How do we face our mental struggles and keep our physical and mental health in the best shape we can? Studies from the National Institute of Mental Health show that more than half of all adult Americans receive some form of mental health treatment in the average year.
These conditions can become significantly more impactful in our golden years. Senior mental health and emotional wellness can suffer through the difficult transitions we face. But when it comes to integrity vs despair, there are always ways to avoid the latter while keeping our heads high.
If you’re curious about healthy aging strategies, we’re here to offer our assistance. Read on to learn more about how we can focus on emotional wellness concerning senior mental health.
Integrity vs Despair: What Are They?
One can’t understand the battle of integrity vs despair without first understanding what each of them is. While it seems simple on the surface, there are fine points to each that are crucial to internalize. Here are the main differences between each.
Understanding Integrity
Integrity and dignity as we age are paramount. Many people struggle with our integrity as we age due to the perceived loss of some freedoms.
Aging psychology often focuses on this need to maintain our dignity. According to the National Institutes of Health, many factors influence this, including:
- A movement to independent living communities
- Difficulty dealing with dependence on others
- Perceived vulnerability due to advanced age
These can all feel as if they’re lowering our autonomy. Our integrity then can feel as if it’s been infringed upon.
Managing Despair
Despair is also a common side effect of aging. Set as the 8th stage of Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, a defining characteristic is reflection on our lives toward the golden years. Despair is feeling lost or helpless in the face of reality.
Life reflection can just as often help us improve our state of despair as it can settle us into it. These symptoms vary heavily depending on each senior.
Factors Influencing Your Mental State
What factors influence your mental state? While everyone’s different, some things are the same across the human experience. Here are some of the most common things that impact our minds into a state of despair.
Experiences and Achievements
One of the first things that you may ruminate on is your experiences and achievements. Our memories and how we’ve lived our lives will have the greatest impact on our life reflection. What you’ve achieved in life can have a direct impact on your senior mental health.
Relationships, Activities, and Social Connection
Another huge impact is our relationships and social connection. Most healthy aging strategies focus on emotional wellness through social interaction.
According to the National Poll on Healthy Aging, more than 1/3rd of all seniors feel lonely or isolated. These feelings of isolation often cause despair in our golden years.
Large Life Changes
Struggling to adapt to life changes will also present a challenge. Transitioning to independent living is frequently difficult to adjust to.
If you’re having these challenges, finding ways to adapt to the transition will help your mental state. Consider exploring what sort of included amenities and activities your community offers.
Cultivating Your Integrity
How can you work to focus your mind on your integrity? With aging psychology, it’s important to keep your efforts focused on emotional wellness.
Here are some of the best ways to improve your senior mental health to emphasize integrity.
Accepting Yourself
When it comes to life reflection, it’s easy for us to focus on our regrets. Many of us reach our golden years with a heart full of what-ifs, making it difficult to see the good.
It’s important to work to accept the things that we can’t change. While you may have things you wish you did differently, it’s better to focus on the things that you’re happy about.
Don’t fall into the trap of believing you can’t change anything. Your golden years are a perfect time to pick up new skills, hobbies, and interests that you didn’t have the time for. Doing so can help you erase some of the things you may reflect on negatively.
Engaging in Meaningful and Important Activities
Another important step is not to let yourself fall into stagnation. Look for healthy and safe activities that you can do near you that will help your mental state. Some common activities include:
- Volunteering with local elections and charities
- Finding new hobbies to explore
- Enjoying the outdoors safely
- Picking up new skills, such as languages
The more active you are, the healthier you’ll be. The World Health Organization claims that poor physical health can increase our risk of depression and anxiety.
Maintaining Your Social Connections
Allowing yourself to slip into social isolation will also increase your feelings of despair. You can battle this by working to keep yourself in contact with loved ones.
Make an effort to contact loved ones and friends. You also should focus on making new friends in your community to bolster your social life.
Addressing Despair by Recognizing Signs
Above all else, you should recognize the signs of despair so that you know if you’re struggling. We can often fall into depressed states without realizing we’re depressed, assuming our feelings are typical.
If you find yourself losing interest in hobbies or are finding socialization a chore, these are common signs. Other common signs include:
- Feelings of stagnation
- Lack of interaction with new hobbies
- A mental state of confusion or ennui
- General apathy toward the day
Notice the signs and work to remedy the problem so that you can fix it as soon as possible.
Aging Psychology: Managing Integrity vs Despair
Managing integrity vs despair starts with recognizing the sounds. Make an effort to stay social and active while focusing your life reflection on your favorite memories. While you do so, don’t forget to make new memories in your golden years.
Conservatory At Plano is proud to provide unparalleled convenience, comfort, and value. Our community provides a range of exquisite amenities to help you maintain your integrity while living the life you deserve. Come join our Be Our Guest program to see if we’re the thriving community for you.
