When do senior citizens draw upon their inner strength and when do they give up & become weak & helpless?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I have never felt so helpless as I did in my 40's when my late, darling second son was going through some terrible times due to his mental illness. I remember leaving the hospital one day and feeling as though all of my energy was drained out of me and trapped in that place. This is what mental illness in a family will sometimes do to a person. Some professionals advised me to just forget him, but I always wondered what they would do if it was one of their own. Time does not diminish love.

At my age now, if I ever feel this way again, I will know that it is time to give up the ship.

For me, waking up to acknowledge that life changes all the time. I have had all kinds of changes in my life, including growing older. Growing older makes things change. When we acknowledge it and recognize it, then life is easier to embrace. Instead of growing depressed because of changes in our lives. What ALSO helps is recognizing that as we grow OLDER, our metabolism also goes SLOWER. A once-weekly exercise program of weights and aerobics keeps the metabolism UP, so you are healthy, as you grow older. Most old people forget this fact and choose to "grow old gracefully." Which is anything but graceful!!

Whenever it is possible I think that we oldies draw on our inner strength because we have gone through more than young people have gone through (and in harder times). It is experience which makes us what we are.

The time we become weak and helpless is when we actually ARE weak and helpless (which means in times of severe illness when we just cannot function OR when our mind begins to go).

My mind is still active but I've had a few bouts of 'more serious than usual' illnesses in the last few years and I've felt pretty weak and helpless at those times. The 'inner strength' bit just seems to go on strike at such times.

The times when I have needed to draw on that inner strength have usually been connected with serious illness, my own and that of family members. I can think of 3 particular occasions, one involving my son, another my husband and the most recent being myself. I was at my wits end; could not think straight nor was I sleeping well. I am a born-again Christian and without my faith I really don't know how I would have coped. We are all different and do tend to cope somehow, in whatever way that inner strength presents itself.

Speaking for myself, I depend on the Lord. He is my strength. I realize that I am weak and helpless at times but have learned to live with it thanks to my faith. This was also true when I was younger. I trusted in Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior in my late twenties and He has helped me with every trial I have encountered. I have found answers to all of life's problems in His Word (especially the New Testament.) I do not foresee myself as ever "giving up."