The aim of this paper is to deepen the understanding of depressed elderly persons� lived experiences of physical health problems.\nIndividual in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 depressed elderly persons who suffer from physical health problems.\nA hermeneutic analysis was performed, yielding one main theme, living with stigma, and three themes: longing to be taken\nseriously, being uncertain about whether the pain is physical or mental, and a sense of living in a war zone. The second theme\ncomprised two subthemes, feeling like a stranger and feeling dizzy, while the third had one subtheme: afraid of being helpless and\ndependent on others. Stigma deprives individuals of their dignity and reinforces destructive patterns of isolation and hopelessness.\nNurses should provide information in a sensitive way and try to avoid diagnostic overshadowing. Effective training programmes\nand procedures need to be developed with more focus on how to handle depressive ill health and physical problems in older\npeople.
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