Boredom is me and my circumstances

Agustín, born in a small district of Murcia, is 69 years old and has been retired for two years. After completing his primary studies, he began his professional career. He started out as a turner at 14, before moving to Luxembourg, where he first worked in the mining industry and later became a heavy machinery driver. On his return to his homeland, he got a job as a civil servant in the local trade system. From then on, he worked as an excavator operator in the drinking water supply service for 18 years, was a mechanic in the same company's fleet for as many years, and finally became a foreman responsible for the maintenance of the irrigation systems in the region's parks and gardens. In this position he retired after 53 years of professional activity, without a single period of rest. 

In his last years of work, before retirement, Agustín claims to have felt truly comfortable and satisfied with his life. His day consisted of about seven hours a day and the rest of the time he was occupied in simple but rewarding activities such as hiking, meeting for a while to chat with friends, doing some housework and watching television with his family; what he likes best are the films of the West. In the autumns he used to go hunting for small game, one of his great passions. 

Leaving aside the little health problems he blames on age - cholesterol, high blood pressure - Agustin confesses that he had plenty of strength to continue his routine for a long time. That is why he decided to postpone his retirement until the maximum age of 70 that his company allowed. However, at 67, some ensuing family health problems made him rethink his plans and leave his post to spend more time with his loved ones. His was a forced retirement, which makes it possible to understand the nostalgia for those days of occupation that comes from his words. 

It is easy to imagine that the cessation of work, which has been going on for so many years, will lead to a traumatic event for many because of the changes it brings. From the experiences narrated by some of his colleagues after retirement, some more positive than others, however, Agustín had an idea of what his life would be like after this crucial moment. He accepted it with resilience and was hopeful that he would have more time to devote to his hobbies and lead a quiet life according to his habits. There was, however, one common element in the testimonies of his colleagues that permeated his thinking from time to time and frightened him: the experience of boredom. Some colleagues warned him that boredom after retirement was constant, even to the point of despair of not knowing what to do and the loss of the will to embark on old and new activities. He confesses that this made him "a little nervous", that he imagined that boredom would be more present in his life; but he was not worried. 

Before he retired, Agustín never got bored: "just once or twice when I was at home, when they wouldn't let me put what I wanted on TV". On a scale of zero to ten, his level of boredom would fit into the two. As he describes it, those occasional moments of boredom "were unpleasant, they caused me a little anxiety and instability because I couldn't do what I wanted; it was a state of wanting and not being able to... a little strange thing that can't be called anxiety either, something within the norm". Our interviewee, without knowing it, draws a feeling that coincides in part with one of the most widespread definitions of boredom today, as is the case with Westgate and Willson (MAC Model of Boredom, 2018). 

After retirement, a small intestinal problem began to take its toll on Agustín's health, limiting him to enjoying the little pleasure he found in family and friends' meals. But for him it is something that is "within the norm". He has not experienced any significant changes in terms of the economy and domestic structure; but the unexpected illness of his eldest daughter, who lives with him at home, has disturbed his expectations of a quiet life during his retirement, increasing his boredom levels from two to eight, he explains. 

He now spends almost as much time on pre-retirement activities, focusing more on spending time with friends and family. He also spends more time watching TV, he admits, and resting; the latter occupations cover most of the day since the pandemic began. But what he really identifies as the cause of his increased experience of boredom is spending hours thinking about his daughter's health, not having a job to occupy himself with and distracting himself from it. Although he acknowledges that the activities he used to spend his leisure time on are still available, what has disappeared is his desire to carry them out. Agustín is clear about this: "boredom, in my case, is the direct consequence of thinking too much, added to the lack of an obligation and a personality that is not very curious and thirsty for novelty". Boredom due to reluctance to continue with past routines and anxiety about the family situation "form a vicious circle" from which Agustín has no idea how to get out. He does not consider abandoning this situation, but rather living the day-to-day, despite the insecurity that this generates. 

Agustín knows, by word of mouth, that public services for the elderly offer constant activities to keep him busy and entertained in his town. However, he does not currently have the strength to embark on any of them and prefers to stay away, despite the boredom to which this condemns him. Nor does he feel like seeking out information on alternatives from private organisations on his own. Since it is not an obligation, as work was, he finds no sense in engaging in leisure or educational activities. From his explanations it also emerges that the agents responsible for making these offers available to those interested, as well as motivating them to participate in the proposed activities, are not using all the resources available to reach people in situations of vulnerability like the one presented by Agustín, who seems to be more and more closed in on himself.

Convinced that boredom will continue to increase with the passing of the years, Agustín regrets that the prospects for the future are not good: "you feel less and less capable physically and mentally and this causes you to be more bored". Counting on his family situation to improve, he thinks that the lack of friends and loved ones will be detrimental to his desire to be busy with the various activities that used to fill his days. "You enter a state where you spend more time thinking and being bored than looking for entertainment and fun," he says. It is clear to him that as boredom takes over all facets of his life, it will have a negative impact on his physical well-being, but above all on his mental well-being: "I think that you reach a mental state because of boredom that creates a very broad anxiety and you feel bad, it attacks your nervous system and this also somatizes you physically. I think I'm going to have a very bad time".  

Putting Agustín in the difficult position of imagining that in the long term he will need to be cared for in his own home by a family member or hired personnel, he responds by putting his hands to his head. He doesn't even want to think about it. He feels that he could become a burden to others and this terrifies him. But he is even more tormented by the idea of having to spend his last years in a nursing home: "I would do something unexpected. At home the situation can be very bad, but in a nursing home, depending on the experience I have of relatives and colleagues, the boredom can be unbearable. It's something I don't want to experience; I wouldn't stand it. I would be totally bored and leave myself to die. 

Agustin is well aware that his experience of boredom after retirement depends as much on himself as it does on his circumstances. "Boredom is very relative; some perceive it in one way and others in another. The context has a great influence, but if your personality aggravates the experience, it becomes very hard. Agustín has no doubt: boredom is a problem in old age because it contributes to the physical and mental deterioration of the elderly due to the limitations that accompany ageing. In his opinion, the institutions try to put in place means to prevent boredom from becoming chronic as the years go by, but in a generalised way and without paying attention to the particular circumstances of each person and the level of satisfaction of those concerned with the help offered. 

Without ever losing sight of the fact that this is the case with Augustine, whom I thank for his willingness to share his experience with the world, there is one thing that is clear to me from what I have learned over the years.

Every case is a world and the solution to boredom, if you suffer from it, cannot be the same for everyone. Non-personalised help ends up causing those, like Augustine, who do not want to be helped to end up being forgotten; while an action of primary prevention of boredom, focused on the particular needs of the elderly, could avoid the deterioration associated with their suffering over time. Agustín knows that continuing to work until one runs out of strength could have been his solution: "We human beings need to be busy with an obligation such as work in order to be active. If we could work until our health permits, we would not have to face the problem of boredom becoming a concern". For the moment, Agustín has the refuge of his family and especially of his wife, a person who, he says, "deserves to kiss the ground he walks on". 

Without ever losing sight of the fact that what is presented here is the case of Agustín, whom I thank for his willingness to share his experience with the world, there is something that I take away from all that I have learned in giving voice to his story. We can do more to reach out to people in their situation who, for whatever reason, are unable to find solace from their boredom through the conventional means that institutions have at their disposal to alleviate an ailment that affects so many. It is essential to make use of all the resources available to offer more personalised attention and to reach even those who try to make themselves invisible despite recognising the problem. In the case of retired people, it occurs to me that the agents responsible for guaranteeing a dignified aging could provide, through companies, prior to the cessation of the activity, courses of information, demystification and preparation for possible scenarios that may occur as a result of retirement. This is just one example. It seems clear that prevention is the key to not having to cure later.