Depression in Older Adults

by Joyce Remy

Life is stressful; none of us can escape that fact. Every day of our lives, we face both new and familiar types of stress. As we get older, we experience losses of all kinds: not being physically able to do some of the things we used to do, sometimes feeling our bodies are betraying us, memory changes, the loss of beloved family and friends, needing to stop driving, changing homes. All too often, one particular stress or a combination of stresses can become overwhelming and lead to clinical depression.

Depression is an illness. It can have a number of symptoms, both physical and mental. It affects the whole person: body, mind, and spirit. Depression can begin suddenly, as a result of a specific event, or come on slowly over time without apparent cause. Symptoms include:

• Feeling sad, helpless, hopeless, irritable, or blue.
• Lack of energy.
• Changes in normal eating, sleeping, or sexual patterns.
• Memory changes and the inability to concentrate.
• No longer feeling pleasure in activities that would normally bring you joy.
• Trouble keeping up with normal activities at home or at work.

The Causes of Depression

Clinical, or chemical, depression is the result of a chemical imbalance in the brain that significantly affects how you think, feel, and act. There is a small area in the brain that researchers call the "well-being center." When the body or mind is stressed, this center releases chemicals into the blood stream that counteract the bad effects of stress and allow us to soon feel "normal" or "fine" again. Stresses can be social, psychological, or physical in origin. Some stresses are easy to recognize, but many are not. Examples include:

• Specific events in a person's life, such as the death of a spouse, child, or friend; change in life circumstances, like needing to change homes or no longer being able to drive; feeling lonely; health problems; or financial worries.
• Chronic pain.
• Nutritional deficiencies, such as lack of vitamin B-12 or folic acid, or poor nutrition in general.
• Medical conditions, especially low thyroid or other hormone changes, surgeries, an acute illness, heart disease, stroke, Parkinson's disease, or other neurological conditions.
• Side effects of specific medications, overmedication, or the effects of a combination of drugs.

Every human being, under enough stress for a long enough period of time, will become chemically depressed. This simply means that the effects of the accumulated stresses over time have become too much for the well-being center to counteract. Feeling good or fine or joyful is totally dependent on that center making the right chemicals in our brain and releasing those chemicals into our bodies. When we can't make enough of them, we feel sad or apathetic, sometimes anxious, and often feel more pain, both physiological and emotional. We can't feel normal "good" feelings without them.

How much stress it takes to make a person chemically depressed is very much determined by our genetics. Some people naturally have a lot of these chemicals and it takes a lot of stress to depress their system. Others make less, and a little stress can cause them to be chemically depressed. This trait runs in families.

Most people will experience sadness or other symptoms of depression at some time in their lives. Depression can range from a minor problem to a life-threatening illness. If you experience the symptoms listed above for two weeks or more, it's time to do something about them. The good news is that depression is a very treatable illness.

Read on to the next article: Depression Is Treatable!