Mental decline? What is normal in old age and what is not...
When thinking and memory become more unclear, fears usually emerge as well. In this section, Alterix takes a closer look at how much mental decline is normal and what medicine knows about it in the first place.
We may be able to smooth or plump up our skin, but unfortunately we cannot rejuvenate our brain so easily. Apart from the super-agers, whose brains do not lose volume, the brain volume of most people decreases from the age of 70 at the latest. Certain brain cells no longer regenerate as they used to. More decisive for this reduction, however, could be that the connections between the nerve cells become thinner and fewer, which has much more to do with the fact that there is no longer enough activity; so to speak, in the truest sense of the word, "retirement" has also set in in the upper brain.
Perhaps this word "retirement" is not a good neologism and suggests to our subconscious something that we don't really want; even if it initially thinks that we don't have to work any more, i.e. that we have peace from earning money and exhausting duties. But our subconscious is very big and registers everything. According to the Eisberg model, about 80 to 90 percent of our thoughts and feelings run in the subconscious. And because this subconscious is so large proportionally, it quickly becomes clear that it has enormous power over us. It is where all our beliefs about ourselves and the world, and most importantly everything we learned as children, reside.
So could our unconscious mind be so influenced by the word retirement that it thinks it can switch back and retire in old age?
Thoughts, opinions & projections on mental decline as well as dementia
A brain in which things are very quiet, i.e. only a few neurons are firing, increasingly degrades. The network of connections becomes thinner. Dr Horst Bickel, a psychologist at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the Technical University of Munich, has extrapolated this process. In his opinion, the risk of developing dementia increases steadily with age. "If we did not die prematurely from other diseases, what would be the cumulative risk of developing dementia?" he asks. "According to the data we have, by about age 88 to 89, about 50 per cent of the population has dementia," he says, and then extrapolates, "If we all lived to be 100, I think it would be 90 per cent."
His conclusion from this is that if we only got old enough, almost all of us would be demented too. Wouldn't that be sad? It should alarm us! If we assume that it is normal to "mentally rest" in old age - that is, to shut down into a mental retirement - then this horror scenario could indeed happen.
However, we dare to think that this extrapolation is a negative socially common belief and set up a new one below. Dr. Bickel also admits that there are at least factors that would increase the risk of mental decline in old age:
- High blood pressure
- Diabetes
- High cholesterol
- Obesity
- Smoking
- Heavy alcohol consumption
On the other hand, he even sees moderate alcohol consumption as risk-reducing, as well as "education", i.e. being mentally active. With this he suggests that the individual lifestyle and attitude to life are decisive and that this "normal mental decline" does not necessarily have to be, i.e. is not so normal.
Processes of change in old age & their causes
"Our brain knows more than we do," is Joachim Markowitsch's opinion on the subject on YouTube. He talks there about the normal ageing processes and emphasises that our brain does not simply forget everything. Rather, everything is actually still there, but we can't access it. It is the access to memory that can be impeded in the meantime, which does not have to do with the shrinking of the brain mass, but with inhibitions. These inhibitions or blockages loosen again in old age, when you actually have nothing left to lose. This is why very old people suddenly remember events from long ago that they had not thought about for decades - both personal and collective-social events.
As discussed above, it is generally considered normal for the number of nerve cells and the brain mass itself to decline to some extent. This results in losses in memory, working memory, speed of information processing, attention and concentration. This degradation does not necessarily lead to dementia. It is much more common for elderly people to be diagnosed with a mild cognitive disorder, somewhere between normal and pathological. So it becomes more difficult for most old people to retain new information. As mentioned elsewhere, however, these deficits can be compensated for quite well. After all, experience is also important, and through this it is possible to develop new strategies for memory training and for building up new cognitive capacities well into old age.
Dismantling beliefs means stopping mental decay
You don't want to wait until you're 100 years old to remember everything again, but want to create a good flow in your brain now and become a super-ager? So if it's inhibitions and blockages that make it difficult to remember or access stored information, it's worthwhile to start breaking them down as early as possible. Actually, we should learn this in school.
First you have to become aware of what is blocking you!
One approach would be to stop for a moment whenever an unpleasant emotional situation overtakes you and you react in a certain pattern; for example, with an outburst of anger or withdrawal, depending on the type. It can also be irritability, nervousness, restlessness, addictive behaviour, constant chatter or anything else. Then ask yourself: What would I have to feel now if I didn't act like this? And then feel it. In this way, something old can dissolve.
Another possibility would be to look at the situations and areas of life where things are not going so well. What secret thoughts have you developed about this in the meantime? What comes to your mind could be your old beliefs that are reinforced with every similar experience. These beliefs now prevent you from developing your potential and have a way of keeping your focus very narrow. When a narrow focus is on unpleasant things, stress is reactivated in the body-mind system. There they are again, the thought and memory blocks: Our body, which is very strongly connected to the unconscious, is used to focusing primarily on fear and negativity, for millions of years now, in order to flee or fight in an emergency. A question of survival... Our bodies demand fear and stress because they are so used to it. But it is not good for them. Today we have hardly any enemies, except ourselves, and can live longer and happier if we choose to.
