In many cases, anxiety is a normal response to stress. The feeling of elevated alertness is a part of the body’s fight or flight response, which helps us to quickly assess and react to high stakes and dangerous situations. When this response is triggered only situationally, in appropriate conditions, anxiety is otherwise normal and healthy. But for some people, the response is triggered by inappropriate situations that do not actually pose any sort of threat. When anxiety becomes a near constant concern, to the point where life becomes centered around managing fears, worries, and it negatively affects daily life and activities, then it becomes a serious mental health condition.

While some amount of forgetfulness and mental stumbling is normal with the aging process, it should only be occasional and minor, never causing major problems or seriously interfering with a senior’s quality of life. Forgetting someone’s name, failing to recall if you locked the door or not, and losing your keys are all normal lapses of memory that happen to everyone from time to time. However, more serious lapses like forgetting the way home, being unable to remember how a telephone works, or walking into a store and then suddenly not knowing where you are all probably point to an underlying neurological problem, such as Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia.

The holidays are a joyous and celebratory time of the year, with lots of cheer, family fun, and plenty of activity to keep busy. But for many people, the end of the holidays can be a dark, lonely and depressing time. As many as 64% of people have reported feeling what can be described as the post-holiday blues. Oftentimes, the exhilarating feeling of stress, thrill, and excitement from the holidays can translate to a period of feeling sad, tired, and depressed once that excitement is no longer present.