we can specialize on our strengths and abilities. But that also means we need the goods, services, and skills of...
5. Senior Rentals Retirement Savings Senior rentals life demands a “paradigm shift” when we move from the working world to the world of retirement.  A paradigm shift means that the rules we live by and the economy that regulates our lives will change dramatically.  Whether we have a large retirement package or we have retirement...