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Are Stress, Memory Loss and Senior Moments Just Part of Life For the Over 50s?

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Are Stress, Memory Loss and Senior Moments Just Part of Life For the Over 50s?

By Christina Vickery


How can I get help? you are probably asking. Do you feel memory loss or senior moments are getting out of hand?

You would probably be very surprised how many people feel just like you do, every day. These are all questions we may be asking ourselves frequently as we age.

The good news is that if you actually share your concerns with your friends and family, you will probably find that their experiences are also quite like yours and more good news is that with a little bit of work you can help to improve, not only your mental capabilities, but also your social status.

What do I mean?

If your memory is now less like a filing cabinet and more like a sieve then you know what I mean. You may find you are having to re-read articles or work documents for them to sink in. Does this sound familiar.

There are two means in which to help yourself. One involves taking care of your physical body and the other involves using others to help you feel better about yourself.

The brain is a large muscle and in the simplest terms if we look after it through exercise and stimulation then we can help to keep it fit and maintained.

Before you search for brain trainers on the web, what I mean is with a few little daily exercises we can keep our brains up to scratch. How can you help yourself. Try at least 4 of the following each day.

  • Try to complete a name puzzle, Sudoko or other brain teaser daily
  • Number things you want to remember. If you need bread, butter and cheese at the shops remember that you must buy at least 3 things and keep repeating them until you have got them.
  • Word associate - your colleague called Fred Smith whose name you keep forgetting can become Furry Socks - same initial, and the titter you have over Furry Socks should make you remember Fred Smith - try not to say it out loud - it won't gain you a friend.
  • Check your credit card or supermarket bill. This could even save you money if you find an error! Add it up without a calculator - after a couple of weeks you will find you are getting quite good at it.
  • Set yourself a small task e.g. learn your PIN numbers instead of going to your hidden prompt for them. You will feel a great sense of achievement as they come to mind.

The next thing to do is to tell others how you feel. As I have said, we are all feeling pretty much the same. Where I work we have introduced a dementia corner. As many of us are over 50 we find it reassuring to pop into the corner (just a small area of the office) and say we've forgotten something. It usually prompts a laugh from the rest of us and so far each of us has used it. The youngest to go into the corner so far has been 23 yrs old. The funniest visitor has been a 30 yr old who when he got to the corner couldn't remember why he was there.

So you see we have shared our deepest concerns in quite a daft and superficial way, but we have gained from it by feeling understood and also by sharing our worries of whether we are going mad. Work can at times be mind bogglingly boring and doesn't stimulate our minds, combined with perhaps a lack of fresh air and a stuffy environment no wonder we feel we may be losing it.

Don't worry, take heart from your friends and colleagues and keep on building and strengthening that grey matter.

An important point to remember about stress and its side effects is that the more stressed and anxious we become the harder it is to remain rational - whatever age we are.

I hope the lighthearted suggestions above can help you. I go into more detail of stress and memory loss and senior moments on my website. I'd love you to visit it and pick up more tips and gain more support.

I know we can often feel quite isolated if we think we are experiencing something others can\'t possibly be feeling. Believe me we all have senior moments no matter what age - perhaps it\'s something we are eating in this day and age? or perhaps it\'s just life!

By sharing our thoughts and concerns with others we can always gain help and support.

My website is based on many of my own fears, anxieties and experiences. I always try to use a little bit of lightheartedness to solve our issues and I really do believe that we will help each other if we learn to share and trust.

You can find it at http://www.stress-anxieties-solutions.com

There are lots of helpful tips and many useful links. I hope you can pick up some helpful hints in how to cope with life today and that by sharing with others your problems may not be as awful as you had thought.

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