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In reply to the discussion: Baby boomers are killing themselves at an alarming rate, raising question: Why? [View all]Butterbean
(1,014 posts)that it is because they are genuinely shocked and angry that their bodies have somehow betrayed them by breaking down and starting to age. My mother is furious, and I do mean furious that she has to take 6 meds for high blood pressure and 1 for cholesterol, when she lived the whole organic gardening/mother earth lifestyle and is a normal weight. She insisted that she simply couldn't have heart blockages because she wasn't fat, her chest pain couldn't have been caused by heart blockages. It took us 2 years of browbeating her to drag her to a cardiologist (kicking and screaming all the way). One cardiac cath later: 10 blockages. Yep.
My dad has parkinson's and rapidly progressing lewy body dementia. My mother is furious (again, I do mean furious) that he has gotten sick and insists that he wouldn't have gotten ill so early if he had remained as active as her during his life. My dad has a strong familial history for parkinsons (his dad and his uncle), and suffered numerous head injuries as a child (child abuse with 2 x 4's). His illness has fuck all to do with his activity level.
My parents are financially secure, and live comfortably, and have friends they see regularly. My mom still works full time for herself as a therapist who owns her own LLC (dad was forced out when he got sick because he let lots of things fall behind). Yet both of my parents are depressed. Mom is more angry than depressed, and dad is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more depressed than angry, yet here they are, both of them, angry and depressed because their bodies did not remain perfect. They are indignant that they did not remain spry and bouncy well into their 90's, as they used to joke about. Getting older wasn't supposed to happen to them.
I've tried and tried and tried and beat my head against a wall trying to get my mom to go to a support group, seek counseling, etc.. Nope. Dad is being started on anti-d's this month by his neurologist.