How to Help a Mom Through Postpartum Depression

As a psychotherapist who does counseling with new mothers, when I ask a client how she’s doing, I’m hoping to hear some version of, “I’m tired, but it’s an amazing experience” or “Being a mom is awesome.” But, sometimes instead I hear something like, “… Continue reading

HIV/AIDS’ Effect on Aging: Still Unclear

(Editor’s note: This story is part of Still Here, Still Positive: a series on the first generation of Americans aging with HIV/AIDS, with support from The John A. Hartford Foundation.) Craig Washington has never spent a night in the hospital because of… Continue reading

How to Help Your Parents Make Friends

When my friends complain that their parents are lonely or bored and keep asking to spend time with them, I am always amazed. I have the opposite problem. It’s hard to get on my 85-year-old mom’s calendar! My mother lives alone in a large, 55+ condo com… Continue reading

Who’s Lonely at Work and Why

All the lonely workers Where do they all come from? All the lonely workers Where do they all belong? — Apologies to John Lennon and Paul McCartney After reading Cigna’s fascinating and sad Loneliness and the Workplace 2020 U.S. Report, I couldn’t help … Continue reading

‘We Weren’t Expected to Live This Long’

Joseph Gaxiola, Stephanie Stuart, Sharon Bosley and Robert Toth — four long-term survivors of HIV (Editor’s note: This story is part of a series for The John A. Hartford Foundation on aging with HIV/AIDS.) More than 500,000 people over 50 in the U.S. a… Continue reading

The Secrets Your Brainwaves Can Tell About Your Health

(Editor’s note: This podcast is from The Not Old – Better Show.) In this episode of The Not Old — Better Show, I interview R. Douglas Fields, an adjunct professor in the neuroscience and cognitive science program at the University of Maryland, College … Continue reading

How Mah Jongg Expanded My Shrinking World

I am not a game player. I never have been. Playing games meant sitting still, focusing and mastering a skill: things that didn’t interest me as a child. I liked play that involved moving, not thinking. While my sister and her friends played gin rummy o… Continue reading

How Open Heart Surgery Changed My View of Life

I was being wheeled at speed through the corridors of the MedStar Cardiovascular Surgery Center in Washington, D.C. on a stretcher bound for an operating theater. My driver, another Chris, was also to be my anesthetist — so I refrained from commenting … Continue reading

Noted Neuroscientist: Change Your Personality for Better Aging

Facing down 60, I was feeling pretty good about my chances for a long “mindspan” — brain health that would remain sharp as long as I live. Working with experts in the field, I’ve taken up high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts and strength tr… Continue reading

LGBTQ Bereaved Spouses Seek Solace

After surviving a heart attack and a cancer diagnosis, Carol Riddell feared being kept alive by machines more than she feared death itself. The retired teacher had made her end-of-life wishes clear to her wife Debbie Joffe: no extraordinary measures. T… Continue reading