I can understand the elderly are more prone to this. Older folks don’t get out as much as others, and , people of a certain age have often seen spouses and other family and friends pass away.
While this can be an issue to be aware of, I hope someine doesn’t decide the solution is some massive new government program. Not every societal ill needs to be “solved”, by some government program.
I agree we need to keep the government out. This impacts me directly. My mom is experiencing dementia. She’s still able to live with my dad (they’re in assisted living), but she sleeps most of the time, and when she’s awake, she doesn’t want to socialize. My dad repeatedly talks about feeling isolated and lonely. I’ve gotten him to go to caregiver support group meetings and to take small excursions outside their apartment when she’s sleeping. It’s a process. He feels guilty for leaving her and worries she’ll wake up and panic. But, he also needs the break. I try to visit at least every other day, so he gets some interaction.
It’s a very real problem that EMS encounters every day — elderly patients who are alone, often over-medicated or medically non-compliant. Their children have abandoned them because they no longer meet their “convenience or need” standards. They are often very sick, depressed and routinely suicidal.
They’re easy to spot because the walls of their homes are adorned with pictorial shrines of years long past, with no current or recent additions. It’s best illustrated by this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4a-_2kybWI
I went through it after an injury that left me home bound for most of 5 years.
Trust me almost everybody stops visiting after the first year.
I understand. Life goes on.
it can be incredibly brutal on a person.
My little cat buddy and FR got me through.
Now I just stay alone because I don’t like people that much :)
As you age through life it’s pretty much known your life narrows quite naturally. I resent the fact it’s called isolation or that lonliness is even a part of it.....or that the elderly are “prone” to this.
People can and do find they enjoy their own company, that they choose to enjoy their long term relationships that matter, and these do not mean ‘going out’ and seeing them face to face.
Yes, there are those who do suffer but generally they have not learned how to enjoy their own company and find interests they can do on their own. And even pure laziness to get out of the easy chair and just go for a day trip with no destination in mind...which always proove interesting, be it by bus or car.