Loving Life Anxiety Free at 94

Loving Life Anxiety Free at 94

I'm Marge, and I'm 94.

As I've aged over the past few years I found myself not believing in myself. I started to become more and more insecure about silly things.

I've always been a very realistic "mater-of-fact" person which I believe stemmed from my time working as a Nurse early on in my career, so to have these insecurities creeping in seemingly out of nowhere really threw me for a loop!

At 94, every day is a blessing, and I have been very fortunate to remain pretty healthy overall, but the reality is any day could be your last at this age. So I want to make sure I live each and every one to the fullest, but my new anxieties really hindered me from doing that.

I ended up finding myself more and more secluded, especially through the pandemic. I still was able to find joy in small things - working on puzzles, enjoying food, etc. But things I used to really enjoy I now found myself panicking over. Things like going out with my kids and grandkids - or really leaving home at all for more than an hour became really stressful.

And these are things I used to absolutely love doing.

My granddaughter would take me every year to a local art museum that featured "art in bloom" where artists would pair floral arrangements with paintings - I looked forward to it every year but really struggled to get to it this year.

All because of anxiety.

It was very frustrating because as I've aged I've lost some physical capabilities but always had my mind - and now to be limited by something mental actually made my anxieties worse. When they talk about anxiety being a viscous circle, they are right...

I worked with my doctor to find medications that worked well for me to help manage my anxiety, but the biggest piece (in my opinion) was just getting my confidence back. I just told myself I need to do it. And slowly but surely, I did.

I'm proud to say, with help from family, that I overcame my insecurities and anxieties and am back to living my life to the fullest that I possibly can! I'm now living with my son and daughter-in-law, and enjoying all the meals, puzzles, reading, and most of all my grand-doggy. I still have small bits of anxiety from time to time if I really dwell on things, but knowing that I have the support of my family and hearing the stories of everyone else overcoming their anxieties really gives me the strength I need to fight mine.

Thank you to everyone sharing their stories - they truly do help people like me build up the confidence I need. And I hope my story can help you in the same way. At the end of the day, if I can conquer anxiety at 94, I know you can conquer anxiety too!

Back to blog