{"id":37131,"date":"2025-04-30T14:11:06","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T14:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/updates-www.mccdn.io\/vitals\/?p=37131"},"modified":"2025-04-30T16:22:37","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T16:22:37","slug":"facing-the-realities-of-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/updates-www.mccdn.io\/vitals\/facing-the-realities-of-retirement\/","title":{"rendered":"Facing the realities of retirement","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

Retirement brings big changes to life. Many are exciting, but what if retirement isn’t all you dreamed of?<\/p>\n

“Sometimes people get to retirement and think it’s supposed to be this big, magical time and it doesn’t deliver,” says Jon Gubbe, LICSW, a mental health professional with MultiCare Behavioral Health – Older Adult Services in Puyallup. “It is what you make it, but it’s also important to reconcile and be realistic.”<\/p>\n

Why is retirement so hard?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As a teenager, your identity was likely built around your family, friends, hobbies and what you wanted to do with your life.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward and your job or career often becomes an essential part of who you are, explains Gubbe. Retirement forces you to reevaluate the identity you’ve held for so long.<\/p>\n

“There’s a loss of our sense of purpose and meaning because our jobs take up so much of our time, and hopefully we found purpose in (them),” Gubbe says. “Now we’re wondering what’s the point in my day \u2026 we’re feeling lost and not sure how to make use of that.”<\/p>\n

Combine that loss of identity with changes to your daily routine, absence of grown children who have left the home, new financial challenges, and feelings of isolation and boredom, and it’s no surprise that many people struggle with their mental health in retirement.<\/p>\n

Make the most of this phase in life<\/strong><\/h2>\n

“Like it or not, we need structure in our day<\/strong>, and jobs do that for us,” Gubbe says. “When that gets taken away, there’s initially a honeymoon phase, but that eventually fades and after a month or two you may feel bored or lost.”<\/p>\n

You may lose the habits you once had \u2014 you don’t eat as regularly, you skip workouts or your hygiene practices fall to the wayside, he explains. For so long, your days were built around your work schedule, and when that’s gone, you may find the days slipping away from you.<\/p>\n

You have to figure out what to do with your time, Gubbe says.<\/p>\n

“Being open to new experiences<\/strong> is easier said than done,” he adds. “But there are a lot of other people in this phase and you have to find them. If you’re all just staying home, nothing will change.”<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Retirement brings big changes to life. Many are exciting, but what if retirement isn’t all you dreamed of? “Sometimes people get to retirement and think it’s supposed to be this big, magical time and it doesn’t deliver,” says Jon Gubbe, LICSW, a mental health professional with MultiCare Behavioral Health – Older Adult Services in Puyallup. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":115,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,99],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behavioral-health","category-primary-care"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNavigating mental health challenges of retirement- MultiCare Vitals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sometimes retirement isn\u2019t all we thought it would be. 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