Mental Health Concerns and The Older Adult
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ration-oriented coping is focused on the burden felt from the responsibility from the loss (Boyd, 2017). The older adult might be consumed with thoughts of the loved one who has passed away and con- sumed with sadness by the void created
in their life, thus exhibiting loss-oriented coping. Restoration-orientated coping can be scary and difficult for the older adult if the loss is accompanied with life- style changes, for example, related to fi - nances.
Table 5. Five Stages of Grief: Denial Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance Stage Characteristics Denial ● Frozen with shock or overcome with numbness. ● Unconscious ability to manage strong emotions and feelings by slowly feeling them (this is a survival technique). ● Feelings of grief varied to prevent mental overload (protection). ● Nature’s way of letting in only as much as we can handle. Anger ● Does not have to make sense or be rooted in reality (also has no limits). ● Anger surfaces once you are feeling safe enough to know you will probably survive what comes. ● Needed for healing to process. ● May be reoccurring visits with this emotion.
● Can lead to an uneasy or hateful feeling toward spirituality/religion. ● Contrary to its negative connotations is the strength it contains to solidify the idea of void and loss. ● Difficulty in feeling it without causing damage to self or someone else. ● Finding avenues of release such as exercise can help externalize and explore anger (decreases the chance of bottling it all up for a explosion). ● Is an indication of the intensity of love. ● Is a normal response to the unfairness of life and death. ● Anger towards self is guilt; however, it is undeserved blame. ● “Anger affirms that you can feel, that you did love, and that you have lost.” (Kübler-Ross & Kessler, 2005, p. 16) ● Agreement to anything after a loss can look like a temporary truce. ● Understand if lost in the darkness of “what if.” ● Like anger, this stage can present guilt. ● After a death, focus can futuristic.
Bargaining ● Agreeing to anything to avoid loss prior to loss.
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