Monday, February 16, 2009

Relating Old People Research to the G&ML

The most surprising thing to see is that those over 65 have the highest suicide rate in the country. It really shows you the degree of unhappiness. Probably worst of all is how most people can't understand you.

Adults try to understand kids & teens, and there are even people who specialize in understanding kids & teens, like a developmental phycologist. But it seems that not many try to understand old people, probably because of their proximity to death. Death seems to be a taboo subject, and no one is really comfortable talking about it. It seems that no one really wants to go there, and no one wants to try to understand old people because they don't want to extend the time that they have to spend thinking about illnesses and death. People act like it's contagious, or as if by ignoring it, it can be avoided. In other words, death is surrounded by fear. Old people are surrounded by death. And in return, old age has been surrounded by fear & an unapproachable attitude as well. 

It even seems that once you are old, people & society turns it's back. I have never seen a geriatric phycologist on TV discussing old people, as they do teens. There are no reality shows about old people. There's no TV channels geared toward old people, the way MTV & VH1 are geared towards teens. Looking at society, it's as though old people are invisible, or as though people expire once they hit a certain age. Even the average person goes out of their way to intentionally erase any signs of an old persons emotions and feelings about the condition of their life, and their impending death. This is at a great disservice to all people, not only the elderly, although as the research shows, it hits them the quickest (ie. depression & suicide). 

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