Is the Boomer vs. Millennial Divide Really About Politics?

On the surface, it appears political. Baby boomers and millennials often seem to hold very different views about work, relationships, capitalism, emotional boundaries, social responsibility, identity, and even what constitutes a meaningful life. But perhaps this divide is not entirely political at all. Perhaps it is emotional, and perhaps these generations were simply raised with entirely different emotional survival systems.

How Were Boomers Taught to Cope Emotionally?

Many baby boomers were raised to endure. You stayed, you tolerated, you kept going. Emotional restraint was often considered maturity, self-sacrifice was admired, and duty came before self-expression. For many boomers, strength meant functioning despite disappointment, loneliness, exhaustion, or emotional unhappiness: you worked, you provided, you stayed married, you handled things privately, and you did not center your emotional needs. While that created extraordinary resilience in many people, it also created generations of adults who often ignored their own emotional wellbeing for decades. Many boomers now find themselves emotionally exhausted after lifetimes of caregiving, people-pleasing, and playing the strong one in order to keep families stable.

How Were Millennials Taught to Cope Emotionally?

Millennials were often raised differently. They grew up during an era that emphasized emotional awareness, boundaries, therapy, mental health language, self-care, and questioning unhealthy systems. For many millennials, emotional suffering is not automatically viewed as noble. It is viewed as something to examine. That difference alone changes almost everything.

Why Do the Two Generations Misread Each Other?

To some boomers, millennials can appear fragile, overly sensitive, or too quick to walk away from discomfort. But to many millennials, boomers appear emotionally disconnected from themselves, overly tolerant of unhappiness, and conditioned to accept emotional depletion as normal life. Each generation is often misreading the coping style of the other. Boomers may quietly think, “We survived difficult things without constantly talking about them.” Millennials may quietly think, “Why would anyone stay emotionally unhappy for so long?” Underneath these reactions is something much deeper than politics: fear, stress, pressure, emotional exhaustion, and the universal desire to feel emotionally safe in an increasingly unstable world.

What Can Each Generation Learn From the Other?

Perhaps that is why political disagreements now feel so emotionally loaded. People are not simply defending ideas anymore. They are defending entire emotional survival systems: one generation learned survival through endurance, the other learned survival through self-protection. Both approaches contain wisdom, and both approaches contain blind spots. Endurance without emotional awareness can become self-abandonment. Emotional awareness without resilience can become fragility. Perhaps what both generations truly need from each other is not judgment, but integration:

• Boomers may have something important to teach about perseverance, loyalty, responsibility, and continuing through uncertainty.
• Millennials may have something important to teach about emotional honesty, boundaries, mental health, and recognizing when survival itself has become emotionally damaging.

The Takeaway

Perhaps the healthiest future lies somewhere in the middle: not between capitalism and socialism, not between conservative and liberal, not between old and young, but between two generations slowly beginning to understand that they were simply taught very different ways to survive emotionally. That understanding matters now more than ever, and it starts with the same emotional honesty both generations are still learning to offer each other.

Related Reading

• What Baby Boomers Wish Their Children Understood
• Adult Children Pull Away From Aging Parents (And What You Can Do About It)
• When Expectations Hurt: Letting Go of the Family Story You Thought Would Happen
• What Aging Parents Wish Their Adult Children Knew (But Rarely Say)
• The Loneliness of Being the Strong One

The post Boomers vs. Millennials: The Hidden Emotional Divide appeared first on Dr. KarenTurnerPhD.

Why Doesn’t Aging Feel Calmer Than Expected?

Many people are surprised by this. Aren’t the later years supposed to feel calmer, simpler, less stressful? But psychologically, aging often brings a very different emotional landscape than people expect, because growing older does not only bring wisdom. It also brings awareness. For decades, many adults stay psychologically occupied by constant activity: careers, parenting, responsibilities, schedules, caretaking, deadlines, survival. There is little time to sit still long enough to fully absorb deeper emotional realities. But later in life, the distractions begin falling away, and in that more reflective space, people often become newly aware of questions they once pushed aside.

• Who am I now?
• What still matters to me?
• How much time do I have left?
• What happens if my health changes?
• Who will still be here?
• What happens when roles and identities begin shifting?

These are deeply human questions, but they can also create anxiety, especially when people feel emotionally unprepared for this stage of life.

Does Retirement Itself Cause Anxiety?

It often plays a role. Many people imagine retirement will feel entirely freeing, and for some it does. But for others, retirement removes important structures that once provided identity, purpose, predictability, and social connection. Without those structures, underlying anxiety sometimes becomes more noticeable. There is also the psychological reality that uncertainty tends to increase with age: health concerns become more real, loss becomes more frequent, adult children build lives of their own, social circles sometimes narrow, and the future can begin feeling less predictable. The human mind does not particularly enjoy uncertainty. In many ways, anxiety is often the mind’s attempt to create a sense of control in situations where complete control no longer exists.

Is Increased Anxiety a Sign of Decline?

Not necessarily. That does not mean anxiety should simply be ignored, but it does mean it should be understood with compassion rather than shame. Many highly capable, emotionally strong, intelligent people experience increased anxiety later in life, often privately, and sometimes while appearing completely fine from the outside. If that sounds familiar, you may recognize it in Why Smart People Worry More as They Age, a closer look at how intelligence and overthinking intersect with age.

As people age, they often become more emotionally honest with themselves. The coping mechanisms that once kept uncomfortable feelings buried may no longer work as effectively, and some people become less willing or less able to distract themselves endlessly. Emotional honesty can ultimately lead to tremendous growth, but it can initially increase emotional discomfort, especially anxiety. Anxiety in later life is not always a sign of decline. Sometimes it is a sign that the mind is attempting to recalibrate, to reevaluate priorities, confront reality more directly, seek meaning more honestly, and let go of illusions that no longer fit. That process can feel emotionally disorienting before it begins feeling clarifying.

What Does Emotional Resilience Actually Look Like Later in Life?

Anxiety does not always need to disappear completely in order for people to live meaningful, emotionally rich lives. The goal is not emotional perfection. The goal is resilience: the ability to remain engaged with life despite uncertainty, and to continue finding moments of connection, curiosity, beauty, meaning, and purpose even while recognizing that life contains vulnerability. That is emotional maturity.

Perhaps one of the most reassuring truths about aging is this: many people eventually become less interested in controlling everything and more interested in experiencing life honestly. Less performance, more authenticity. Less proving, more presence. That shift can bring enormous psychological relief. Healthy aging is not about becoming fearless. It is about becoming more emotionally flexible, more self-aware, more grounded, and more compassionate toward yourself and others. Sometimes anxiety itself becomes part of that awakening, not because it is pleasant, but because it asks us to pay attention to what matters most.

Related Reading

• Why Smart People Worry More as They Age
• How to Stay Emotionally Strong During Life’s Biggest Challenges
• The Psychology of Successful Aging
• The Unexpected Grief of Retirement
• The Science of Hope: Why Optimism Matters More Than Ever as We Age

The post Why So Many People Become More Anxious As They Age appeared first on Dr. KarenTurnerPhD.

Why Does Retirement Feel Like Grief Instead of Freedom?

For years, your life had structure. People depended on you. Your schedule mattered, your decisions mattered, your experience mattered. Then one day, often without much ceremony, that scaffolding begins to disappear: the alarm clock is no longer necessary, the emails slow down, the meetings stop, the urgency evaporates.

At first, this can feel deeply relieving. Many retirees are exhausted before they ever leave work, tired of deadlines, office politics, long commutes, and years of carrying responsibility. So retirement initially feels like exhaling. But after the first stretch of relief, another feeling often surfaces: now what? That question can become surprisingly emotional, because retirement is not simply the end of employment. It is the end of a role you inhabited for decades, and roles shape identity far more than most people realize.

What Did Work Actually Give You, Beyond a Paycheck?

For many baby boomers and older adults, work was never just about income. It was routine, competence, social interaction, purpose, momentum, recognition, and connection to the larger world. Even people who did not love their jobs often miss the feeling of participation, the sense that they were still needed somewhere. This is one of the hidden emotional realities of aging: we do not simply need rest, we need meaning, engagement, contribution, and connection to life outside ourselves.

When that structure suddenly disappears, many retirees experience an emotional vacuum no one prepared them for. Some feel restless, others feel anxious, others quietly depressed, and many simply feel untethered. Because retirement is culturally framed as something universally desirable, people often feel guilty admitting any sadness about it. After all, weren’t these supposed to be the golden years? But emotionally, unlimited freedom without direction can become surprisingly disorienting, especially for people whose identities were built around responsibility: the dependable one, the provider, the problem solver, the caretaker, the leader, the helper.

Is It Normal to Question Your Identity After Retiring?

Yes. When those roles diminish, people often begin questioning their value without realizing it. Who am I now? What gives my life shape now? What do my days mean now? These questions are not superficial. They are deeply psychological, and they often emerge more intensely during the first year of retirement.

In many ways, retirement resembles other major life transitions: children leaving home, divorce, relocation, loss. Even positive transitions can create grief, because grief is not only about losing people. It is about losing familiarity, rhythm, identity, and the version of yourself you once understood. Retirement can also expose emotional realities that work once distracted you from: loneliness becomes more noticeable, marital difficulties become harder to avoid, family estrangements feel louder, and health concerns become more emotionally present. Perhaps most powerfully, mortality becomes harder to ignore.

How Can Retirement Become Recalibration Instead of Just Loss?

Work often keeps people psychologically future-focused: goals, projects, deadlines, growth. Retirement shifts that landscape. Time begins feeling more immediate and more finite, which can either deepen anxiety or deepen clarity, sometimes both. Many older adults begin reevaluating everything after retirement: relationships, priorities, friendships, how they want to spend the years ahead. While that reevaluation can feel unsettling, it can also become profoundly liberating, because retirement is not only an ending. It can become a recalibration, not a reinvention: a movement toward greater honesty about what matters now.

Many people spent decades accommodating everyone else: meeting expectations, managing responsibilities, postponing themselves. Retirement sometimes creates the first real opening to ask what actually brings you alive, not what impresses others, not what once defined success, not what was expected. For some retirees, the answer becomes creativity: writing, painting, gardening, music. For others, it becomes relationships: grandchildren, friendships, community, volunteering, mentoring younger generations. Sometimes the goal is not productivity at all. Sometimes it is presence, learning how to inhabit life more fully instead of rushing through it.

What Does Healthy Emotional Retirement Planning Look Like?

We spend enormous time discussing financial retirement planning while almost completely ignoring emotional retirement planning. But emotional preparation matters just as much, because retirement is not merely logistical. It is existential. It asks difficult questions: who are you without your title, your productivity, external validation, or being urgently needed every day? Those questions can feel frightening at first, but they can also become clarifying. Healthy aging is not about remaining endlessly busy. It is about remaining:

• Emotionally engaged rather than simply occupied
• Still curious about what comes next
• Still connected to people and community
• Still participating in your own life

The Takeaway

Many older adults discover that beneath the loss is another possibility: relief from decades of proving, striving, and living entirely according to obligation. There is tremendous freedom in no longer needing to prove yourself endlessly. That shift does not happen automatically, but retirement can create the emotional space for it. The grief is real and should not be minimized. There are genuine losses in growing older. But there are also revelations: a deeper understanding of yourself, a clearer sense of what matters, and a quieter, more grounded relationship with life. Growing older is not simply about what disappears. Sometimes it is about finally seeing yourself clearly after decades of movement, noise, and obligation.

Related Reading

• Why So Many Successful People Feel Lost After Retirement
• What Happy Retirees Do Differently
• How to Find Meaning After Retirement
• Why Your Identity Doesn’t End When Your Career Does
• The Psychology of Regret: Why Your Best Years May Still Be Ahead
• Why Does Time Seem to Move Faster as We Age, and Can We Slow It Down?
• How to Let Go of Regret Later in Life, Without Pretending the Past Did Not Matter

The post The Unexpected Grief of Retirement appeared first on Dr. KarenTurnerPhD.

What Is the 77 and Still Standing Workbook Series?

The 77 and Still Standing Workbook Series is a set of articles and workbook-inspired exercises designed to help baby boomers, seniors, retirees, caregivers, and adults in the second half of life begin recording the stories, reflections, memories, and life lessons that shaped them. It is not a formal autobiography or a perfect historical record. It is something more human than that: a way of saying, “This is who I was. This is what I learned. This is what mattered to me. This is what I hope you carry forward.”

Why Does Recording Your Story Matter So Much Later in Life?

At 77 and Still Standing, we believe recording your story is not simply an act of preserving memories for future generations. It is also an act of reconnecting with yourself. Many adults spend decades moving quickly through life: working, caregiving, managing responsibilities, surviving difficulties, helping others, without fully stopping to reflect on the life they themselves have lived. Your story matters not because it was perfect, but because it was real. Within every real life are experiences, struggles, accomplishments, wisdom, humor, resilience, creativity, and emotional truths that deserve to be remembered.

What Does Research Say About Storytelling and Healthy Aging?

Research on healthy aging consistently shows that emotional engagement, reflection, purpose, cognitive activity, storytelling, social connection, and meaningful participation are strongly associated with emotional wellbeing and resilience later in life. In other words, older adults often thrive emotionally and psychologically when they stay connected to meaning, purpose, memory, creativity, and relationships. That connection can come through conversation, journaling, storytelling, or legacy recording: through remembering parts of ourselves that may have gotten buried beneath years of responsibility and routine.

What Actually Counts as “Legacy”?

Many people assume legacy is only about wealth or achievement. But emotional legacy is often far more powerful, and it tends to be what people remember longest:

• The way you comforted people during hard times
• The traditions you created
• The courage you showed during difficult seasons
• The values you lived by
• The humor that carried your family through hard times
• The kindness you offered, often without being asked
• The strength you did not even realize others were watching

These things remain, and for many families, they become treasures.

The Takeaway

You do not need a perfect memory or a polished writing style to begin. You only need to start: one memory, one lesson, one story at a time. That single act of recording who you were and what mattered to you may become one of the most meaningful gifts you leave behind.

Related Reading

• Your Roots Run Deep: What Microchimerism Teaches Us
• The Psychology of Regret: Why Your Best Years May Still Be Ahead
• Find the Woman Who Refused to Disappear
• The Science of Hope: Why Optimism Matters More Than Ever as We Age
• 77 and Still Standing by Dr. Karen Turner

The post The Stories We Carry Forward: A Legacy Workbook Series appeared first on Dr. KarenTurnerPhD.

A quiet reflection on aging, loneliness, and the need to stay emotionally connected.

The phone rings at six o’clock, and for a brief second, the baby boomer sitting alone in the kitchen feels a small rush of hope. Maybe it’s one of the kids. Maybe someone is calling just to talk. But instead, it is someone selling life insurance, or asking for a political donation, or reminding them their warranty is about to expire. And yet, something surprising happens: they keep talking.

What Are Baby Boomers Really Struggling With as They Age?

That moment says something profound about aging in modern life. Many baby boomers are not simply struggling with growing older. They are struggling with the sudden emotional quiet that can emerge after decades of being deeply woven into everyone else’s daily lives.

For years, they were needed constantly. They packed lunches, solved crises, drove carpools, managed holidays, and held families together emotionally and practically. Life was noisy, demanding, overwhelming sometimes. But full.

Then slowly, almost invisibly, the rhythm changes. Children grow up. Families scatter geographically. People communicate through rushed texts instead of long conversations, and everyone becomes busy surviving their own lives. Many older adults find themselves entering long stretches of silence nobody prepared them for.

How Can Families Stay Emotionally Connected Across Generations?

Families stay emotionally connected by treating ordinary contact, not just big occasions, as the real glue of the relationship. Perhaps the more important question is not simply why the distance happens, but how we prevent it from becoming the emotional norm of later life. This situation is not inevitable. Families can stay emotionally connected across generations, but it requires more intentionality than previous generations perhaps needed: modern life pulls people apart unless someone consciously works to keep connection alive.

Fortunately, meaningful connection is often built through very small things: a five-minute phone call that is not rushed, a random photograph sent during the day, including parents in ordinary life instead of only holidays or emergencies.

Emotional closeness is usually built through ordinary moments: the quick check-in, the funny story, the recipe question, the shared television show, the small ritual that quietly says, “You still belong in my daily life.”

What Can Baby Boomers Do to Bridge the Gap Themselves?

Baby boomers themselves also have an opportunity here. Many older adults were raised to suppress emotional needs, avoid vulnerability, and appear self-sufficient at all times, but emotional distance often grows when nobody speaks honestly. Sometimes adult children genuinely do not realize how disconnected things have become, not because they do not love their parents, but because modern life numbs people into constant distraction.

Warmth invites connection far more effectively than resentment does. There is also something else many baby boomers may need to understand: adult children are often emotionally overwhelmed too. They are juggling careers, marriages, financial stress, parenting, and the nonstop stimulation of modern life, and many feel chronically exhausted themselves. This is not a failure of love. It is often a failure of pace. Everyone is moving too quickly.

Why Does This Conversation Matter So Much?

Because one day, most adult children will likely find themselves sitting exactly where their parents now sit: waiting for the phone to ring, hoping to hear a familiar voice, wanting reassurance that emotional connection still exists across the busyness of life.

The beautiful news is that loneliness is not solved only through more activity. It is solved through genuine emotional presence, and later life still offers enormous opportunities for that. Many baby boomers begin forming deeper friendships than they had earlier in life. Others reconnect with siblings, grandchildren, neighbors, faith communities, creativity, volunteering, or entirely new social circles. Some finally discover relationships based not on responsibility, but on mutual enjoyment and emotional honesty. That may actually be one of the hidden gifts of aging.

Related Reading

• The Hidden Psychology of Loneliness After 60
• Adult Children Pull Away From Aging Parents (And What You Can Do About It)
• What Aging Parents Wish Their Adult Children Knew (But Rarely Say)
• The Loneliness of Being the Strong One
• 77 and Still Standing: Official Book Page

The post What Baby Boomers Wish Their Children Understood appeared first on Dr. KarenTurnerPhD.

Getting your important documents, accounts, and wishes organized is one of the most practical forms of self-care in later life, and it reduces stress for you now and spares your family confusion later. There is a certain kind of relief that comes from putting important things in order. Not because we expect something terrible to happen, but because organized lives create calmer lives, and one of the greatest gifts we can leave our families is not confusion, stress, missing paperwork, or unanswered questions. It is clarity.

Many baby boomers, seniors, retirees, and caregivers quietly worry about these things more than they admit. Where are the passwords? Who has the insurance information? Is there a will? What medications are being taken? What accounts exist? What happens in an emergency? Who knows what matters most?

These conversations are often postponed because people assume they are uncomfortable. But in reality, thoughtful preparation is not morbid. It is responsible, loving, grounding, and emotionally freeing.

At 77 and Still Standing, we believe healthy aging is not only about emotional resilience, cognitive wellness, social connection, and meaningful engagement. It is also about reducing unnecessary stress for ourselves and the people we love. That is part of the purpose behind this workbook-inspired checklist series for seniors, retirees, caregivers, and baby boomers navigating the second half of life, not fear-based preparation, but life organization with intention.

Many adults spend years avoiding organization simply because it feels overwhelming. But once things are written down and organized, many people experience enormous relief: the relief of knowing, “I’ve handled what matters.” Surprisingly, these acts of preparation often create greater emotional freedom to enjoy life more fully.

A Healthy Aging and Life Organization Checklist

Important Legal and Financial Documents

• Will or trust
• Power of attorney
• Health care proxy
• Insurance information
• Banking and investment information
• Long-term care plans
• Important account numbers

Daily Life and Emergency Information

• Password organization
• Emergency contacts
• Medication lists
• Doctor and specialist information
• Copies of identification documents
• Home and vehicle information
• Safe deposit box or key locations

Health and Wellness

• Annual doctor appointments
• Medication reviews
• Exercise and mobility goals
• Hearing and vision care
• Mental wellness support
• Social connection and activities
• Cognitive engagement and brain health activities

Legacy and Personal Wishes

• Family stories and memories
• Letters to loved ones
• Meaningful traditions
• Photos and keepsakes
• Personal reflections and life lessons
• Important wishes and values

Why Does This Kind of Preparation Matter Psychologically?

Research on healthy aging consistently shows that preparation, emotional engagement, organization, social support, and purposeful activity contribute to reduced stress and greater emotional well-being in later life. In other words, emotional clarity matters psychologically. Perhaps one of the most overlooked forms of self-care for older adults is simply making life easier, both for ourselves and for the people we love.

At KarenTurnerPhD.org, we will continue sharing workbook exercises, healthy aging checklists, emotional wellness tools, legacy prompts, brain engagement activities, and practical reflections designed to support seniors, retirees, caregivers, and baby boomers seeking organization, resilience, purpose, and meaningful connection in the second half of life. Because growing older should never mean growing smaller.

Related Reading

• The Stories We Carry Forward
• The Five Pillars of Aging
• What Baby Boomers Wish Their Children Understood
• When Adult Children Become Caregivers
• 77 and Still Standing: Official Book Page

The post What Every Baby Boomer and Senior Should Have in Place appeared first on Dr. KarenTurnerPhD.

Why Is Mahjong Suddenly Popular Again?

Mahjong is experiencing a revival because it offers real engagement in a world starved for it: connection, strategy, and conversation instead of passive scrolling. Across Florida and increasingly across the country, younger adults, couples, families, men, women, and even children are discovering the game. What was once seen as old-fashioned is suddenly becoming modern again.

In a world where so many people feel isolated, overstimulated, or disconnected, Mahjong offers something surprisingly rare: real participation instead of passive entertainment. Conversation. Thinking. Connection. Friendship. Shared experience.

Where Did Mahjong Come From?

The game itself has a rich and beautiful history. Mahjong originated in China during the 19th century and gradually spread throughout the world. Over time, different styles of play evolved, including the American version that became especially popular in Jewish and retirement communities throughout Florida and New York.

But today, Mahjong is evolving again. Younger people are learning from grandparents, friends are creating Mahjong nights, families are teaching children how to play, men are joining games more often, and online Mahjong groups are connecting people across cities and even across countries.

What Makes Mahjong Psychologically Meaningful?

Mahjong is not only a game. It is an experience of staying mentally, emotionally, and socially engaged. The game requires memory, strategy, flexibility, attention, pattern recognition, and adaptation, so your brain stays active. But equally important, your spirit stays connected.

Unlike many activities that separate generations, Mahjong can actually bring them together: a grandmother teaching her granddaughter, a father learning from his mother, friends gathering over coffee, families playing online despite living hundreds of miles apart. In a time when so much interaction has become hurried or superficial, Mahjong creates presence. People sit together, talk together, laugh together, think together, and that matters psychologically more than we sometimes realize.

Research consistently shows that social connection, mental stimulation, and continued engagement are strongly associated with emotional well-being and healthy aging. But perhaps we don’t need research to tell us something we can already feel intuitively: human beings thrive when they stay connected, and Mahjong creates connection beautifully.

Who Can Play?

Mahjong can be played seriously or casually, competitively or socially, as a foursome around a table or even with just two people learning together. There is room for everyone, and maybe that is part of its magic. The game does not care how old you are. It only asks you to participate: to stay curious, to stay engaged, to stay involved with life.

Which, in many ways, may be one of the real secrets of successful aging, not withdrawing from the world, but continuing to sit at the table. Continuing to learn, to laugh, to connect, to challenge your mind, to enjoy yourself.

At KarenTurnerPhD.org, we will continue exploring ways to stay mentally active, emotionally connected, and fully engaged with life, including optical illusions, reflections, brain teasers, and yes, maybe even a little Mahjong. Because growing older should never mean growing smaller.

Related Reading

• Successful Aging: Staying Emotionally Engaged With Life After 60
• How to Stay Mentally Sharp as You Age: 12 Proven Habits
• Aging Is Not a Straight Line: Why a Nimble Mind Matters More Than Ever
• The Hidden Psychology of Loneliness After 60
• 77 and Still Standing: Official Book Page

The post Baby Boomers, Mahjong and the Joy of Active Aging appeared first on Dr. KarenTurnerPhD.

Dependency can be a king pin in an elderly relationship, especially one that has been established for many years. Elderly problems may be experienced by elderly partners both individually and as a couple, as a result of the deep rapport that exists between them.

‘So what is wrong with long term devotion?’ You may well ask. Absolutely nothing is wrong with a long serving and loving relationship that mutually benefits two elderly people. However, extreme dependency can lead to elderly problems in one or both partners as a result of their long term reliance on each other.

In cases where the individuals are of a similar age, elderly problems are likely to be easier to deal with. Where one of the partners is very much older, the younger will often experience enormous pitfalls when trying to adjust to a life without the other in the event of death or serious illness.

Lengthy partnerships or marriages of forty or fifty years are usually deemed to be highly successful, simply by virtue of survival! Some people cannot imagine spending an entire lifetime with one partner. As extremely long partnerships continue into the sixty year bracket, living a single life must be unimaginable for both parties and when it becomes necessary through death or illness, elderly problems result.

In traditional marriages, either the husband or the wife takes responsibility for carrying out tasks such as household accounts, getting the car serviced, making tax returns, and so on. Left to tackle such things alone, a bereaved partner struggles against a mountain of difficulties and related elderly problems that are a direct result of being dependent upon a long term personal relationship.

The solution to such elderly problems is hard to define, as elderly couples often see no reason to change their lifetime habits. Why would they? Gentle encouragement might be shown to exercise a little independence, however, as a safeguard against a lonely and frightening situation to come, where grief and isolation are aggravated by not being able to deal with day to day routines previously handled by a partner now departed.

Elderly couples sometimes share a devotion rarely found in modern relationships and often this devotion itself becomes an emotional support for individuals experiencing elderly problems. While the other partner is safely resident within the relationship, all is well: the loss of this relationship can send a perfectly balanced and grounded elderly person into a tailspin when they are required to survive alone in a world they no longer recognize or feel comfortable in.

Dependency between elderly couples is a plus while both partners are still living and free of elderly problems but a little self sufficiency does not go amiss to allow for future isolation.

This Psychological Article on Dependency Between Elderly Partners is part of Boomer Yearbook’s continuing series of coaching suggestions on how to alleviate elderly problems. We believe knowledge is power. We’d love to hear what you think.

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