Psychology

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  As people age, the body tends to slow down physically and mentally. This varies for everyone, and each person has a different level of "normal" aging. Genetics and a person's health habits can all play a role in a person's age. Depression is a normal adult disorder that can develop, for example, people often experience major changes in life in late adulthood. People may retire and are not sure what to do all this time, their routines are often interrupted. However, disorders of cognition, which are rooted in memory and other mental abilities, are more common in later adulthood (Comer & Comer, 2021). These disorders include Delirium, Alzheimer's Disease, and a handful of other neurocognitive disorders. These disorders differ from normal aging because they are more extreme than simply forgetting your keys or someone you met. For example, Delirium is a major disturbance in the attention and orientation of an environment (Comer & Comer, 2021). This means that individuals will often feel displaced or believe that they are somewhere else, some examples given in the text are someone may think it is morning time in the middle of the night or even believe to be at home when they are at a hospital. Another disorder under disorders of cognition is one most people are aware of, Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease is the most common of neurocognitive disorders, which are disorders that impact an individual's memory, attention, visual perception, planning, decision making, language, and social awareness (Comer & Comer, 2021). Someone who has Alzheimer's is not impacted by one of these, but it is common to have multiple areas of decline when impacted by this disorder. Some of these effects may seem like normal aging, but as a society, it is important to be aware of symptoms and if we notice something not to brush it off as "just aging". We should take time to educate ourselves and our loved ones as well as seek help and advice when we notice things. With people we care about it is often difficult to think they are suffering from these disorders.