Question

Please provide a 250-word response to the following question:

Aging is a delicate process that all human beings will eventually go through if they have a long life. As a society, we are living through the Coronavirus and its impact. What are your thoughts regarding the aging process affecting the mind and body. Please provide at least three reasons that clearly support your point of view.

Answer 1

As a person would be getting older, there are a number of changes that would be taking place in their body and their mind. These changes, are physically visible, but the mental changes are not visible. Only after certain major events happen, does the person realize that their mental schema is different from what it might have been a few years back.

in situations such as that of coronavirus and the major lockdown or quarantine period that we have witnessed globally, such mental changes have become far more evident. The changes that could be viewed in an aging person are as follows:

- increased anxiety and increased paranoia. Though, mental health problems are being diagnosed even in the people of younger age, it has been increasingly viewed that the older people are more affected by the pandemic. Some have either given up for their lives, thinking that this is how it might end, while some are on the other end of the spectrum. They are increasingly conscious about their well being, too much at that. They are highly conscious of any material coming to their vicinity so that they might not catch the infection. This is much more than just safety. It is more towards the anxiety spectrum.

- decease in immunity and healing powers of the body also becomes a reality with aging. It becomes hard to ignore that the older population is far more vulnerable than the younger population when it comes to any disease, morbid or co morbid in nature. This vulnerability also adds a dimension of vulnerability to their mind, making them extra cautious.

- increased sense of belongingness: however aloof the person might have had been before , after a certain age they want to stay closer to their family, in the form of a tight knot. They want to keep everyone close. The sense of family is multifold as the person ages.