Issues Affecting Life in Late Adulthood
By: Andrew • Essay • 1,066 Words • January 3, 2010 • 1,580 Views
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Reaching the stage of late adulthood is a stage in life that individuals hope to be able to reach. Life starts from the first moment of conception and goes on until we all reach our destination stage of death. Individuals all deal with life in many different ways. An adult that has gone through life completing most of all tasks that he/she wanted to complete can go into the stage of late adulthood generally happy.
When individuals reach late adulthood many of them are able to retire and live life happy having more time for family, friends, and all loved ones. In some cases certain individuals do not wish to retire, he/she believes that they can continue to work and keep active in the workforce which is absolutely fine. In other cases some individuals who are reaching the higher ages do not have a choice rather or not if they want to retire. The biological clock for some does not allow their mind, body or soul to continue to work and continue their lives as they once did.
The biological clock of human bodies is one thing that we as humans may be able to slow down by taking good care of our selves and staying as healthy as we can but the clock still ticks and moves forward eventually. As the body begins to age, many parts begin to be affected. The nervous system of the body begins to affect our complex thoughts and activities. Individual's memory is less than it used to be, each person is affected in different ways and it normally starts around the age of 60 and over. The sensory system is another part of the body that begins to be affected. Individuals hearing and seeing can become less as they reach the older ages, even taste and smell can change for some individuals. One of the main parts of the human body that begin to change as we age is the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. These systems actually begin to change as we reach young to middle adulthood and how well we take care of them will help determine how much they really change in late adulthood.
Over all the body and all functions of the body begin to change as we age. The physical appearance changes along with our mobility. An individual that diets right and keeps their self in good physical shape can help slow down the process of change in the older ages. Exercise and diet are two of the most crucial aspects of life, if one wishes to live life as long as possible.
Late adulthood can be the best part of ones life or it can turn out to be a hard time in ones life. The onset of diseases that can take the life of loved ones is not something that many have a choice in. The body mind and soul get tired and run down and the immune system can not fight off bad things like it used to. Many individuals in the late sage of life also can get very lonely and depressed, not being able to keep up with family and friends all of the time they can seem to get left out. In this case many of the elders will go out and do voluntary work, to help keep them active and keep their social lives alive.
By the time an individual reaches the late stage of life, most are comfortable with the fact of dying. If an individual was brought up in a life style where it was okay to talk about death and they were a little more familiar with death then it can make it easier for them to cope with death as they age. In many cases older people have reached