Quote:
Originally Posted by tullynut
Other articles talked about depression developing after retirement when the individual discovered that it wasn't all fun/games, that changes in structure and routine took a greater toll than expected?
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This is just my opinion, but I don't think either the financial industry or the researchers, and certainly not the Internet discussion boards, have the data.
While depression can develop during retirement, the articles are there more for their great sound-bite potential than for any real trend or issues. Another theory is that Boomers haven't saved enough for retirement so we're just going to decide that retirement was bad for us anyway.
Whatever problems your spouse is struggling with were more likely a cause
of retirement and were not necessarily caused
by retirement. Now that he's retired, however, they're much more visible and can't just be swept aside by the whirlwind of the daily work/commute routine. The biggest challenge of retirement is that the retiree has to assume responsibility for their own entertainment. They can't look to the workplace anymore to provide all that fulfillment & satisfaction...
In other words you're not going to learn anything useful about solving his problems by reading retirement discussion boards. You would probably get more benefit from depression/midlife crisis discussion boards-- although the subject occasionally comes up here.
What you can learn here is more about coping with the changes that retirement brings in relationships and finances. But you definitely need more help than the random shotgun advice from a bunch of Internet strangers.