Loneliness in old age

Status
Not open for further replies.
D

daisie13

New Member
Hi, I know I am supposed to introduce myself here, but I just have a question for the forum that I want to ask

Does anyone find that they are getting lonely in their age? Is it affecting your health at all, and why do you feel lonely?
 

I dunno how to answer that. I've never lived alone in my life and I don't feel I would ever want to. Always had parents, boyfriends, husbands, kids, room mates, furry creatures...I treasure my brief moments of solitude.
 
Yes Daisey---I am 82, single. live alone & find myself being lonely much of the time despite having a daughter, married grand children all within 15 minutes of where I live. They have very busy lives and I certainly understand that. I have also reached the age of having outlived many of my old friends & colleagues. My profound & not correctable hearing loss has made social intercourse with new friendships most difficult. However, I consider myself most fortunate in still being able to walk up right, no real pain or discomfort, no financial worries & enjoy reading, writing, watching Closed Caption Films on Netflix, spending time harassing people on Internet Forums.
 

Hi Daisey!

I live alone and have no friends or relatives that live near me.

I never get lonely but I do get bored.

My main concern as I get older is the lack of a support group. I'm fine living alone as long as I can get around and fend for myself. It would be nice to have a few people that could form a sort of mutual aid group to help each other with rides to medical appointments, grocery shopping, etc... I will keep on truckin' for as long as I can and then most likely buy my way into an old folks home.

Good luck and welcome!
 
Oh, heck yes! I live in a granny flat attached to my daughter's/son-in-law's house, but they have teen kids and their own lives. My son lives 30 miles away...getting there means 20 miles of that distance on the interstate. He lives in town so no need for a car so it'me doing the driving. He also has his own life, yanno? I know a lot of people but they are friendly acquaintances, more than friends.

Nice thing about forums is that you can make "friends" with a lot of folks even if you can't visit IRL! Nice to be on a forum with others who are older, too, so that we know we're going to find somebody else with the same interests.
 
Welcome Daisie! Keeping busy is the key of not feeling lonely! And keeping in touch with people, even if it is online. We may not know each other in "real" life but we make a connection through the forum. I hope you have found a "home" here. Lots of great people on here.
 
Hi and welcome Daisie! Yes, I get lonely. I am not as lonely, though since I got my dog almost 4 years ago. Yet, I do require human interaction. This forum helps with loneliness, too, and there are lots of nice people here who are thoughtful, knowledgeable and sometimes funny, too!
 
Welcome Daisie, and I hope you'll jump right into posting in the forums. One thing that's quite fun here is to play some of the games. Take a look and see if there's any that interest you. Hope to see you around!
 
daisie13 said:
Hi, I know I am supposed to introduce myself here, but I just have a question for the forum that I want to ask

Does anyone find that they are getting lonely in their age? Is it affecting your health at all, and why do you feel lonely?
Click to expand...

Daisie - Aloha & E Komo Mai (Welcome) from the Big Island of Hawaii. I live alone here in a very remote part of Hawaii. My only companion now is my late wife's little yapper, Hoot. But I seldom feel lonely. As others have mentioned, I use the internet to keep connected to my son and a lot of friends, both old and new. I do get bored but I can deal with that. And if I do start to feel sorry for myself I just call my Mother (she's 93) and she will set me straight.
 
Welcome Daisie! I haven't felt lonely in my old age yet, thankfully I still have my loving husband of 40 years to share my days with me and two wonderful furkids that amuse me all the time.
 
Hello from New Jersey. To answer your question, I get very lonely for the people who were a big part of my life and have passed on. There was always a special relationship with them that other people no matter how close can fill. On a day to day basis, there are never enough hours in the day and I am never bored. I putter around constantly, OCD does have its benefits, read, have my coloring books, the computer,cooking and trying new recipes, my garden in summer and my photos which I am constantly arranging and rearranging.
 
Welcome from Oregon. Yes, I'm lonely - for those of like mind. Sure there are friendly folks and some I call friend, but how often do we find someone that we can relate to deeply? Every time I think I've found it, something happens, and I discover the closeness I thought was there was illusion or wishful thinking. For me, it's been a lifelong thing. Old age just makes it more apparent. I write books and function as my own therapist in those books. I paint. I play with the deer and wild turkey. I generally feel best when I connect to animals. They have no artificial agendas.
 
Welcome from Tennessee. You don't have to live alone to be lonely. My husband and I relocated here for work in 2007. When we moved here, I didn't know anyone and couldn't find a job. Husband was working long hours and exhausted when he was home. As 2008 progressed, finding a job became impossible so even though I was in the middle of a nice neighborhood and there are lots of shops in town, I didn't know anyone. Found myself having long conversations with the produce managed at the supermarket - oh boy!

Then, a friend of mine in another state said she knew someone in Tennessee - which is a pretty big state, so I was skeptical. Turned out this woman was less than a mile away and very involved in the Embroiderer's Guild. I've done a lot of needlework and sewing along the way so I got in touch. Then Ravelry came online and I looked up fellow knitters and fiber people in my town and reached out to the one who seemed to have the most in common with me. That led to the area Fiber Arts Guild and between the two groups I was suddenly too busy to work! Recently, I have had to scale back so I can get some of my projects done and work on the down-sizing as we get ready to move again. This time we'll arrive more prepared!
 
Yes, it's nice to find people we have something in common with, and to start doing those things. But as we age and our bodies take more and more maintenance, it's just tiring to reach out to others. And once a person find one's self alone due to the losses of those we cared about most, then it becomes a Herculean task to try to find others to do things with. The discouragement becomes overwhelming. I've seen that happen to so many especially when a person reaches the 80s. I watched this happen to my mom. She physically felt so crumby and had so little energy, that she sat alone a lot. Plus she was shy and had always been so, so that got in the way.
 
daisie13 said:
hi, i know i am supposed to introduce myself here, but i just have a question for the forum that i want to ask

does anyone find that they are getting lonely in their age? Is it affecting your health at all, and why do you feel lonely?
Click to expand...


yes!
 

Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top