Category Archives: Better Housing for Seniors

I found MY “happy pill”!

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I’ve been on antidepressants on and off during most of my adult life. They would keep from getting too negative, but they never really helped me feel much better.

That’s because most prescribed antidepressants are “serotonin agonists”. Serotonin is one of the chemicals produced by the brain’s neurotransmitters that calms anxiety and keeps you from feeling negative and defeatist. A “serotonin agonist” is a substance that mimics the serotonin that your synapses are releasing to add to their effectiveness in instances when they have slowed down. (That is only a layperson’s simplistic description; I am not a doctor or scientist, but I’ve done a lot of reading about the process; a visual example is at the end of this post.)

It seems to me that, just as bodily functions cease to operate at maximum efficiency as we get older (and so we take statins and blood pressure meds etc.), the functions of the brain also slow down as we age. I posit that the lack of enough serotonin available to the aged brain can be the cause of so much of the depression we see in the elderly.

Now, not being depressed is not the same as feeling content and happy. I have discovered, for my purposes, that there is a pill for that.

One of the other chemicals produced by the brain’s neurotransmitters is dopamine, which plays a role in motivation and reward-seeking behavior. And that’s the happy pill: a “dopamine agonist” that helps the neurotransmitters and synapses create the dopamine necessary to have a positive effect on mood.

Now, why aren’t both serotonin agonists and dopamine agonists prescribed together? Actually, only recently, prescriptions like Abilify, which only partially deal with dopamine, are available. But they didn’t really work for me.

So now I take one serotonin agonist and one dopamine agonist.

And now I’m writing more, launched a national petition to improve senior housing,  just organized a Drum Circle at my senior center, and took on a project to write an interview of the author of Turning: The Magic and Mystery of More Days

As promised, here’s a visual of how neurotransmitters work, using dopamine as an example:

 

Massachusetts leads in funding for low income and accessible housing.

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Well, this might throw a glitch in our national petition for improved senior housing!  What might happen is that the Feds might say it’s a state responsibility, but we all know that few states are as liberal as Massachusetts.  Here’s what the MA legislation says, according to Mass.gov:

On Aug. 6, 2024 Governor Maura Healey signed the Affordable Homes Act into law. The historic legislation authorizes $5.16 billion in spending over the next five years along with nearly 50 policy initiatives to counter rising housing costs caused by high demand and limited supply.

The bill includes unprecedented authorizations in modernizing the state’s public housing system, boosts programs that support first-time homebuyers and homeownership, and resources to build more housing for low to moderate-income residents. It also includes many policy changes that will unlock housing production in our state, such as allowing accessory dwelling units, support for the conversion of vacant commercial space to housing and support for sustainable and green housing initiatives.

Gov. Healey believes Massachusetts can build more homes and build them faster, and the Affordable Homes Act, filed in October 2023, is how we will accomplish our mission.

The Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities is now working on the implementation of the Affordable Homes Act. More information will be released in the coming weeks and months regarding key policy initiatives.

This is pretty much what our national petition is asking for on a national level. I wonder what this will all mean for our effort.

Mind Meanderings on a Rainy September Afternoon

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THE MOVEMENT IS MOVING

It’s only been a few days since the petition to improve senior housing was launched at change.org/improveseniorhousing. If you haven’t signed it yet, please click on the link and add your name to this crucial effort on behalf of affordable and humane housing for our elders.

As of this morning, there were 34 signatures, many of them, I think, from Gray Panthers, the state offices of which I contacted yesterday.  They don’t seen to have a national website.  I hope they will be sharing the information I sent them among their  members.

I also contacted The View, it see if I could get Whoopi Goldberg and the other women interested in the effort — maybe even sign the petition.  Of course, I haven’t heard back from them.  In addition, I submitted a personal essay on the subject the the AARP magazine; it takes 6 weeks to get any kind of response from them. I don’t know if the Letters to the Editor I submitted to local newspapers will be published.

I hope that the notices I sent to several elderbloggers I gleaned from an older elderblogger list might prove fruitful.  I know a few responded already.

If you have any other ideas how to publicize the petition, please leave a comment.

MY MUPPETS ARCHETYPES

My blogger son just posed a piece about his Muppet Archetypes, so I gave some thought to what mine might be. While my kids watched Sesame Street, I only  gave it my distracted attention.  But I do know the major characters, so I decided that Big Bird and Kermit are my Muppet archetypes.  Kermit because, well, he’s the dreamer; Big Bird because his is flamboyant and colorful and likes to dance.

Which ones are yours?

THE STRESS OF BEING A MALE DOG

Our beautiful and sweet purebred male Golden Retriever is getting has balls removed today. Well, soon he will be able to go next door to play with his already-altered male dog friend, Darby, without having to worry that Colt might try to mount him.

When he sees me, he has trained himself to come up to me with a toy in his mouth and then he vocalizes deep in his throat in response to my saying “Hello!”

A Movement Requires Public Visibililty

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It’s not just a matter of writing your government representatives.  Everyone does that for every issue.  You need media attention and a way to get it. We seniors can’t get out and protest, like folks are doing for the environmental  movement; we need another way, and technology offers options.

One way is an online petition, and there is a free site to enable that.  Back in the day, when the Internet was threatened by government, my son and his cronies began a “Hands Off the Net” petition.  Ultimately, they printed out the thousands of names and hand delivered the pages of printout to the appropriate government official.

When we have enough signatures to start, we can see if we can get our local television stations to publicize what we are trying to do. Speaking at senior centers and giving them an onsite chance to sign the petition is another way of generating support.

If you can share the idea with other bloggers, or even share my posts, that could help as well.

To begin an online petition, we need a catchy phrase, like “Survival Isn’t Enough: Better Housing for Seniors.  I’m open to suggestions.

I have joined the online petition site and will start providing the information that it requires.

Again, I’m open to suggestions.  I hope that you will give this some thought.  If we start now, we will be ready when Harris begins her tenure.