Changes During Aging

Through the journey, one must consider many aging factors and decide if these are true generalizations of aging or are myths of aging propagated by the movie. Specifically, the myths that will be examined in this paper are: 1) Are there life experiences that contribute to depression in the elderly population? 2) How do vision and hearing impairments affect an older adult's overall mental status? And finally, 3) is there any relation between having a physical mobility deficits and depression? Through this examination of my propagated in "UP", the reader will gain better insight into what are true generalizations vs. myths about the elderly.

From birth, the body and mind go through physical and cognitive changes that human beings will have to adapt to throughout life. Some individuals lose mental and physical abilities age they age that allow them to live a normal lifestyle. The most common age-related physical changes include hearing impairment, weakening vision, and the increasing probability of multiple chronic conditions such as arthritis, hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis (Abeles, 1998). The most common cognitive changes associated with normal aging are short-term, or primary, memory loss, long-term, or secondary, memory loss, and the overall levels of performance in sustained attention. Other issues relative to aging and cognitive memory impairments are anxiety disorder, panic disorder, chronic pain, and mood disorders. This issue may cause several social, medical and family problems as individual

Elders are vital members within their communities and anticipated to fulfill essential roles such as those of mentors, cultural transmitters, providers of care for grandchildren, and civic and religious leadership (Ramos & Wright, 2010). Cultural values of collectivism and communal orientation can serve as a protective factor in alleviating distress” (Furman et al.,

Obviously, there are some inevitable biological and psychological changes that occur with aging, and because of those changes, older adult may face some

Age related memory impairment: Age related memory loss, is an inevitable part of getting older, the brain slows down as does the processing of information mild cognitive impairment. Signs that an individual has age related impairment are forgetfulness, losing things, names of people they know, roads they know, easily distracted, slower at accessing information as quick as they used to. This is all normal and to be expected as we get older, and is not considered serious as long as the individual, is able to live independently, common sense, achieve tasks as they have always done and are able to hold a conversation, occassionaly forgetting the odd word, be able to recall information forgotten earlier. Severe memory loss is cause for concern and could be a sign Dementia, signs that differ from aged related are that dementia affects an individual’s ability to function, it disables them, disrupting their work, social activities, and family relationships. Individuals with dementia will have difficulty performing their usual day to day tasks like paying bills, washing up, changing clothes, forgetting how to do things they have done many times before. They often don’t remember times when they have had memory loss even when it is recalled to them. Get lost and disorientated easily even when in familiar surroundings, repetitive phrases and stories often in the same conversation.

Aging is a universal phenomenon and humans are no exception. Gerontology deals with the psychological, social and biological aspects of aging process. A recent study shows that people aged 85 years and older are expected to augment from 5.3 million people to 21 million as the world reach 2050. In today’s world Gerontology has an enormous role to play so that the senior citizens could be analyzed and their needs may be addressed with compassion and empathy.

Gerontology, the study of the biological, psychological, and social aspects of aging (Hooyman & Kiyak, 2011). Aging is a process of life that those of us that are young are not educated enough to understand what are grandparents emotionally and physically are going through in life. When a person talks about getting old or referring to an old person, we immediately assume a person in their 50’s to 60’s. It is interesting to learn the differences in ages “young-old (ages 65-74), the “old-old” (ages 75-84), and the “oldest-old” (age 85 and over) (Hooyman & Kiyak, 2011). The life expectancy of people is much longer today than before, according to the Census Bureau, it is expected to increase to 82.6 in 2050 (Hooyman & Kiyak, 2011). In my opinion, people today have more resources to a better quality of life such as staying active also living a healthier life. Most elderly people continue to remain active live a longer life. Such as Morrie in the book Tuesdays with Morrie, he remained active dancing after retiring as a professor until he was diagnosed with ALS. Morrie experienced a compression of morbidity in his

Later adulthood is the time in life when changes in marriage, families, and peer relationships are affected the most by the loss of someone close to that person. “Most people 70 years of age or older are widowed, divorced, or single” (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2010, p.619). Losing a spouse or close friend can create a sense of loneliness, which causes depression, anxiety and the emptiness feeling can become overwhelming. Depression also leads to psychological effects that will deteriorate a person’s health causing the chance for a terminal disease to become much higher. The weaker appearance of older adults causes family and remaining peers to step up in the role of making sure the person’s wellbeing is being met. (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2010). Living accommodations and healthcare needs

Life span is the limitations of a client by age and psychodynamic focused on strengths and possibly out for depression in the older adult population at MOW. In my opinion, Sigmund Freud’s theory on psychodynamic helps to understand the human process of the unconscious mindset in the elderly population. As people develop as they tend to develop mental, physical, and social issues in human process. As the old saying says, “If you don’t use it, you lose it”. Researchers should continue their effort to help alleviate their gray areas for elderly who suffer from depression, lack of social support in homebound seniors and find other interventions to meet their need as long as they are willing. Keeping older homebound adults in some sort of activity, will lessen the deterioration of the brain. Introducing homebound older adults to modern technology can be

With aging, there are natural changes that occur in the body, these changes affect they way the body response to pharmaceuticals. The absorption, metabolism and excretion of many drugs decrease, requiring that doses of some drugs be adjusted. As we age our small bowel surface area decrease, our gastric emptying becomes delayed and our gastric acid pH increases, all of these changes change the drug absorption by the body. Similarly metabolism of pharmaceuticals is also affected because as we age our hepatic metabolism decreases, along with the first-pass metabolism. In addition, the most important pharmacokinetic change worth mentioning that associated with aging is decreased renal elimination of drugs. With age it's common to have a lower muscle

As an older individual there are many physical changes that occurs during this stage of life. Older individuals live independently and maintain close relationships with family and friends. Most individual’s personalities remain relatively stable throughout their lives. Depression is less prevalent than depression in younger adults. Becoming older can cause hearing impairment. 37 percent of women and 48 percent of men over the age of 75 have impaired hearing. Also there is a decline in vision. It will start to become difficult to read small print, seeing in sim light, or even finding objects. Some aging adults may even need

As we get older we go through physical changes such as our voice, our mobility, our vision, our hearing, and our balance which are just a few physical changes that occur. But one change that many of us, especially women, dread about as we age is our appearance. As we get older our skin loses cells, collagen, fat and the elastin fibers that make our skin texture smooth and supple, thus creating visible changes such as wrinkles, crow’s feet around the eyes, dark circles, sagging skin, hallowing of the cheeks, frown lines, and the drooping angle of our mouths. Our appearance, especially the way our face looks like, is something every woman, young and old, stresses about. Women, and men too, want to stay and look young forever. In western culture and around the world beauty is defined by the media and its various platforms. When we see in the media older celebrities such as Halle Barry, Catherine Zeta Jones, Jennifer Lopez, Angelina Jolie and various other beautiful celebrities we are conditioned to think that this is what aging looks like and what we should be striving for. There is a social pressure that is created because of this. As we age, our appearance is

As aging is a stage of development that cannot prevented, the question of “can one’s aging be more successful than another?” is posed my many. Researchers continually consider the differences between aging successfully, and aging unsuccessfully. As researchers work to complete their studies, many find a reoccurring basis of successful aging. A basis of successful aging can be set including: physical health disease free, chronic illness free, mental health disease free, among many others. The only problem with this basis is the difference from person to person in terms of what makes aging successful. As individuals age, their mental state is a large predictor of how the person will age. A positive mental state about aging, will have a more positive effect on a person’s aging process. Many factors may influence the positivity of aging, such as negative aging stereotypes and discrimination because of older age. These negative aging stereotypes include but are not limited to: older adults are not as smart, older adults are angry all the time, older adults are bad drivers, older adults are isolated and never socialize. In adult aging and development, having a positive outlook on aging will lead to better mental and physical aging.

There is a wide range of physiological, psychological, and psychosocial changes associated with the aging process. Physiological effects are part of the aging process of the human body. Organ performance declines over an individual’s life span and can lead to heart disease, digestive issues, cognitive, vision, and hearing impairment. Psychosocial comprises social, mental health and emotional needs of an individual. Cognitive impairment is one of the major physiological changes that affects health issues in the aging. Cognitive impairment relates to a lesser degree of cognitive deficiency that is associated with a decreased quality of life that often progresses to dementia (Derouesne, 2002). Anxiety and depression can develop in the aging when dealing with physical health issues, loss of a loved one, or caring for a spouse with health issues.

Advancing age is commonly associated with loss of memory. The inability to maintain both short term and long term memory is serious. Learning new things or remembering familiar words and names can be quite daunting.