To find getting older so incredibly sad

Cheers justaboy what a tonic it is to read your post. Your positivity shines out!

We get these lovely fresh faces with glowing skin and they literally start falling apart in no time at all.

I don't think that's literally true. :o I'm 46 and no bits of my face have fallen off yet!

I think we need some role models.

vivienne

judi

iris

I'd love to age like any of these women, and no surgery etc. needed either.

My family is full of people who live interesting lives regardless of age. I worry that I'm full in comparison, but I don't worry about getting old when my parents are learning, travelling, embracing new skills and experiences in their sixties, and my grandparents were gadding around having a great time until their last year or two when illness cramped their style (although my grandmother spent her final years campaigning in favour of euthanasia and arranging her own assisted suicide, so she was pretty active about her interests even when that interest was death).

I feel a bit frumpy and creaky now, but that's because of my circumstances rather than my age, and those circumstances can be changed. I hope I am lucky enough to get to be old.

Nice post Muchtoomuch, though hopefully there is much that makes the Eddy happy too?

I guess we can all have such thoughts about life and ageing - our own mortality essentially - to some degree?

But I agree it's a pity to be too focused on appearances - there's so much more to life than that

I'll be 65 this year!. A few years ago I "died" twice on the operating table after a very bad accident. I've, i suppose, been given an extra lease of life by the excellent medical team involved.

Don't feel any real older, just ache here and there a bit, mainly from that incident, but so glad to be around still:)

Yeah a bit of grey hair and a few wrinkles but so what?, really, I'm alive that's all that matters and the quality of life is for me good in many ways does seem better than some 10 - 15 odd years ago.

I have known people who have died young, some who have suffered the ravages of cancers,some friends have gone. I know some very young active older people who are now into their 80's, happy as Larry they are.

It's all in the way you see things i think. I'm doing more working more I love my work!, must be mad then, playing more, just going to have to give up rock climbing but that's for the best!,a new relationship is on the horizon might be a granddad 'ere long.

I'm not complaining at all!

OP, some people your age are facing terminal illness and would love the luxury of 'normal' ageing. This is life. When you are 35 , you mourn 25, at 45 you mourn 35. There is no point. Just enjoy each life stage as we all age and we will all die. As a pp said, ageing is a privilege, I have lost friends in my 20s and 30s and I am only 44 so I feel lucky.

Well said, the best. I cannot abide this self pity at 35 years old, flipping ridiculous.

I got into my sexual peak after the birth of my second at 34

it's still going strong

I'm 38. I went through the sadness at wrinkles etc. as far back as 28, when I started to look much older. Since then, the ageing process hasn't been too quick and I think I look OK for my age. But, I've been incredibly tired this winter and was wondering if that's down to my age. I've also noticed recently that my shoulders are starting to droop. Does anybody know if I can slow that down? I'm hoping the way I was feeling in the run up to Christmas is just the winter blues...

I agree with the comment, it actually feels better the older you get. You cant do anything about it really so you have to live with it or die.

It just seems a bit crap to end up looking and feeling like older versions of ourselves.

This is the thing, it's not older versions of ourselves. It's us. With our grey hairs and wrinkles. With our experiences and memories. All of these things make us us. Make us who we are.

We're blessed to see these changes happening to ourselves and to those around us who we love.

Those negative thoughts need banishing op and channeling into a more positive way of thinking otherwise you'll never be truly happy.

We don't really get long enough at being young do we. But it is sad, I was in a shop today and glanced at myself in a mirror. I was horrified. I've got new wrinkles which I hadn't noticed before. I miss the way I used to look. We get these lovely fresh faces with glowing skin and they literally start falling apart in no time at all.

Bloody hell get a grip, 35???? You're in your prime and you're wasting it You've still got your parents, enjoy them!!!

It's a privilege. I didn't think I would make it to 19 due to serious illness. Ageing is a blessing

Agree with cupcakes, at 25 I thought my life was over, at 33 I was preparing for a long slide to the grave. That gets easier as you get older, believe me. 40 was my best birthday ever and it's a lot of fun being in my late 40s. I have to say that I work with sick older people so I do rather dread being very old and frail, but I have to remind myself that even at an advanced age those with very debilitating illnesses are still the minority.

YABU, to a huge extent. I am 51, a few aches and pains (mostly weight related so my fault). At 35 I was working overseas, having a brill time (albeit looking after holiday reps 15 years younger). Wait until you are a early 50's looking after elderly, sick parents who die (and you are heartbroken).
Get a grip love, enjoy life.

At work today we were discussing the utter crapness of the Now 92 CDs I bought for ds1's Christmas when compared to the original 1983 Now That's What I Call Music 4 cassette set of our youth

We're getting old and grumpy and don't appreciate modern music, but I'm glad we had Kajagoogoo rather than Justin Bieber (ok, really scrapping the bottom of the barrel there )

I'm going to bloody celebrate my 43 years on earth and all the experiences I've had. It's written all over my face and I don't give a damn. Here's to 43 more. My parents have close on 70 years to celebrate, my gran has 98 - we can't live for ever or there wouldn't be any room for our dcs so just enjoy it while we can.

I think it's a shame to start feeling like this in your thirties - you're so young, so much ahead of you!
Fight it my dear.
Do not go gentle into that good night (As Dylan Thomas says)

I've started to feel a bit like this after two difficult close bereavements and with my parents both now in their eighties. Many friends and family fighting various ailments.

No-one should feel this way just because of a few wrinkles.

Kick ass with life!
(or however the young folks would style it )

Like some PPs I was worried about this in my 30s, now in my 40s it's less frightening. I feel like there's a whole new me waiting to emerge when kids are older and I have more freedom and time. I'm less bothered about things like wrinkles and grey hairs – though I still love clothes and care about how I look, I don't see "youthfulness" as a vital part of that look IYSWIM.

I don't think getting old or being old is in itself a bad or tragic thing –yes aches and pains, illnesses, immobility and so on are, but being older could be great. I hope to make the most of it by staying fit and being creative as long as I can.

Ideally, I hope my late 50s-70s, if I'm lucky enough to have them, will be like my youth – free to do what I like, potter round the shops, spend all weekend sewing a dress, go to an all night jazz bar and get up at 4pm the next day, head off on a foreign trip on a whim... but with more money and while giving less of a shit what people think.

I think your 30s can be hard especially if you have babies around then and you just feel wrecked and exhausted and your life feels over. But it picks up again.

I don't physically feel old at all, have had grey hairs since I was 12 tbh, never had a great body or face to maintain lol.

I remember being 36 and fretting that I was too old to have children. I felt it was all downhill from here. 18 years and three children later I am more comfortable in my own skin that I have ever been (could stand to lose some weight but that is for me, nobody else). I think age and maturity bring you a certain "this is me and I am happy with who I am so fuck off to the far side of fuck if you don't like it because I won't be changing" which would be wasted on younger women

If you feel like that at 35 heaven help you.

At 35 I had a career change and hadn't even had children. You are young still.

At 35, unless you have medical issues or small children you shouldn't look or feel old. Given that our life expectancy is about 77 years you will feel old for more than 40 years. Get a grip.

I am 57 and don't get these aches and pains you talk about. I can run up stairs easily, walk fast and cycle several miles.

I do get it, although at 34 I don't feel like a real grown up even now. Both of my parents died before I was 27. When my mum died I really did go off the rails depression wise.

In my early 70s I am beginning to feel my age a bit. I can't walk as far as I did, I wear a hearing aid and I get tired quite early in the evening.
35? You are so young, you have the most exciting times to come. Enjoy them :)

Get yourself to the GP for a blood test, look at your diet and your lifestyle.

I'm 47 and feel fantastic.

You shouldn't be aching, feeling 'old' and that life is passing you by.