Broadcaster Gay Byrne has said having interests outside of work is the key to people pursuing a happy retirement free of the spectre of depression. Ronan McGreevy, Irish Times, reports:

Mr Byrne said he had seen many of his generation struggle to cope with retirement and the feeling that their life was over because they never did anything other than their job.

“Those who do best in retirement are those with an abundance of interests outside the job,” he said.

A national representative survey carried out in April by the drug company Lundbeck found 37 per cent of older people struggle to keep depression at bay, with women worst affected in their older years.

More than three-quarters of older people felt the death of somebody close to them could push them into depression.

Mr Byrne said he wanted to lend his support to a campaign by Age Opportunity, the charity which encourages older people to participate fully in society, although he does not suffer from depression himself.

The Mind Yourself campaign, launched yesterday, aims to encourage older people to talk to their doctors about their mental health.

The 76-year-old broadcaster said many of his generation and his parents’ generation did not understand the true nature of depression.

“We all feel melancholic at times, but that has nothing to do with depression. Our generation and particularly my parents’ generation were so involved in eeking out a living and staying alive that they had very little time to worry about anything else,” he said.

“There can be a measure of self-indulgence in becoming despondent and sorrowful. If you allowed yourself to concentrate on that, you might be on a sticky road, but that might be getting close to the bugbear of people who talk about depression because remarks such as ‘pull yourself together’ are red rags to a bull to people who suffer from depression because it shows a complete lack of understanding of it.”

Consultant in old age psychiatry, Prof Brian Lawlor, said the idea that depression was an inevitable part of ageing was “certainly not the case. Sometimes we see older people being very stoical and not wanting to admit a weakness, but mental health is as important as physical health and must be maintained,” he said.

Source: Irish Times