Introduction
Emotions play an essential role in every human being right from when life starts till we die. Emotions play a complex experience in consciousness and bodily sensations that represent personal behavioral significance. Emotions have a strong influence on our daily lives. We can choose hobbies and activities whether we are sad, happy, bored, or frustrated. These prepare the human body for action, highlight what has to be remembered and noticed, and guide actions and decisions. Aging is another life stage, like adolescence or childhood. Elderly age differently and experience differently. Aging cannot be reversed. Various psychological, physical, relationship, environmental, social, behavioral, spiritual, and intellectual changes exist. Aging impacts overall health to a greater extent. Aging affects memory, experiences, and perception and has a greater impact on emotion regulation.
What Are the Types of Emotional Changes With Older Age?
The elderly have different ways of coping with losses and changes in life. If one has adjusted well in adulthood, they are more likely to adjust well in old age. The one who resists change in adulthood will probably experience adverse emotional and physical effects. The following are the emotional changes that the elderly face:
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Loneliness: Older individuals might isolate themselves to mourn the loss of loved ones and familiar people. By isolating themselves, they may feel more lonely, leading to more severe mental and emotional health problems.
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Denial: Elderly persons can cope by refusing to acknowledge the changes that have occurred in themselves and might decide to ignore the changes. Their mental and physical issues might get worse without proper treatment.
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Guilt: Elderly individuals might blame themselves and feel that they could have prevented a loss because they reacted differently. This type of guilt might cause depression, social isolation, and even suicidal attempt.
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Stubbornness: Older individuals who feel out of control try to regain control by taking on behavior and attitude that everyone has to follow their ways. This stubbornness may lead to more emotional issues, and they have greater difficulty getting along well with family members and spouses.
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Extremely Critical and Suspicious Behavior: Some old age people may become over-suspicious, paranoid, or even critical. They lack trust in anyone and may feel that they are getting manipulated. This suspicious behavior can affect interpersonal relationships and disrupt family harmony.
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Selective Memory: Older individuals might cope by remembering the best and worst parts of certain events and people. They may be distorted and hold on to false belief. This leads to selective memory, especially by remembering negative and bad parts of the spouse and family members, leading to more family conflict.
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Grief: Grief is a normal feeling that gets expressed by the loss of loved ones, relationships, vision, health, hearing mobility, and independence. This reaction in older individuals might worsen if it is not recognized and counseled accordingly.
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Anger: Elderly people may react by showing anger when they do not have control over the present. They may show anger towards family members, who are more supportive as they are assured that these people will still love and console them in spite of their anger. All this can lead to family discord.
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Depression and anxiety: Old-age individuals may react to lose and feel anxious and depressed. One must help older individuals understand that these feelings are normal and can get help if they have prolonged feelings that interfere with their daily lives. This increases the risk of committing suicide in elderly individuals.
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Regression: Elderly people might return to old behaviors or ways of catching up and coping with painful events of their lives. They may choose not to get modern treatment and instead opt for more traditional methods that endanger their life.
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Reminiscence(Recollecting Past Experiences or Events): Elderly people might dwell on how things used to be. They wish for their young age and wish for things to be the same as before. Refusal to accept changes in old age can cause emotional problems and lead to difficulty in adjusting to life.
Can Aging Brain Deal With Emotions Better?
Scientists have proved that elderly individuals process little information a little, and this slows with age. This makes them think before they act instead of reacting quickly. As we age, the brain’s frontal lobe decreases. This part of the brain is responsible for the emotional regulation speed of processing and complex reasoning. The elderly often exhibit greater prefrontal cortex activity than young individuals while processing emotions. Many research state that elderly individuals have a positive bias even without realizing it. It is stated that elderly individuals let go of the situation if they experience negativity. The elderly are better at picking up their battles. Elderly individuals have a cognitive decline, and they do not default to being positive. The elderly easily tend to focus more on the positive details, even during a negative event. Fewer emotional stressors that get better with age are daily routine activities, traveling, gardening, and volunteering. Elderly structure their social and physical environment in that it reduces the occurrence of unnecessary stressors.
Conclusion
According to a theory, when elderly people feel emotional sameness, and the emotional landscape is described as barren and bleached. Current psychological research shows that emotion is relatively unaffected by aging and even improves with age. Emotional changes with age are complex. Old age is not a simple time of emotional well-being and tranquility. Strong emotions and reactions to important life events may increase with age. There have been notable strides in understanding the emotional and social aspects of aging over the past two decades. The emotional well-being from experience and time perspective confers improved regulatory skills. Cognitive resources are also deployed selectively, and attention and memory increasingly favor positive material as individuals grow older. In everyday life, elderly individuals show emotional and social functioning equal to or superior to young adults. When faced with prolonged unavoidable stress, age-related advantages appear to be compromised.
