How can you tell if your elderly family member might be battling anxiety? Sometimes your senior may not even realize that she’s anxious a lot more than she used to be. If you’re not sure what all is going on with her daily life, senior home care can help you to get a clearer picture of what your aging adult is experiencing daily.

Being More Irritable than Usual

There are a lot of different reasons that your elderly family member might be more irritable than usual, and they can range from health issues to so much more. What matters is that you talk to your senior when you notice that she’s a little more irritable than you’re used to seeing her be. If you can get to the cause, whether it’s a specific situation or something else, that can help you to alleviate what’s making her feel out of sorts. When the cause is anxiety, you want to get to the bottom of what’s contributing to that feeling of being anxious.

Worrying More about Daily Things

Lots of people worry over aspects of daily life. In fact, that’s common for people of all ages. If your elderly family member is showing signs that she’s starting to obsess more about daily concerns, that can be a sign that she’s experiencing a lot more anxiety than usual. Some of the daily worries might be little ones, like whether the doors are locked or if she turned the stove off. Others might be bigger, like worrying that there will be a natural disaster and what might happen if it occurs. If this is new for your elderly family member, you may want to talk with her about what caused these worries to grow.

Behavioral Changes that Are Out of Character

Sometimes anxiety makes your elderly family member change habits or behaviors, occasionally without her realizing it. She might start to have trouble staying asleep at night, for instance. This can cause her to be awake for big chunks of the overnight hours when most people are asleep. Or your elderly family member might start having trouble controlling her appetite, eating too much or too little. These changes can seem small or temporary, but if they’re driven by anxiety, those new habits can be detrimental to your elderly family member’s overall well-being.

Withdrawing and Staying at Home a Lot More than Usual

Your elderly family member’s anxiety may also cause her to withdraw socially. She may find that she rarely wants to leave her home at all and if something does require her to leave, she might experience anxiety that she recognizes. In order to keep those anxious feelings under wraps, she could be withdrawing even more to avoid dealing with the underlying problem.

It’s important that your elderly family member is able to have a safe and happy life on her own terms, and that means getting to the bottom of what’s causing her anxiety. Senior home care professionals can do a lot to help your senior to be safer at home, which can be a big underlying trigger for anxious feelings. Home care can help with anxiety in other ways, too, especially if your elderly family member is finding it more challenging to keep up with daily tasks.

Source
https://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/what-to-know-about-anxiety-in-older-adults

If you or an aging loved one is considering senior home care in Brooklyn Park, MN, and the surrounding areas, please contact the friendly staff at CareBuilders at Home Minnesota. Call today 612-260-2273.