How to Help Your Elderly Parents Overcome Anxiety About Aging

Anxiety and depression are significant issues that can affect people of all ages. But even more so for elderly parents who often worry about their children’s caregiving abilities. This post will provide helpful tips to help you be proactive in your helping your parents overcome anxiety about aging.

Essential Tips in Helping Your Elderly Parents Overcome Anxiety About Aging

1. Help your parents to be proactive in their caregiving efforts.  

While your parents may not realize it, being too passive in their duties result in becoming less active while remaining anxious. Actively encourage your parents to help out.  They will feel better about themselves and will be able to function better once they are contributing a bit more.  Try natural ways to help your parents spread the load.  For example –my dad thinks that he would feel better if he cut his grass. So I could point out that I liked how his grass looked after it was mowed.  He loved the idea and is now mowing our lawn regularly.

2. Help your parents make a list of their health needs and discuss it with them in terms they can understand.  

Explain to them that frequently worries over health issues can cause anxiety and start keeping a list of their concerns.  As you see the list grow, you should see some more significant problems in a more manageable perspective. 

3. Encourage your parents to actively think about ways they can improve their level of activity

Please encourage them to make a list of things they can do every day to help them feel like doing something every day.  It may not seem like an “action” at first. But setting goals for yourself and taking action when it’s time is a proven way to address anxiety.

4. Help your parents find alternatives to their current ways of acting out or dealing with anxiety. 

For example, you may have your parents drive to the store instead of using public transportation.  Or you may be able to suggest to them that they use a “walker” instead of committing to taking too many stairs.  If your parents are concerned about safety, encourage them to take some time each day and make the house a safer environment for them by doing basic care tasks. 

5. Take an interest in your parents’ health and what they are doing for their health maintenance.  

You may help by shopping for food for the week or making sure that they have medication on hand.  If your parents are concerned about the weather, this is an excellent time of year to encourage walking in the sunshine to ward off seasonal depression.

6. Help your parents make an action plan for reducing their anxieties and how you can help them with this plan.

The best way to reduce your parents’ anxieties is to come up with an action plan. Then go about actually implementing it. This could entail anything from setting up a weekly family meeting where everyone can talk through their troubles, to going on a family vacation where you are all having fun and spending time together.

7. Ask your parent’s doctor about the best way of helping your parents cope with their anxieties. 

It may involve a change in medication or simply having a chat with your parent’s doctor. You can also ask that your parent’s doctor become more active than usual with your parent since many adults are reluctant to tell their doctor what they can’t do.

8. Encourage your parents to think about making them anxious and help them find ways to improve their situation.  

For example, if they are concerned about the weather, encourage them to take an umbrella with them when they take out their trash for the day.  If they are worried about how they look, you may be able to help by suggesting a trip to the hair salon.

9. Understand that we all have a limit on what we can handle at one time, so help your parents prioritize their concerns and actions.  

For example, maybe you can help your parents create a list of things that will cause the most anxiety about aging if not handled immediately and something that will cause the least amount of pressure if deferred until later in the week.  You may also be able to create a schedule of sorts according to those concerns.

10. Recognize that your parent’s anxiety may not be something that can be fixed in the long-term, so help them to reduce their anxieties and allow for further success. 

If your parents are concerned about their health, there is no use in addressing their concerns. If you don’t know what is causing them.  You may also be able to help by suggesting some things that will help them to feel better.

11. Try making your parent’s life a little easier.  

If their anxiety is about the weather, suggest that they give themselves a leeway and not do everything during the hottest part of the day. Instead do them in the morning or later in the day when it is cooler.  Also, try pointing out that by having a list of things to do each day, that they are helping themselves feel less anxious about time running out.

12. Ensure your parent’s doctor knows how their acting out affects you and other family members.  

Talk to him/her about the importance of trying a different medication or a combination of drugs to help ease your parent’s anxieties.  In some cases, this may be something that your parent’s doctor will need to discuss with your parents.

As we get older, we will always have feelings of worry for the future.  However, teaching your parents how to recognize when their anxieties are getting the better of them. Encouraging them to address these concerns can make a world of difference in their quality of life.  You can also be there as a support person if they need to talk about their anxieties or other issues.  It will help you too since you will be caring for your parents because they do not have the capacity as they get older.

If you have other tips to share on how we can better help our elderly parents overcome anxiety about aging, please leave a comment below.