I mean I get it. We’re all people, we want our dignity. I was diagnosed bipolar and my biggest fear was having a mental breakdown and being locked away for the rest of my life. I hate the thought of not being able to be my own person with the freedom to navigate my destiny. I take my meds, I eat right, I exercise, I go to therapy, and I do so so I don’t end up involuntarily sanctioned. I want to build my own career, find love, see the world and experience what there is to experience and I don’t want that to go away.
Older folks are still humans who experience the same emotions as we all do, and they also want their dignity like we all do. It’s easy for us to pass these off as grumblings of senile folks, but from their perspective they were at the top of their careers yesterday and now they are being shoved out by society.
Biden needs to drop out, but I understand his hurt.
I know it’s a tired cliche, but I wish I had more upvotes to give you.
I didn’t want to go into any details, partly because I was counting on people who had gone through the same thing to just get it, but mostly because it would take at least a couple of paragraphs to even scratch the surface of the whole complex issue, and that wasn’t directly relevant at the time.
And you nailed it.
I clearly remember - the worst part of the whole ordeal wasn’t the times when he refused to face the fact that his faculties had diminished to the point that he could no longer drive safely - that was just frustrating. The worst part was the look of fear and dejection he’d get when he’d let down his guard enough to actually face that fact - those times when I could see that he fully understood and really agreed, and it crushed him.
So… yeah.
