Depression caused by The Process of Aging

by Haridas Chaudhuri

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Depression hits many people in their middle age. For women, the forties, and for men, the fifties, ar a very critical period. This is the time when some radical changes take place in the endocrine gland system. People become aware of their diminishing physical power and of reduced opporutnity for winning love. Some people react to these symptoms of the aging process with panic and depression. In acute form such depression is known in psychiatry as involutional melancholia.

Middle age is also the time when people begin to be concerned in a greater or lesser measure with the hereafter. The problem of death and the mystery of the beyond begin every now and then to haunt the mind. In consequence religious needs and philosophical impulses begin to be awakened. If there is nothing but confusion in the mind about these ultimate issues, depression may open its abysmal depths.

Another potent cause of middle age depression is the absence of a balanced ideal of life. People who have been extremely hedonistic or epicurean in their style of living become panicky in middle age. As soon as they feel that their youth is slipping and that the ability to enjoy life has declined, they experience the terror of death. Life loses its meaning. Then again, people who have been too self-effacing and socially oriented in youth suddenly wake up one day in old age to experience their diminished social usefulness. Children perhaps don't need them so much any more. New jobs don't come to them any more. New generations do not covet their company much. They are not flexible enough to make new social adjustments. They cannot keep pace any more with every-changing patterns in the fields of fashion and in the realm of ideas. Every now and then they are reminded that they are old-fashioned, out of tune with the times. As soon as they are relegated to the back seat by society, they begin to experience disillusionment. There is no nucleus of self-sufficiency on which they can fall back. It is also likely that at this time they experience a new upsurge of self-interest and egoistic motive. Those who are brought up to look upon the urge of self-interest as an evil, become emotionally upset on discovering within them something of the devil of an ego. In consequence, they sink into depression with strong feelings of self-condemnation.

It is good to remember that age is a characteristic more of the body than of the spirit. A person is as young as he feels. Perpetual freshnaess is an essential characteristic of the spirit. With proper spiritual training a person can develop qualities of mental mobility and flexibility, and maintain them all his life. Flexibility is youth and freedom. The strength that is born of flexibility can overcome the disadvantage of declining physical powers. By keeping abreast of the latest developments in hygience, dietetics, and medical science, one can also arrest the degenerative process considerably. One can form new habits conducive to prolonged health and longevity.

As has been seen, depression is often the result of a one-sided and unbalanced life plan. Pleasure, joy, happiness - these are an essential component of life. The joy of living is a sign of health. It is therefore foolish to associate evil with such innocent pleasures of life as good food, comfort, conjugal love, sports, fine arts, entertainment. But it is also foolish to overstress the epicurean pursuits of life and ignore such other values as selfless social service, self-sacrifice for the good of humanity, hardship and discipline in the quest of truth and God. It is in the interest of higher self-development that selfishness and egotism should be denounced. But at the same time it is also in the best interests of society that every individual should be true to himself and concentrate on the constructive development of his own potential. It is by developing oneself to the height of one's possibility that one can serve society best. So it is foolish to assoicate evil with self-concern. However much one may go out in the service of society, one must also have a firm basis of self-sufficiency within oneself. Spiritual unfoldment can strengthen the feeling of self-suffieicieny consonantly with the spirit of self-giving. The feeling of freedom and self-sufficiency is at its strongest when the individual discovers his rootedness in the eternal.

- excerpt from
Mastering the Problems of Living
by Haridas Chaudhuri

Talk about it:
info@livereal.com

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