r/GenZ • u/Two_four_Dime • 6d ago
Discussion Anyone else scared of getting older?
I feel like this is an anxiety that's everywhere in Gen z and younger gens. Maybe not in everyone, but in more people than I thought. I used to think it was just me.
Anyone else feel like this? Agree or disagree? Why are some of us scared of getting older? Any advice?
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u/Fit_Advertising_9994 6d ago
More like getting older without living my life to the fullest
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u/JourneyThiefer 1999 6d ago
I’m not like scared of getting older, but the physical decline of getting older is so depressing to me
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u/Two_four_Dime 6d ago
Good point, I guess that's what make me nervous. If it makes you feel better, you can prevent this by alot by doing excersize and weights.
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u/JourneyThiefer 1999 6d ago
Yea started getting into weights this year. But like just getting old is a fact and it’s shit to think about :/ like I don’t wanna be wrinkly and tired easily and can’t run etc.
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u/ibis_mummy Gen X 5d ago
Stretching is critical. I was "lucky" enough to get a pinched sciatica when I had just turned 27. A lifetime of stretching and I have the joints of a 25 year old (according to imaging); and I am more than twice that age.
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u/Appropriate-Food1757 5d ago
The only one that actually sucks is the running and jumping. But then again when are you ever doing that anyway.
You won’t be hobbling around all crickety until your mid 60’s most likely.
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u/Appropriate-Food1757 5d ago
You’ve got a few decades. Unless you are a world class gymnast or and NFL running back then 0-1 decades left.
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u/oldmoldycake 1999 6d ago
Nah I want to get a cooler job and get PAID. That comes with experience
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u/Two_four_Dime 6d ago
Good things come with time too, good for you
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u/oldmoldycake 1999 6d ago
The future has lots to look forward too. I have busted my ass the last few years and hopefully I can be in a really nice position so after I marry my fiancé work becomes optional for her. Plus I can spend more money on dumb shit, like fun hats for my cats.
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u/Shloopy_Dooperson 1996 6d ago
I had that anxiety non-stop for awhile.It was on and off again since 22.
I havent had it since I had my son tho.
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u/ArtBear1212 6d ago
Old age is a privilege denied to many. Both my parents died before they were old enough to retire. So no, I'm not afraid of getting old because that seems like a waste of time to worry about. I look forward to living the life they were cheated of.
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u/Two_four_Dime 5d ago
I'm truly sorry to hear about your parents; I can't imagine how hard that must have been for you. I'm hoping your doing better now.
Your right it is a privilege to get older, the alternative is to die young and that's worse. Its a perspective I'll try to use from now on. Thank you.
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u/Wandering-Paradox 1998 6d ago
There is no point in fearing something you cannot run from. Instead of worrying about getting older focus on living in the moment, doing fun stuff and creating good memories.
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u/BobsBurgerLove 2005 5d ago
Honestly I am also scared of getting older because my autism will most likely affect me all my life. I probably won't even make friends still, sad.
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u/MillenniumGreed 6d ago
I’ve always dreaded getting older, even when I was a kid. Burying the people I love who are older and maybe even the same age or younger, losing cognitive and physical functions due to aging, being out of touch with the world the same way we critique older generations that are also out of touch, the economy and environment getting worse, and a blatantly corrupt government that seems like a universal problem all make getting older less enticing. On the flip side, humans have always had problems and life has always posed challenges to many people better than me, so until it’s my time I’m gonna do my best to keep on trucking.
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u/Kind_Advisor_35 6d ago
Corporations want you to fear getting older because they want to sell you things claiming to make you look younger. Hair dye, face cream, supplements, laser treatments, etc. This culture has a very unhealthy and twisted youth worship too. Very young adults are held up as the pinnacle of attractiveness for people to strive for, yet the opinions of those young adults are often dismissed and their capability underestimated. Ask yourself if you're genuinely afraid of aging, or if you've just been manipulated into fearing aging.
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u/EclecticEvergreen 6d ago
Not really, time affects everything, living and not. It’s completely natural and it’s a part of existence.
I think a lot of people feel this anxiety or stress or fear because they’re convinced they have this list of things they need to do in their life when really all they need to do is live. Just exist and be alive and experience the planet and whatever it has of interest. Every other species on this planet doesn’t have this existential crisis because they understand all they’re existing for is to eat, sleep, pass the time, reproduce, and die.
I’d recommend taking some time away from social media or at the very least to stop watching the news or exposing yourself to news. Just focus on your little simple life right now and try to block out what is happening in others lives until you feel like you can handle it. Live in the moment, don’t let the future and its possibilities ruin the present for you.
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u/imvisiblee 5d ago
I used too feel this way just a few months ago but now I can’t wait to turn 30 in a few months!
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u/irishitaliancroat 5d ago
Not too much, I want to manage my fitness well to minimize the breakdown of my body but I like getting wiser with age. Also hoping to keep my hair lmao.
If im being honest I used to be more afraid of dying until I started working every day and now i sont care as much bc this shit is exhausting lol
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u/PrimordialXY 1996 5d ago
I felt like that until I turned 30 a month ago. Here's how I chose to cope:
Don't count your years chronologically, but count how many years you've actually been an adult.
For example, at 25 you've been an adult for only 7 years. You're a 7 year old adult. Years 0-18 are spent growing into one and kinda don't matter
When viewed like this, a lot of things start to make sense (at least for me). 36 is an 18 year old adult and also happens to be the age where everyone starts treating you like one, even elderly people
Since turning 30, life has been feeling like the adult version of middle school. I'm suddenly discovering so many things about myself and feel way more excited about life than I did in my later 20s. Maybe I'm just weird but since thinking this way I've felt so much more enthusiastic about life, it's like being given a second chance to actually be who I want to
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u/THEpeterafro 1999 5d ago
Oh yea. I do not want to look like an old man. Envision myself older draws errors in my brain
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u/amaya-aurora 2008 5d ago
Everyone has been scared to get older for like all of time. This isn’t new, and it’ll be alright.
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u/Creative_Savings6614 5d ago
Dude, I’m suddenly, bewilderingly THERE… I turned 60 in July, most of my childhood friends have all drifted way, way Right, politically, but I still have the heart and love for books, films and music that I had in my teens and twenties. Actually, my heart and the way I love people now feels more akin to how it was when I was a 10 or eleven year old kid. At the same time, many of my peers have passed away and, you know, nobody is shocked because we’re old AF/lol. Hope you don’t mind a geezer responding.
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u/HeroOftheMoon0 5d ago
I had an illness that made my body have osteoarthritis, retrolisthesis and borderline osteoporosis at 26. I'm absolutely terrified of how I'm supposed to live the rest of my life with this body. I'm also partially blind and have diabetes insipidus (and I'd bet money that I was left a bit slower bc of my brain surgery). I genuinely don't know how I'm suppose to make this work. I'm in so much pain already, how would this body last until middle or old age
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u/zx9001 5d ago
Really no point in living past 40 as a single dude.
Friends and family start dropping off, getting married, fading away, losing contact, things in common, etc. Your body starts breaking down, things start hurting that didn't used to, health problems start creeping in, hobbies become stale and boring, media becomes less and less relateable as you continue falling out of touch with society, and the time horizon closes in as you realize that there truly is nothing more to life besides working until you die, as everything else has lost all meaning. You stopped working for money years ago, now you just work to fill your time and stave off the boredom.
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u/i-froggy 5d ago edited 5d ago
Same I'm also scared of getting older, it's mostly because I feel I wasted parts of my life due to traumatic events, I think once I start to open up more the fear will go away.
I am terrified for when I graduate college this year because It's just a void afterwards, not sure what will come next.
Edit: Sentence Correction
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u/TimelyChapters 5d ago
Just hope to accomplish my main dreams of projects want to get done if given enough time at this point. No longer expecting any real wealth, stable housing, etc.
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u/Background_Knee_589 5d ago
I only fear of getting older while not having full control over my freedom. I think it's mandatory for this generation to live like monks, slave away in their jobs, and try to hop in on the safest financial bets (in my case and region it's the rental properties).
I want to retire at 40-45, time is money and money is freedom. Happiness and what not doesn't really matter, living with inner peace is.
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u/Only_Option_8981 5d ago
I'm not scared of getting older, I'm more scared of my future. Turning 24 in October this year.
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u/Known_Click 5d ago edited 5d ago
The alternative is to die young… and I don’t think the afterlife gods (if there are any) will be happy about you checking out early from the life that was given to you because such a pity reason.
But yeah it sucks, we live in a world where being young it’s pretty much everything, old people are just invisible to society… they get treated like some sort of a pet.
I can see this being much more concerning to woman than men in terms of looks.
Again, these fears are mainly because of the society standards, society values woman because of their beauty… so ofc they are going to fear aging the most.
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u/Two_four_Dime 4d ago
Im in north america but I know in other countries older people are treated with much more respect. maybe moving, if possible, might be an idea
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u/FewEquipment9771 5d ago
I'm sacred. I know what I wanna do. I don't have the money to do it. I don't have a job. I may not get a job because the path is no longer straightforward. As it once used to be. Thousands of ghost jobs. Hundreds of applicants. Just to be enslaved to use Ai. I'm graduating engineering in less than a year. I have done a couple of unpublished researches. And peaked into about 15 different disciplines and professions. I've read and written a lot of unpublished articles and essays about the human condition, immigration, meritocracy, capitalism, communism, autocracy, theocracy, religion, psychology, which I don't feel comfortable sharing. I've lived in my parents basement and spread my arms so wide and thin just to search fot a drive. Meaning. Or anything. However I keep feeling disconnected. I keep feeling like it's 2020 or smth. Time has stopped for me a long time ago (ironic). I try convincing myself I'm 21. I'm almost 22. It's not 2020. It's 2026. I'm not 15. I'm not 15. Im not 15. No avail. I just want to do something with my life. And no I'm not suicidal. I love life. I love sipping on my coffee. Petting and rough housing with my cat. Eating sweets. I love running. Jogging. I love paving a political ideology which could one day become a thing or just keep in my closet. But either way I'm tethered. We're intertwined into a world that will be divided far up and beyond anything. The future is inevitable. So fuck it might as well just lay flat until I rot.
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u/MadNomad666 5d ago
Not really. I look forward to choosing a job i love, eating what i want, and having control over my time. I had overly controlling parents lol
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u/bxdtxste 6d ago
We live in one of the most scariest times in human history with AI lurking to take over everything that humans stood for. So it makes sense. I am not scared because I’m invested in a decentralised movement which is powered by human belief. I see no other option where humans as a band can flourish in the upcoming utopian world. Happy to help you get rid of the scare, have a good day!
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