How Does Anxiety Affect Your Senior’s Daily Life?

Nobody likes to feel anxious, especially for seemingly no reason. More and more older adults are dealing with constant anxiety and it can be a big cause for concern. Here’s what you need to know about how anxiety can be affecting your elderly family member’s life right now, and how home care can help.

Anxiety Can Be Overwhelming

Everyone has dealt with anxiety at least a few times in their lives, but seniors may start to experience anxiety a lot more often than they ever did in the past. Stressors don’t have to be as big to cause anxiety for your senior as she ages. And the changes that she’s experiencing in her life and in her health can be a lot for her to deal with emotionally and physiologically. All of it can be overwhelming for her.

Your Senior May Make Choices You Don’t Expect

Because of her anxiety, your senior may start to make some choices that you wouldn’t otherwise expect her to make. For example, if she’s worried about falling, she may start to spend a lot more of her time sitting in her favorite chair, with the items she uses most often pulled within arm’s reach. That can make her feel safer, but it ultimately causes bigger problems. Your elderly family member is more likely to lose more mobility, strength, and balance, increasing the fall risk that she’s already worried about.

How Can You Recognize Anxiety in Your Senior?

Ideally, your senior could share with you that she’s feeling anxious and worried about specific situations. But on a realistic level, you’re probably going to need to talk with her. Some of the signs that she’s dealing with anxiety can be changes in her behaviors and routines, difficulty concentrating, or trouble making decisions and solving problems. She could also be withdrawing from activities and people that she loves.

Anxiety Affects Overall Health and Well-being

The biggest problem here is that untreated anxiety can cause bigger health issues for your elderly family member. Dealing with an increase in stress hormones takes a toll on the body physically, and if your senior already has health issues like high blood pressure, anxiety can make it more difficult for her to keep her health in better control.

What Can You Do about Your Senior’s Anxiety?

You can’t take your senior’s anxiety away, but you can help her to find systems and support that reduce her stress and her anxiety. Talk with her doctor to figure out what underlying causes are correctible. Listen to your senior as well. Hiring home care providers can be a huge relief for both you and your elderly family member. Elder care providers can keep your senior’s home tidy, help her with mobility, and help her to stay safe at home in other ways. Home care providers can also help you to stay aware of what’s happening with your senior.

There’s no one surefire way to reduce your senior’s anxiety. But over time and with a plan, you can help her to make progress that she can feel.