How senior living prevents the ill effects of boredom in senior citizens.

Senior living is all about creating fulfilling and rewarding lifestyles for retired individuals and senior citizens. Retirement is a beautiful era in every person’s life, but many individuals experience boredom resulting from a lack of activity. This sedentary lifestyle is not only an unfulfilling way to spend retirement, but it’s also an unhealthy way to live.

The mental and physical health of an individual are two closely related attributes.

If you are emotionally unhealthy it will be detrimental to your physical health. Recently it has been found by studies that boredom is a major cause of anxiety and depression. When this occurs in older adults, their physical health may decline, and their state of mind will become negative and cause them to question their purpose and self-worth. This can happen to anyone, but it is particularly prevalent in senior citizens during their retirement.

Retirement is a much anticipated period of every person’s life, but the difficulty of transitioning from a work oriented lifestyle to a senior lifestyle is a challenge that surprises most people.

Without regular activities people become bored, unstimulated, and they begin to experience the problems that have been described. Experts say that men are more inclined to suffer from depression during retirement as their identity is more frequently tied to their career than women. However this does not mean that senior women do not suffer from depression after their retirement. According to the chief public health officer’s report on the state of public health in Canada, men aged 85 and above are the group with the most severe and dramatic forms of depression.

In the late 1980’s, more than 7500 civil servants, aged 35-55, were interviewed regarding the levels of boredom they were experiencing by researchers from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College, London.

There was a follow up on these civil servants 25 years later and it was found that those who stated that they were bored were more likely to experience poor physical and mental health. It was also revealed that those who experienced high levels of boredom were more than two and a half times likely to experience heart disease and stroke than those who were not. Mitch Anthony, the author of “The New Retirementality” states that when the occupation of work is removed following retirement, your leisure becomes the work, and this sensation is the root of most boredom and depression in seniors.

The solution to this problem is for seniors to reinvent their lifestyles during retirement to create positivity and liveliness in their lives.

This is the core principle of senior living. Modern senior living creates communities of seniors designed to provide healthy, active, interesting retirement experiences. Group activities, hobbies, events, and other socializing opportunities genuinely enhance the retirement experience for older adults, so that they can enjoy a fulfilling retirement. Retirement is an opportunity to explore culture, arts, history, and dig deep into activities or subjects that a person may not have had time to invest in during their working careers.

Communities like Garden of Palms in Los Angeles also provide assisted living services so that each individual can focus on their lifestyle and the activities they enjoy, and as a person develops a need for more assistance, care is provided to them in a way that is personalized to them without interfering with the senior lifestyle they enjoy.

We welcome you to visit our community in Los Angeles to explore our residences, amenities, and staff, and discover how we can provide your family with a luxury senior living experience in the heart of Los Angeles.

References

Chapter 3: The Chief Public Health Officer's Report on The State of Public Health in Canada 2010 – The health and well-being of Canadian seniors - Canada.ca. [Accessed 7 Oct. 2017]. Available at: https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/corporate/publications/chief-public-health-officer-reports-state-public-health-canada/annual-report-on-state-public-health-canada-2010/chapter-3.html

The Globe and Mail. (2017). Men vulnerable to boredom, depression in retirement. [Accessed 7 Oct. 2017.] Available at: https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/retirement/retire-health/men-vulnerable-to-boredom-depression-in-retirement/article27490557/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&

Mail Online. (2017). You really can be bored to death, scientists discover. [Accessed 7 Oct. 2017]. Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1249073/You-really-bored-death-scientists-discover.html