Ask Lemmy

The constant sex, the extra money, the sudden inclination to dunk at basketball, watching your dick get larger, hair getting more vibrant, skin getting fuller, the daily blowjobs, the endless promotions, fast cars, things getting cheaper and more affordable, watching your parents benchpressing monster trucks...

Rapid aging happens like growth spurts. Around 40-44 apparently again around 65. Small print becomes a problem, body does not handle alcohol as before, body aches and pains become constant. Exercise is essential, but a setback from an injury or sedentary lifestyle is difficult to escape from.

Your body starts breaking down long before you’re ready or expected, despite every warning you heard your whole life.

It's traumatic for many. People start to realize that they actually age in their 30s and turn to weird shit because they don't know how to deal with trauma of aging.

Rampant discrimination against older people, especially women is crazy and something you don't fully notice until you or your peers are affected directly.

In your mid 30s all the pets you and your friends got as your first pets as “adults” die. That first dog for your first place? Dead. That first cat after college? Dead. They all die in the same ~5 years period so you relive your loss through your friends over and over, and dog save you if those happened to be the pets your children were born with… it’s so hard

RIP Evey, Momo, Bonnie, Otie, Maddoc, Buddy Lee, Twinkie, Blue and Pippen, among so many others, we still miss you 💔

You get smarter but young people keep being dumb.

All right all right all right.

It fucking hurts.

Seriously, every day there's a new ache or pain. Things that never hurt when I was younger now hurt if I think about them wrong.

Body on Monday: "So we're taking a step today, are we? Not without your ankle suddenly feeling like a knitting needle is being driven through it for the next week".

Body on Tuesday: "Sneezed, huh? Enjoy the feeling of your lower trapezius muscles being ripped from your back!"

Body on Wednesday: "Did you turn your head slightly to glance over that way? Boy, you don't like this neck, do you?!"

Body on Thursday: "Yeah, nothing fancy today. Just flaring up this old back injury, because you turned over in your sleep".

And so on ...

You're getting tired. When you ride your bicycle, it always goes uphill, even when in fact you're going downhill. And the older you grow, the steeper it gets.

The future seems distant but the past is an instant. Your life seems like it went by in a flash.

You have to live with all the mistakes you've made for your entire life.

While it is commonly shown in media, the "seeing everyone you love die" thing is generally reserved for immortals; but it can happen just getting old, too. You'll likely die long after your grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles. And if you're very unlucky, a lot of people younger than you as well.

You aren’t getting any more teeth, so take care of the ones you have.

Stress produces cortisol. Cortisol reduces your empathy.

Like Casandra, knowing the future won’t make you happy or get people to listen to you.

Intelligence is setting your medication to automatically arrive when you run out. Wisdom is having it arrive a week before you run out.

Getting older is great! You've been around long enough to see how some things change while others stay the same. You start to care more about some things and less about the rest. Every year is my favorite age! Except for the year i lost my mom- that was worst thing about aging.

I'll tell you the worst thing. Far worse than anyone else here can mention.

Time is constantly accelerating. When you are 5, the concept of a year is nearly an eternity. But your perception of time changes the older you get. Every year is shorter and shorter. Like you are on a constantly accelerating ship headed to the end of existence.

Realizing how stupid you were when you were young.

mental pain is silently being replaced by physical pain

It really sucks having young people getting on your lawn.

I'm still pretty young yet but one thing I've noticed with growing older is how less and less people your age seem to want to have fun. I don't mean acting silly I mean finding time for joy in life and expressing that inner child. And yet they still make mistakes and deal with them like a kid would :/

It really feels like being with children acting like adults, who have forgotten how to be children. Just weird lol.

The older you get the less time with friends and more time alone you have.

To watch your body deteriorate more and more, and your brain as well. It makes life harder, little by little, every day.

Old people don't do so many things anymore because they just can't, because it gets too hard.

Not doing things anymore that you have always done, that is one definition of dying (some start it very soon in their life). In the end you don't do anything anymore.

You start to realize there's only a finite amount of time left and start having to choose what you're going to start based on what you'll be able to finish and what you could have spent your finite time on instead of.

Also loved ones and close friends passing away is hard, but the state before that... getting ill and their health going downhill... no longer able to be the person you grew up with. It's mentally rough.

Finally, your body no longer being able to cash the check your mind wants to write.

Slowly, all the ppl whose wisdom and advice you've relied upon your entire life disappear or die. Go be with them before they're gone.

The body is like a machine, and the older you get: parts suddenly break down and can’t be fixed anymore. Some parts got damaged when you were young (meniscus, teeth, hearing) and they then start causing problems when you’re old. It’s practically impossible to loose weight after 50. Your libido goes down the drain.

Spending so much time going to medical appointments.

The weight of experience.

The heartbreaks, failures, disappointments, and losses you experience in your youth accrue and do permanent damage over time. Also, everything you loved in your youth will be unrecognizably different or gone completely within 20-30 years. (Which is why I recommend people get in the habit of journaling.)

Also, you won't digest food as well as you age and your digestion's going to get weird.

It can feel like you're slowly fading out of existence. Almost like you're gradually becoming a ghost. No one cares that much about anything you have to say or anything you do because you're old. I'm lucky because I have a home that's mine and I'm surrounded by family and friends, but I'm starting to realise how hard it must be if you get old without those things. Like becoming invisible alone. Also, it's pretty obvious now that the end is coming at some point. When it does I hope it's quick. I hope I don't see it coming and that I don't end up being a burden on my loved ones.

Realizing, that adults are just as clueless as kids when dealing with problems. They just don't have anyone that will solve it for them.