Is this any different than when younger people do it? What causes people to do one or the other? Please give some specific examples.
These are all quality answers, among the best that I have ever seen on Y!A. My deepest thanks to everyone. I'm glad I asked it.
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Favorite Answer
I think anybody who is in crisis situation can rise to the occasion, young or old. I am in poor health and with COPD, have a difficult time breathing. I hate driving, and I'm pretty much of a homebody. But when my husband broke his leg so badly late last fall, I HAD to step up. Two hour drives to and from the hospital daily for seven days, sometimes in bad snow and ice, the day-long visits way outside my comfort zone. Then, when he finally came home, the thrice weekly drives into town for PT, running errands for meds and groceries, multiple doctor visits, shoveling the porch and paths to the meter and trash and propane pig, clearing snow off the car, etc. Luckily, I was able to hire people to shovel the drive His daily care was difficult, too, but that I didn't mind at all, because he would do the same for me in a heartbeat. I'm glad it's over now. He can walk on a cane and has taken over all those duties again. Me? I'm back to my slovenly ways, but I think I deserve it for a while, LOL. Housekeeping, cooking, laundry - a piece of cake!
When my first grandson was a toddler, he got his hand slammed in a car door, which nearly severed his ring finger and pinkie. My daughter said that she and her husband were cool, calm and collected throughout the whole experience of shock, then getting him to the ER (calmly comforting him all the way) and waiting through the surgery. But after they got home, they simply collapsed. They were in their early 20s at the time. I know what that feels like. The adrenaline only holds out for so long.
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I've given up (weak and helpless) once or twice in my life, but that didn't last long before I pulled myself together and fought back. I come from strong stock as it's called. Russian and Polish immigrants wanting a better life for their offspring.
Anyone who has read some of my answers knows that I spent much of my childhood in hospital because I was a rhesus baby, born without any red blood cells. I also had juvenile rheumatoid arthritis; which put me back in hospital lots of times. My parents always pushed me to walk one more step and that's what has got me this far, 71. I may be weak in body but I have a great brain, i.e. intelligence. That's also got me to where I am today.
Snid
From a personal perspective it's not any different than when I was younger. Finding the strength to deal with life's problem's is hard no matter how old you are. The difference is the problems.
sophieb
I think people give up when they're overly tired. Could be tired from their body being weak, could be because they can't do anything at all that they love to do.could be because they began feeling they were a burden or even that coupled with bills too high and they can't imagine how they will continue to survive or can't make the contacts to survive and then their spirit gives up. Even in younger people though once you give in to those thoughts for some reason you can't reverse them.
Anonymous
The way one behaves depends upon ones character, not age. Some people are always weak, or lazy, because they have learned that if they act weak someone else sorts out the problem. The rest of us get on with life. S*** happens and we deal with it. Age is irrelevant.