Throughout life, people must face a great deal of change and loss. Particularly in old age, these are increased, requiring greater psychic effort to prepare them.
Changes and losses can initiate grieving processes for the roles that are lost, for the death of loved ones, saying goodbye to previous life stages, the awareness of one’s own death and/or for what could have been and will never be, this It leads the elderly person to have to mourn their own aging.
Grief is a healthy psychological process, which is set in motion by a loss and is generally accompanied by a state of grief that may or may not be followed by the establishment of new projects and/or relationships. In these situations of loss, the person may find themselves in a state of grief and sadness as a predominant mood that does not necessarily indicate illness.
In a similar way, apathy, disinterest, abulia (lack of will), neglect of personal appearance, psychomotor inhibition, periods of insomnia or hypersomnia, or alterations in eating, can accompany any grieving process in its first stages.
It is important to clarify that the loss can be related to loved ones, but also to material and immaterial objects, such as changes in physical or mental abilities and changes in some vital situations such as: widowhood, changes in the partner, changes in sexuality, retirement, economic changes, losses in sensory and cognitive abilities, concern about changes in body image, fear of hospitalization or institutionalization, fear of illness, disability and death.
To go through a healthy grieving process, it is very important that the elderly person be able to express their pain according to their own customs. When the elderly person is unable to express their suffering, either due to the characteristics of their personality, the demands of their environment, or because they do not want to inconvenience or worry their family environment, their grieving process will be more difficult and could become pathological.
Although the grieving process is expected, sometimes it can become complicated and people may require some type of professional support.
This is why it must be kept in mind that the mode of expression of grief varies according to the characteristics of the person, the sociocultural group to which they belong, and the historical moment.
Intersaberes, Educational Professional Group: Lic. Del Rosso Julieta; Lic. Elissalt, Lucia; Lic. Ferreyra Luisina; Lic. Marchini Amalia; Lic. Torres Marilda.
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