Conquering Depression in the Golden Years

Last year, I received a call coming from my mom, telling that my aunt is having a mental health problem. My mom told me that, my aunt was diagnosed of having a bipolar disorder or also called manic-depression. I felt sad about it.

Bipolar disorder is thought to be less common than other depressive disorders wherein a person are troubled by cycling mood swings- usually severe highs (mania) and lows (depression). The mood swing are sometimes dramatic and rapid but usually are more gradual.

My aunt usually suffers from manic stage wherein sometimes she acts like a child, overactive, over talkative and have a great deal of energy. Once my aunt feels that she is acting differently from the normal behavior she have, she is taking immediately a medicine that was prescribed by her doctor to make her calm.

When I learned about it, I asked myself why she got this problem since before when she is still in her younger years she never experienced this kind of mental health disorder. Maybe the reason is that, it's not easy looking after the children alone (my uncle is a seaman) especially if they are growing. Maybe, my aunt is suffering a lot of problems wherein she is just keeping it alone. Maybe she suffered too much, when my cousin (my aunt's son) undergone a head operation twice because of motorcycle accidents. Maybe these are the reasons.

And I'm happy because I found a book entitled Conquering Depression in the Golden Years which is very powerful and extremely useful on how to fight depression especially to the elderly. This book written by Valentin Bragin, M.D., Ph.D , provides information about the symptoms of illness in the elderly, details brain and body involvement in depression and describes his programs of proven techniques. All of these information can be found in Conquering Depression in the Golden Years - Innovative Strategy to Fight Depression: Sensory Activities, Attention and Memory Training book.