Anxious Minds, Divergent Outcomes

All right, as the last portion of my study, I will be interviewing my grandma.Elaine, she is 83 years old and she's the best grandma ever.And so I'm going to introduce her now.You can say hello.Hello.Awesome.So I'm going to be comparing her to my 17 year old cousin Olivia and the differencesthat they may have in their lives during anxiety.I know there are different places, of course.So I would like to just get to know a little bit more about that.

Could you share any early memories or kind of a moment when you first noticed the feeling of anxiety or worry?Sure, I can.When I was only 19, I was in France by myself with my husband of course, and I was pregnant and I was very, very homesick.And I had a baby, a little baby girl, and I was so upset that I was never able to show her off to my family.Yeah, that would be so hard, especially being so far away from home and your family wanting to see your children, but you have to be somewhere else super far away.That's right, it was very stressful.And when you got back, were you worried about how people would perceive you or what would go on or any waves of some anxiety about your kids when you got back or of their health or whatever?No, I can honestly say that I was worried about the kids. They were just three or four years old.Yeah.And so I didn't have any worries about them really.

you recently, not recently, but kind of a little while back you went through a six-way bypasswith your heart and so could you kind of explain the stress that you went through? I know that that was such a big moment for you and even for our entire family. Even I was in school the entire time and I just could not stop thinking about you and so did you have any worries about that wholeexperience even though you're with such a successful and experienced doctors? Yes, I was very stressedout at that time and for a long time afterwards also. I really felt that I went through a depression after my surgery and I think that that changed my whole personality. I really do.Yeah and I have been worrying about what would happen in the past if my health is bad now,if I am not working out now or something, if this would happen, you never know and even withAlzheimer's in my family, I still worry about that too. Yeah, you should. And when you were younger, did you worry about that type of stuff or? No, I didn't worry about it too much.I didn't think, well, I didn't think I was ever going to grow old, which I am now.So I don't think I worry too much about it then.

Yeah, and so when you were in Florence, were there any people that you were particularly helpful in navigating the stress?Either Papa or calling people from home or did you confide in your children?What kind of, who did you rely on the most?Um, well, how far back are you going now?I think just in general now, who do you kind of look towards?Um, of course I look towards my husband and I really look towards my daughters as well. I talk to them a lot and they have helped me really.Yeah.When I studied with my sister about this and we talked about this, we were talking about the importance of just talking to others and realizing that you both go through the same struggles no matter what.Yes, I can get some more each week.Yeah, and like counseling and stuff I went through as well and just talking about yourstruggles just really alleviates a lot of stuff.So based on your experiences, what kind of advice would you offer to younger generations that deal with mental health or worrying about their future or anything like that?What advice do you have?Well, I have to say that talking to people is a great help.And even talking to your husband is helpful if you've got a warm relationship with him.And talking to my girls has helped me a lot.Yeah, and just no matter what you'll always get through this.Yeah.Well, thank you so much for sharing with us today.You're just a big help in this entire kind of study and I'm going to be comparing youbetween Olivia and we all know that Olivia is going through a lot of worries with theirfuture and stuff.So it's good to talk to you about this and thank you so much for sharing.