Getting Old Without Getting Anxious

by Peter V. Rabins, Lynn Lauber

A guide for older Americans who suffer from late-life anxiety offers advice to patients and caregivers on how to understand age-triggered anxiety, sharing numerous care stories that can help readers to identify specific problems or break free of anxiety-related disorders. 20,000 first printing.

Genres: Psychology, Health

272 pages, Hardcover

First published February 3, 2005

About the author

Peter Rabins has studied, written about, and cared for people with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease for 40 years. He was the founding director of the division of geriatric psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD and the first holder of the Richman Family Chair of Alzheimer’s disease and Related Disorders. He continues to lecture, consult, and conduct research on issues relevant to older individuals with dementia and other psychiatric problems, but also provides legal consultation and maintains an active sculpture studio.

Reviews

[Wren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rabins has been counseling older adults for decades, and he offers a very clear book that outlines a variety of psychological issues that older adults might face: anxiety, depression, OCD, PTSD, and phobias. These are often not recognized in older adults for the following reasons: 1) Some physical ailments include some of the symptoms of psychological troubles. 2) Some medications have side effects that mask or mimic symptoms. 3) Ageist attitudes encourage adult children and even some general physicians to just accept depression, anxiety or phobias as a normal part of aging. 4) Older adults themselves are afraid of reporting symptoms for fear of being declared mentally incompetent or fear of being judged.

The book explains that often treatment can help older adults dramatically improve their quality of life. Treatments discussed include talking therapies, medications, relaxation techniques and lifestyle habits (diet, exercise, socialization, etc.)

Often, older adults have been managing a psychological disorder for decades, but they successfully deal with it until age-related losses make it harder for them to cope. Then their troubles run away from them. After losing a spouse, relocating, retiring or suffering a change in health status, an older adult who could manage OCD or depression or anxiety or PTSD might go through a dramatic personality change.

Just telling them to "snap out of it" will not return them to their former personality. They need professional counseling. Sometimes they think the trouble is physical (tightness in the chest, heart palpitations can look like heart trouble when they are stress related). A professional can help exclude physical problems so that psychological troubles can come into clearer focus.

A good book for adult children to read in order to broaden their understanding of the challenges that face their parents as they age.

[J. Ewbank · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. This book by Peter Rabins about the aging of America and how we as individuals can cope productively with it was a good read. As an older American I was interested in reading it and found a lot of good material in there that was helpful.

J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is by the same author who wrote The 36 Hour Day. He knows the struggles of the senior set and gives very specific details about causes of anxiety and treatments for them. Very encouraging.