I don't like aging.

[Skip Intro]

[snagglepuss]

1. I know just thing.

DU's Health Forum :evilgrin:

[madinmaryland]

2. I don't like paging, either. Especially when you can just pick up the phone

and leave a message.

:silly:

[Lucian]

3. It sucks.

If there was a way to become immortal (and maybe some superpowers), I'd be so up for it.

[Skip Intro]

4. Don't tell me that.

I've had a boyish face like Paul McCartney for years and years, but now, as I approach 50 (like I'm flying a plane, lol), age is starting to take its toll. I don't want to be an old guy. Well, I take that back, I guess I'd rather be an old guy than a dead guy. But still.

I see those commercials for women that promise to roll back the years. And then there is cosmetic surgery. I would love to see my image in the mirror looking like I did ten years ago. But that is all just an illusion.

Wouldn't hurt so much if I had money, and was financially secure. But that is not the case, yet.

Eh...if you're going to be immortal, you should at least have one superpower.

[Lucian]

5. I shouldn't be complaining...

I'll be turning 29 in April. The thought of next year being the last year of my twenties scares the shit out of me. I can't be turning 30 yet. I'm not done being 21. :(

[Skip Intro]

6. I'm not done being 21 either.

30 was a tough passage, psychologically, I know where you're coming from.

Wait until you turn 40.

:evilgrin:

[Lucian]

8. Oh geez.

I don't want to think about that now. Thirty is already creeping me out. :(

[Skip Intro]

10. Yep, 30 is just the stepping stone to 40.

bwahahahaha

I'm sorry, man. I really am. You'll get past 30. And 40. It's life.

But you know, when I was in my twenties, John Cougar had a song with a verse that went, "hold on to 16 as long as you can..." And I've done just that. I thought it great advice.

bla bla bla

[Phentex]

18. my sad story is this...

my husband has always looked young for his age. I'm talking *much* younger than he really is which is all fine and well UNTIL the point where I continue to age and his is so slow that I appear to have surpassed him by many, many years and now it's like WTF? Why is he with that older woman? AND I AM YOUNGER THAN HE IS DAMMIT!

It's not so cute anymore. *sigh*

[seabeyond]

22. age doesnt fool..... once you get past that i think it gets much easier

my motto....

healthiest i can be for MY age. not missing iwth the 50 is the new 20. it isnt.

[MilesColtrane]

7. Sucks.

I just turned 48 and the mileage is starting to take its toll.

Tendonitis, tinnitus, sloth-like metabolism...

The only bright side is that the alternative to aging sucks even worse.

[Skip Intro]

9. Ack. I was hoping someone would tell me it is a wonderful stage of life.

I've got tinitus, if that is the ringing ears thing.

My metabolism has slowed as well.

But the thing that I miss, the thing that I really miss the most, and I haven't given up on getting it back, is the way the air used to just crackle around me when I walked outside, so full of life, me and all my surroundings. I just don't get that feeling anymore. That feeling like I owned the world and it was welcoming it's new owner. That feeling like anything was possible, on a daily basis. And I could just feel it, nothing but a world of opportunity of experience that just seethed with energy around me. That spark. I find it hard to get that anymore. It used to just be there, envelop me. Now I search for it, if I remember.

I've always told people that age is just a number. And I just need to convince myself of that again. I can't be ruled by a calendar. I just can't. I cannot accept that. No number is going to tell me what I should and shouldn't be doing. Diminish my drive. Tell me that it's all over. That it's all downhill from here. That a waning youthful and excited state of mind is something to get used to.

I don't accept that.

[MilesColtrane]

12. I too miss the unalloyed joy of hearing music I've never heard before.

The world was new and wet and ripe.

Despite the bewilderment of running headlong, daily into something you've never seen before, it didn't matter.

[kimi]

11. Age is funny

Not ha-ha funny, just weird funny.

Maybe it's different for women, I think it might be. Maybe it's the way I was raised, my mom was always so into the wrinkle - aging - dying the hair thing. I don't see men as obsessed as that, but what do I know, I don't live with an adult man. I know that I've aged, and I see what I look like in the mirror, but I just don't FEEL that old, ya know? The calendar has got to be wrong!

If I can keep up with the kids and cats, and I don't fall down the stairs regularly, I guess I'm doing okay.

[cowcommander]

13. I don't want to go back being young again without knowing what I know now

One of the advantages of getting older is knowing what NOT to do.

[xchrom]

14. i hate it too. don't see as well, don't hear as well

can't stay up late -- and can't stay in bed either.

weight i can't rid of no matter how hard i work out -- oy.

[velvet]

15. me neither, but I can't stop

According to Victor Hugo "40 is the old age of your youth and 50 is the youth of your old age." Make of that what you will.

I remember when my mum turned 50, she was in a foul mood. When I turned 50 I understood why. It's a confusing place. I thought now I'm old ... but I'm still me ... no, this isn't me ... who the fuck am I now? How much nearer am I to death? And half a century is a long time, no wonder I'm tired.

Now I'm staring 60 in the face. My mum didn't live to 60 so I have nothing to go on as to how badly I should behave on my birthday. What can I tell you? A lot more interesting stuff happened in my 50s than I thought would, big ups and downs just like it ever was.

[Phentex]

17. I know that feeling!...

Like I want to scream to the world "THIS isn't me!"

I'm sure glad to be aging but it feels really strange sometimes.

[old mark]

16. Skip, it beats hell out of being dead...that's about the best I can say for it.....nt

[Paper Roses]

37. That is the only good thing about aging that is worth mentioning.

[old mark]

41. Yeah - death sounds pretty .....dull, ya know?....At least now, there's TV...

and politics...for amusement...


mark

[MiddleFingerMom]

19. I peaked very early in life...

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...when, by the age of 19 as an Army medic, there were half-a-dozen or so people still walking
the face of this planet because I had been there to help.
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I think of Al Bundy (from "Married with Children") who was STUCK in the past -- the only thing
he could look at as an "accomplishment" was a high school football game. He'd done nothing since
then that he could look at with pride.
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As much as I've learned... as much as I've grown... as much as I've contributed... I don't think
I've ever had a time more crucial and vibrant and ALIVE as when I was that 19-year old scared kid.
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BUT, I did learn... I did grow... I did contribute... accepting what I had and who I was and
what I could do at different stages of my life. That's simply what you do -- or you simply die
without knowing that you're already dead -- you become one of the denizens of those cliched
retirement communities, reliving your LONG-past glory days, bitching about how the world's
turned to shit, and comparing meds and surgeries and aches and pains.
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No, thank you.
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MiddleFingerMomDad, jerk though he was, got into photography and bread-baking at the tottering
old age of 65. Won some competitions.
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I talked on the phone with a customer who was 76, and was going to Mongolia in a few weeks as
part of some "American Tourist Ambassador" program started by Jimmy Carter (I believe). Knowing
a little about Mongolia, I teasingly asked her if she rode horses. She surprised me by saying, "Heck,
YES!!!" amd telling me about her trip to North Africa the year before and her first CAMEL ride ("It
was 2-3 hours long and I was sore for two days -- but I do it again in a FLASH!!") 76 YEARS OLD.
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My BIL was pretty much abandoned and shoved off to this older blind woman, who raised him to be
an incredible human being. I met her when she was in her 70's -- and a more ALIVE person, I don't
believe I've ever known. Though frail and GREATLY diminished from who and what she HAD been,
she had a sweetness and an attitude beyond compare -- one of the REAL riotgrrls. "Let's DO this!!"
"Let's do THAT!!!" If we went out to eat, she wanted to try a little bit of what I had ordered, too --
and urged me to try hers. I loved that woman -- she showed me what the human spirit is capable
of. She had overcome her greatest handicap -- NOT her lack of eyesight -- but the aging that
brings ao many people to the state that I'm seeing in this thread.
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My health sucks. My financial situation is pretty dire. My past was much, MUCH better than my
present. But the "present" is what I got. I do what SHOULD be done -- I adapt to what IS -- not
what once was -- and I learn and I grow and I contribute within THAT framework.
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As open-ended and all-encompassing as my youth? Hell. no.
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But lately, I've learned about smoked paprika. I've enjoyed "discovering" the band Portishead. I've
finally started reading Howard Zinn's "People's History of the United States". I've had a friend
tell me that, although I wasn't aware of it at the time, something I had done had kept HER from
doing something drastic and negative.
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Sure, I'd love to be that 19-year-old kid -- BOUNDING out of bed in the morning wondering what
sort of adventure and/or trouble I was going to get myself into today -- "LET'S GO SAVE
SOMEBODY'S FUCKING LIFE!!!!!"
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But I'm not that kid.
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The GOOD news is that neither am I Al Bundy, relying on and reliving my "glory days" at the
expense of what, quite simply... is.
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I've been one step closer to death since the day I was born. FUCK death. I AM immortal.
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At least for now.
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And that's enough.
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[Brickbat]

35. Goddamn, that was awesome.

:toast:

[MiddleFingerMom]

39. Thanks. I went back and re-read that... and kinda impressed myself.

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:toast:
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Every once in a while, my sub/unconscious pokes through.
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I've asked Kali to post that as my epitaph should I ever be proven wrong about being immortal...
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...but don't hold your breath.
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[redwitch]

40. Atta boy!

:thumbsup:

[raccoon]

20. Just think of the alternative. And I am much happier now than I was as a child, teenager, or young

adult.

I attribute that to my ACOA and codependency recovery and treatment for depression.

I am so much aware of things that I used to just totally not see (literally and figuratively).

I appreciate small things a lot more. I realize what are the really important things in life.

Granted, I have health issues now that I didn't have when I was younger, and that's a downer, but still I am MUCH happier than I was when I was younger.

Edited to add: There is now way I'd go back to being a younger person, if I had the same lack of skills and lack of resources I had then. No fricking way.

[seabeyond]

21. ya... it is a bitch. i hate it too. BUT ignore the physical and it is GREAT.

i love how i have developed with age and who i get to be and how my life is. it is SO damn good. and keeps getting better.

[Iggo]

23. Yep. Hurts. (n/t)

[IMATB]

24. I LOVE it !!!

I want to look my age, be my age. Wrinkles, age spots, fat, skin tags, bad eyes and all.

I was very vain when I was younger. I looked forward to the day when that no longer mattered. When that day came, I realized how good living life could really be.

I would not trade my age now for anything. I am finally comfortable in my skin.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

25. I don't like the part where you get wrinkly and baggy and gray.

What I do like is that you no longer give a crap about a lot of stuff that used to seem really important.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. dupe

[pink-o]

27. All y'all's can just shut up now. 5 days from my 56th b'day here!

And it's not the physical aging that's killing me, it's the MENTAL. Please tell me, WTF happened to my mind???

It's not just the forgetting. (I've walked away from my car and left the door open, can't remember names, don't have any clue what I've said aloud and what I'm just thinking to myself, so I'm starting to repeat the same stories to the same people...) No, it's how slow my brain is processing information these days! I hate it--even as little as 5 years ago I was much quicker on the uptake, came up with solutions to challenges faster than anyone else. Now the young thangs are on the spot with them. I feel like I'm in another, slower dimension.

See, I've never been the kind of women who rocked the room the minute I entered. I wasn't beautiful in my 20s and 30s, so I don't have the middle-age crises that most of my pretty friends go through when they sudden become invisible. In fact, I'm in better shape now that I was 20 years ago. But as that bumper sticker goes:

Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most.

[seabeyond]

28. pink o

i have missed your posts. i think you have it on. i have wondered if getting older would be easier if looks wasnt the thing when we were younger..... i figure that part is a karma ite on the ass for me and i warn my oh so vain niece....

the whole brain thing though... such a hoot. that is the part i just LOVE. lol. i have let go of so much info i thought was so important and feel my way in my blindish blur now a days. poor hubby is only getting a bet of preview of what is to come. and per your post, sounds fun, lol. i dont feel like i am losing my mind. i do feel like remembering names and every other things is not that important. he swears he is going ot get me a recorded. so when i walk thru the house, down the stairs adn make it to his place, i dont stand there saying.... now, why did i come down here. think think think. lol

[pink-o]

43. LOL Thanx, Sea!

Here's my favorite: when I was a teenager, I would watch some middle aged fossil in the grocery store nattering aloud as she stared at the shelves. "Oh, I need this" she would declare to the peanut butter jar before she stuck it in her cart.

I figured those oldies were past-due for their Thorazine. But now guess what??? (No fair, you guessed it!)

Yup. That woman is me. It seems if one is an auditory soul and organizes her thoughts via verbal cues, talking aloud to oneself and the grocery shelves is pre-ordained. I catch myself and the odd looks I get, but it's like Quintigenarian Torrettes--I can't stop it.

Ah, well, in the scheme of aging, not really so bad. And verbal skills, even with food products, undoubtedly keep your mind sharp. In fact, what you said about Karma and beauty fading made me realize why my friends are so upset about losing their edge as they age: so many of them have flirted, batted their eyes and used subtle sexual signals to get through life. Now that just comes across as creepy and predatory, and they never acquired any other skills. Me, I've talked my way in and out of situations most of my life, a skill I still seem to have a grip on. So on a serious note, if society could learn to value women for something other than our looks, aging beauties might not find themselves so unprepared for middle age.

[lunatica]

29. Just remember, people who have birthdays live longer

and aging is not for sissies!

[UTUSN]

30. I "fired" a doctor over this

I said, "Doctor, what's going on? I have never been sick and now it's been one (little) thing after another."

He looked at me scornfully and asked, "How old ARE you?!1"

I said (back then), "Fifty."

He said, "That's what fifty is LIKE!1"

I didn't fire him until a couple of years later when he did a couple of other crappy things. And by "fire," I don't mean a confrontation, just stopped going to him and doctor-shopped through around 4 or 5 until I found one with a decent disposition.

But when I told this story at a VFW, one of the vets said, "Wait till you're SEVENTY!1"

And when I told a wise aunt, she said, "Sweetie, maybe the doctor was blunt, but HE WAS TELLING YOU THE TRUTH!1"



That said, sigh. Yes, I don't recognize what I see in the mirror. In my mind's eye I am the perfect little boy in a marching band uniform. I don't fail to be puzzled when I'm asked at the grocery check-out whether I would like somebody to help me with the bags...

And as far as the "slow metabolism" goes, I was totally shocked when I caught a young couple with their perfect hot bods staring at my pot belly in apparent disbelief.

[stuntcat]

31. the drooping-face part sucks but I'm soo glad I'm 40

by 2050 or 60 I'll be outa here. I mean the world will be in pathetic shape but at least I'll know I don't have to be here til 2090 like my neighbors' 2 babies do.

[Name removed]

32. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[frogmarch]

33. I turned 67 today, and

I'm just glad to still be here. :-)

However, I do wish I hadn't had cataract surgery a few weeks ago, because afterwards I had to remove one of the light bulbs above the bathroom mirror.

[Swampguana]

34. I don't like it either, I'm 26 and already balding!!! Its not fair!!!

[Nikia]

36. I don't either

I am starting to have some near vision loss already. I don't have problems reading or anything, but I can tell it is happening. I have a few thin white hairs. Anytime I tried to pull them out, I pull out good hairs too or worse, instead. I think that my skin is still better than most people live around here, but I'm probably not passing for early twenties even if I dyed my hair. I turn 33 at the end of the month.

[DainBramaged]

38. I've been saying that since my hair started to turn grey

25 years ago.....

[madmom]

42. I don't mind aging, 56 now, I DO mind not being able to do the things I used too. My

joints just won't let me. I've had too many accidents, from enjoying life, that I can't enjoy the same things anymore. BUT to replace those things I have other better things to enjoy like family, grand kids are great!:woohoo: :bounce:

[kayakjohnny]

44. Holding my ground at 54 (soon).

Can still do many intense physical things and I stay grateful for it all, knowing it could end at any moment.

Seeing signs of this and that, but still haven't been to a doctor or hospital since 1972.

Broke my shoulder playing football, and since then smooth sailing.

I have been very very rough on the bod.

And maybe that is the key.

I do count my blessings each and every day.

Maybe THAT is the key.

But your post is universal. No one likes aging after a certain point.

Cheers.