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How do you change the perception of aging?
Aging Well | Last Active: Jun 22, 2020 | Replies (35)Comment receiving replies
It's interesting to me how life can change what we tell ourselves over time. I liked your point about the word "old' not being a "feeling." Just because I was curious, I looked up some articles and found this on the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/17/well/mind/age-subjective-feeling-old.html I thought it was an interesting read... and I loved your idea of using different vocabulary to change the perception of aging.
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@kellyhahn1- Thank you for the article. As my thoughts have wandered around this topic I've also wondered about how we treat older people because of vocabulary, old myths, and inaccurate perceptions. I remember visiting my grandmother in a nursing home at a young age. My mom hated going there because of the "smells." My mom said that old people have a certain smell. But when I visited my grandma in her home all I smelled was food. While patients are in a nursing home they aren't taken care of the way as they would be at home and accidents happen more frequently. But this isn't explained to many younger people.
Some myths can really make a difference in how we think of aging. One such myth is that all older people are depressed, and cranky. This puts all older people in the same category making no room for individuality.
How can we change these misconceptions by not grouping everyone together?