STRESS AND AGE: Two comforting sentences

Friends in senior housing often say:  Why do people always ask me what I do all day!  I do what I did before! (And from the looks of my file drawer, I do that PLUS endless, sometimes infuriating, health/med paper work. And other stresses like that eye doctor who disappeared.) Too often families, friends, and even nurses or doctors may think we have it easier as we age...until they age themselves.

 So, although I didn't agree with all of a recent e-mail "teaser'' from Harvard Health, I salute them - I thank them for  these two sentences admitting the possibilities for our increased stress;

 "Your stress may also be caused by different factors, which 

could be more complicated than the issues you faced in your younger years. ...

Signs of stress may mimic symptoms of memory loss or dementia  or include 

appetite changes, headaches, anxiety, irritability, or trouble concentrating. ''

This second sentence gives me such relief from popular talk and dangerous magazine articles that love to label stress symptoms as signs of "she's losing it, she probably has..."  etc.

We need the medical world to publish more reminders that too many problems including paper work (and missing med persons) might make us seem "like like she's finally lost it" now and then.


I wish for us that kind of admission and reassurance from the medical world more often.


quote from Harvard Medical School HEALTHbeat