Hi all, I am looking some advice re my mother, she is 62 yrs old, she divorced in her mid-40s (alcoholic husband), lives alone, did work part time but with back pain and subsequent surgery she is off work recovering and doing well. When I was younger she was a fun, positive person yet for the past number of years (5+) she has become increasingly negative. She seems to have no joy for life, and I think she is depressed, she was not happy in her old house so moved, decorated a new house, still not happy, has animals, walks her dogs, has a horse, some friends who call to see her (she very rarely reciprocates). I know she is not happy and tried to talk to her but I offended her. She wont take tablets or see GP, I am just looking a bit of advice?
I work and have a dd who is a joy to be around (5yrs), I can get to see my mother once a week, am thinking of asking her to look after dd one avo per week for a couple of hours as I think it may do her some good to be around someone so positive.
Some of her painkillers included an anti-depressant for nerve pain and she even told me she thinks she felt better on the painkillers ie in better spirits, but she is off them now (anti-drugs). I think she knows she is unhappy, but has no real reason to be so, I feel she needs more friends/company (my sister is very complex and has alienated my mother not even visiting her in hospital when she was in for 5 days and this has caused my mother a lot of pain, no point talking to my sis as she honestly does not give a damn - another story!) and some sort of medical help as though she is not in the depths of depression she is clearly not happy and getting the most out of her life and it seems to be getting worse as time goes by.