What Can Help Your Senior to Deal with Anxiety?

Anxiety can be a big surprise to people who haven’t experienced it before. If your elderly family member is suddenly facing problems with anxiety, she might need your help in order to manage what she’s feeling.

 

Elder Care in Brownsburg IN: Senior Anxiety

Elder Care in Brownsburg IN: Senior Anxiety

 

Routine and Structure Helps

Having solid routines can be an important part of managing anxiety for your senior. A routine gives her something to count on, that she knows will happen. If her day is too unstructured, that can make your senior feel even more anxious. When you do help her to establish some routines, do what you can to keep them from being too confining.

 

Talk Her through Changes

For many people, change is a big trigger for anxiety. One of the reasons your elderly family member might be experiencing anxiety now, even if she never had anxiety before, can be due to all of the changes going on in her life. Your senior’s routines can help her to face the changes she’s going to be experiencing, which is another reason to pay closer attention to the cornerstone activities that support her emotionally.

 

Make Sure Her Doctor Is Aware

If anxiety is a result of medical causes, your senior’s doctor may be able to help her through what she’s experiencing. Health issues, as well as treatments for those health issues, can all be contributing factors to anxiety. Your senior’s doctor might recommend other solutions, too, like adding exercise to her day or changing her diet to reduce anxiety triggering reactions.

 

Keep Yourself Calm

Your elderly family member’s anxiety can be triggering for your own, and that can be a problem. If you’re not able to remain as calm as you would like to be, that can leave both of you dealing with anxiety issues. To deal with your own anxiety, make sure that you address whatever your triggers are and consider talking to your own doctor about what else might be contributing. As you manage your own anxiety, that can help your senior to do the same.

Talk to your elderly family member, too. She may not understand at first what triggers her anxiety, but if you talk it out, the two of you might land on some possibilities. Handing over some of the tasks that take up a lot of her time and energy can be helpful, too. Home care providers can ease the load on your senior, letting her focus on feeling better.

 

If you or an aging loved-one are considering Home Care in Indianapolis, IN, please call the caring staff at Home Services Unlimited. Serving Greater Indianapolis Area. Call for Immediate Info & Assistance: (317) 471-0760

Etelka Froymovich, RN, MHA
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