Getting older

EC21

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Joined
Jul 5, 2022
Messages
561
Location
Derbyshire
I think a lot of you will know what this is like. A good while ago I found out I was the youngest on here:):). Obviously not, but I was surprised at the age of some members who I seem to have know for many years now. I am 68 now so will be an old f&ck to some and a young f^ck to others. I always said I would hate getting old, and I f&cking do:)

How do you guys find getting old? I got to say I really detest it it because I cannot find a positive about it. Is there a positive bar the bus pass and state pension?

Might sound silly asking this but it is on my mind every day at some point? So want to know how others face getting older

Mentally I still feel like I'm 21, still like the same music, which was always a big deal in my life.

I look back now and think I must have lived 3 lives, I look back at the 80s which is yonks ago and think, bloody hell I was in my 30s then. Does not seem real how quick time passes by when you hit 60 for instance. In the mid 1960s as a kid seems like it was someone else who went through that time

Just throwing something out there, maybe you guys feel similar or whatever. Ageing is a complex game I find.
 
Age is just a number -your health -physical and mental-is what really matters.I'm 54 and had brain surgery twice last year which has left me with low energy levels.I think I'm about 80% recovered and look to being 100%next year.
 
Age is just a number -your health -physical and mental-is what really matters.I'm 54 and had brain surgery twice last year which has left me with low energy levels.I think I'm about 80% recovered and look to being 100%next year.
Sorry to here that Luke.. I think my physical and mental health is poor but am scared to get that checked out. I am the typical male in that ignorance is better than knowing,
 
Best to get checks like the one for aneurisms because that could be a life saver ( says I that stopped having my laidees health checks during the pandemic and never got round to having them). The trouble with being older is that each year is eg 1/63 of your life not 1/5 as a 5 year old. They say you shouldn’t do the same things year after year ( eg we’re going on the worldwide greyhound walk today and can’t believe i’s a year since the last one) but our sport means our lives follow a pattern (I only have to blink and it’s the Breeders Cup or the Pardubicka).
 
There's no doubt as you get older you become increasingly aware of your vulnerabilities.

I was 69 last week and I'd say I feel younger than that. People tell me I look younger than that but there was a photo a couple of weeks back taken at a wedding we were at and I thought I looked positively ancient in it.

I still have the urge to vault barriers at pedestrian crossings rather than walk round them and will happily break into a short sprint to cross a road when traffic is far enough away for me to get away with it.

I'd love to get back on a bike but I hate wearing those naff helmets.

And I'd love to get wired into a competitive football match.

We're off to the sun early tomorrow and I'm looking forward to getting up and out early in the morning to walk briskly along the promenade, about a mile along and another one back, before breakfast. It's so much more of a chore trying to get some exercise here with the utter shite weather we have.

Once a month I have a snooker session and lunch with two of my older brothers. We happened to discuss meds one day and what and how many we were taking. It turns out I'm taking the most but I'd say I was some way physically fitter than either. I can't help thinking it's because I was much more involved in sports than they ever were and I kept most going as long as I could, still playing indoor football (and the occasional outdoor match) the year I retired.

The brother immediately above me said he didn't take any meds at all, to which I replied, "Then you'll die first!"

That actually hit him much harder than I'd intended and he still talks about that conversation. My reasoning was that I go to the doctor pretty much whenever I feel concerned about something, just so (s)he can reassure me that it isn't serious, I suppose, but I am on meds for an enlarged prostate, gout, HBP, statins and reflux. I'm also currently on steroids for PMR and because I'm on them I'm also on alendronic acid and vitamin D tabs to counter any side effects. I also take daily supplements of cod liver oil and senna to help keep me regular. But at least I know what's wrong with me. I told the brother he has no idea if anything is wrong with him if he never goes to the doctor and he could see the logic in it but it still shocked him that I said it. In fact, he was rushed into hospital a few weeks ago but tests cleared him of anything worrisome and he's fine now but I think he will be more ready to ask to see the doc in future.

I also do the Times crossword and high level Sudoku to keep my brain working, much the same reason as I study the form.

I do feel fine but I am not taking it for granted that I will see 70.

You know what they say: if you want to give God a good laugh tell him your plans...
 
Sorry to here that Luke.. I think my physical and mental health is poor but am scared to get that checked out. I am the typical male in that ignorance is better than knowing,
No need to feel sorry -I actually think I'm the luckiest man alive.My gambling buddies reckon I was 1.01 to die when I blacked out and crashed the car before the tumour was diagnosed.Me and my 13 year Old son walked away from it.I am incredibly grateful for that.
 
Dessie -that sounds like a Good lifestyle to me.One piece of advice -keep an eye on the steroids -I had an incident in hospital where I was climbing the walls with anxiety one particular day.I said it to the brain surgeon and he said it was purely the steroids.As soon as he said that to me I could feel the weight lift off my shoulders.
 
One answer to what you can try (to slow down the perception of time increase with age) might lie in understanding why we have a perception that time passes quicker as we get older (and yes ofc I personally notice it, too, and I just passed 64)...

Fortunately, I don't have to write it up in my own words, these 3 'answers' I found on Reddit do a fairly good job...

"It is due to something called Weber's law.

"Weber's law—the observation that the ability to perceive changes in magnitudes of stimuli is proportional to the magnitude."

For example:. I give you a 5oz weight and a 10oz weight and ask you to hold one in each hand. Then I ask you to tell me which is heavier. Just by lifting them you can easily tell which is heavier.

Then I give you a 50oz weight and a 55oz weight. You will have a harder time telling the difference, even though the change (5oz) is the same in both situations.

The same applies to distance. You can easily tell the difference between a five foot tower and a ten foot tower but if looking at a 105 foot tower and a 110 foot tower you would have a harder time noticing the difference.

This phenomenon can be observed with all forms of measurement and grows exponentially with the measurement size. Aka magnitude.

The same works with time. As some others have noted, the longer you live the greater magnitude of time you have experienced/observed. And the harder it is to perceive the changes."

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"My simple take is this. When we are younger there are more memorable moments in each day or week. This is due to there being so little experience with all the things that happen in regular life. As we age the days become full of things that are "normal" everyday things and not really noticed or maybe more importantly, remembered at all. Now as we look back on the past few weeks or months there are significantly less "memorable" moments. Making that time period seem to have taken less time and therefore happened quicker. It's also been shown that when trying to count out a minute in their head, young people get to a minute faster than reality and older people get there after a minute has gone by. 53 seconds and 67 seconds respectively. I don't have much of a guess for this other than patience or more experience with the notion that a second is a little longer than you think."

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"Two main factors:

The older you get, the same amount of time is a smaller and smaller % of your total experience and memories. When you're 10, a year is 10% of your whole life so far. Thinking back on the last year will be a big chunk of your whole lifetime. When you're 50, a year is only 2% of your life and memories so it feels smaller. Every year is a smaller chunk of your life than it used to be.

Adult life tends to have less major changes and memorable events that help provide more markers of time in childhood. As a kid you're rapidly gaining and losing friends, going to at least a few different schools, maybe playing sports on different teams or being in plays or taking lessons of some sort. This year you're tall enough to ride a carnival ride you couldn't last year. This month you have a crush on someone, 6 months later you're dating someone else. All these life changes help the months and years feel "different" from each other and you remember them as more separate and the time feels longer. As an adult, if you have the same job and friends and spouse for 10+ years, it's all more alike and blends together in your memory. There's just more memorable changes and differences to recall from age 5-15 than from 50-60, so remembering all those separate events makes the time feel "bigger" in your perception."


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If you take these as valid reasons, then it follows that attempting to increase the volume of more memorable experiences we have (in our day-to-day lives as we age) might have the effect of 'slowing' down our perception of the passage of time.

There are problems with this ofc. A generalization - but we tend to gravitate more towards routine and 'just' passing time as we get older (as I type, I've 'realised' that's what I'm doing, I'm doing 'stuff' all the time that I've done a thousand times before - mowing the lawn, trimming the hedge, getting the shopping, walking the dog, scanning the races, etc etc)

And I'll/we'll always come back to that, too. Because it's life, stuff we have to do. Going off and doing something like visiting somewhere you've never been before doesn't seem to make much difference because after you've done it, the 'normality' is beckoning and you (have to, usually) return to it.

Money plays a part (at least for some of us, possibly many), as does the ageing process itself and the fact we can't do what we used to (or can't risk it, kind of the same thing).

My theory is that there are chemical changes in the brain with age (there are probably medical studies somewhere that confirm or deny this, haven't looked) that contribute (possibly along with the 'reasons' above) to an increased perception of fast time passage. If so, why those changes take place is a question. Why would the evolutionary process create this? Was it there all along anyway? Is it just a natural process that brain cells (or a specific region of the brain) go through simply because they're heading the 'wrong' way? ie they're degenerating.

Theoretically, there should be a reason for all this. Evolution 'happened' (to us) in order (I assume) to give the greatest chances of survival. It would be great to understand what that reason is. But this is out of reach, partly because we don't know the end game anyway. How far has evolution got to go till it reaches the pinnacle?

Crikey, this is getting a bit deep! I need to go and make a cup of green tea and clean up the kitchen! Then mow the grass before it rains!
 
Getting older, aren't we all? Positives? I'm in my 70's, I collect my young grandkids from school & look after them for a few hours 5 days a week and the only work I now do is voluntary work. IMO age is a state of mind but in reality I know that's not necessarily the case - oh, and you know it's thought that gardeners live longer because they always have something to look forward to? Well isn't the love of horse racing so similar? Onwards & upwards eh?
 
I remember being on holidays and always thinking that, on a two week break, that the first week took forever and the second just flew past.

I life, up to 40 is your first week and from 40 onwards is your second.
 
Getting older, aren't we all? Positives? I'm in my 70's, I collect my young grandkids from school & look after them for a few hours 5 days a week and the only work I now do is voluntary work. IMO age is a state of mind but in reality I know that's not necessarily the case - oh, and you know it's thought that gardeners live longer because they always have something to look forward to? Well isn't the love of horse racing so similar? Onwards & upwards eh?
It used to be but my enjoyment has waned significantly over recent times. Nr's, small fields, R4's, shit weather, less and less staying races, have taken their toll and I bet less and less.
 
Great observations from all of you, and I’m pleased your health is recovering, Luke.

I’m 60, semi-retired, looking to fully retire within the next 18 months. Take a handful of pills for my heart, but heart health has actually improved since 2018. So, yes, always see the Doc!

Writing the next book is my mental stimulation, with a simultaneous interest in arguing on social media!
 
When I used to go on holiday to somewhere hot I used to immediately feel ten years younger. I think we should be prescribed a fortnight in eg Crete on the NHS and it would be cost effective.
 
Dessie -that sounds like a Good lifestyle to me.One piece of advice -keep an eye on the steroids -I had an incident in hospital where I was climbing the walls with anxiety one particular day.I said it to the brain surgeon and he said it was purely the steroids.As soon as he said that to me I could feel the weight lift off my shoulders.

Yes. When the doc said she was prescribing me steroids my first question was, "What about the side effects?" She went into the side effects of the one she was prescribing and explained why sh would also prescribe meds to counter them.

I started on a highish dose and reduced it gradually ever three weeks. I started on 15mg per day and am down to 2.5 with no recurrence to date of the pain. I plan to go down to 2 while I'm on holiday and hopefully 1.5 when I get back. She said I might never come off them but I'm hopeful that I will be off them by the summer.
 
My health's improved mightily since having my (huge) prostate removed. I'm still incontinent but that's getting better and I sport a penile clamp now during the day so don't have to have pads on all the time. I've had a good flat season so treated myself to a rather expensive pump to help with the old erections. Also semi retired, just the 15 on average hours at my local Ladbrokes and one driving job a week.
 
The big age 40 awaits for me next year. And I'm feeling good. I struggle with office politics at my day job working for local radio, but I'm coping with it.

No major issues physically. I was well over 7 cholestral level two years ago though. The nurse at my local GP refused to prescribe me statins, which I got challenged, and overturned when I saw a consultant. Since taking the statins I'm down to 4.1. So internally the fat in my blood is way down. I'm playing football once a week and love it. I never lost the touch I tell ya.

My dream job has come up and I've been working on my CV and Cover Letter tonight. 30k a year doing what I love. I'd feel like I'd died and gone to heaven if I could get this.
 
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The big age 40 awaits for me next year. And I'm feeling good. I struggle with office politics at my day job working for local radio, but I'm coping with it.

No major issues physically. I was well over 7 cholestral level two years ago though. The nurse at my local GP refused to prescribe me statins, which I got challenged, and overturned when I saw a consultant. Since taking the statins I'm down the 4.1. So internally the fat in my blood is way down. I'm playing football once a week and love it. I never lost the touch I tell ya.

Mentally, still officially living with what I'd describe as very mild bipolar. Though I was diagnosed so long ago, over twenty years ago, that it was a lot more severe back then. When they see you at your worst, or lowest point, there's always the chance they overestimate the 'illness' and the long term impact, which is what I think happend with me. I proved a few of them wrong, that's for sure.

My dream job has come up and I've been working on my CV and Cover Letter tonight. 30k a year doing what I love, radio newsreading stuff. I'd feel like I'd died and gone to heaven if I could get this.
Good luck with your dream job, Marb!
 
My health's improved mightily since having my (huge) prostate removed. I'm still incontinent but that's getting better and I sport a penile clamp now during the day so don't have to have pads on all the time. I've had a good flat season so treated myself to a rather expensive pump to help with the old erections. Also semi retired, just the 15 on average hours at my local Ladbrokes and one driving job a week.
What's an erection? :unsure:
 
I'm not quite ready for pump action just yet.

This is another example of how I've saved the NHS a few quid....
 
When I used to go on holiday to somewhere hot I used to immediately feel ten years younger. I think we should be prescribed a fortnight in eg Crete on the NHS and it would be cost effective.
I used to have really bad sinuses and the doctor said I needed a couple of weeks of humid weather but unfortunately you can't get a fortnight in Barbados on the nhs.🤣🤣
 
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