title: Living with stigma: depressed elderly persons' experiences of physical health problems.
abstract: The aim of this paper is to deepen the understanding of depressed elderly persons' lived experiences of physical health problems. Individual in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 depressed elderly persons who suffer from physical health problems. A hermeneutic analysis was performed, yielding one main theme, living with stigma, and three themes: longing to be taken seriously, being uncertain about whether the pain is physical or mental, and a sense of living in a war zone. The second theme comprised two subthemes, feeling like a stranger and feeling dizzy, while the third had one subtheme: afraid of being helpless and dependent on others. Stigma deprives individuals of their dignity and reinforces destructive patterns of isolation and hopelessness. Nurses should provide information in a sensitive way and try to avoid diagnostic overshadowing. Effective training programmes and procedures need to be developed with more focus on how to handle depressive ill health and physical problems in older people.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Women's, Family and Child Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Buskerud and Vestfold University College, P.O. Box 235, 3603 Kongsberg, Norway.
authors.forename: Anne Lise
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Holm
authors.affiliation: Centre for Women's, Family and Child Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Buskerud and Vestfold University College, P.O. Box 235, 3603 Kongsberg, Norway.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lyberg
authors.affiliation: Centre for Women's, Family and Child Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Buskerud and Vestfold University College, P.O. Box 235, 3603 Kongsberg, Norway.
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9900-7170
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Severinsson