Anxiety in fifty and sixty year olds

[callingeveryone]

I am in my fifties and I am just noticing more and more friends getting anxious about doing a range of things. This is anything from driving on a motorway, to travelling abroad to a non tourist resort area. Not all my friends, some are still very adventurous. But is this the beginning of the anxiety many older people seem to feel?
And nearly all older people seem to develop more anxiety as they are in their seventies and eighties. I saw it in my mother who was not afraid of anything when younger, but by her seventies would get anxious about going anywhere new?
Maybe it is inevitable? But I really want to avoid it for myself if possible.

I was thinking about this the other day. When i was in my teens i travelled abroad alone, in my 20s i regularly travelled alone and visited places for the day alone. Maybe i was lonely, but i can't remember. Now, 30 years later, i wanted to go for a day away by myself and i didn't have anyone to go with and felt like how can i spend a whole day away alone with no one to share it. I don't remember feeling like that when I was younger. Maybe I'm rubbish at being alone now.

I like this attitude!!

I think it's to do with testosterone. I frequent some menopause message boards and there are lots of reports of anxiety, including when driving and many women report this goes away if they get testosterone replacement.

Men also experience a fall in testosterone levels as they age, albeit not the cliff edge that women get with menopause.

Testosterone is a hormone that affects more than just sex drive, I think it gives an appetite for life and a certain tolerance to risk.

Sorry @ArseInTheCoOpWindow another question ... when you say anxiety got worse after menopause - can you remember when this was?
Physically I had a few issues in peri but mentally I seemed ok. I'm two years after my last period and recently had a horrible relapse of severe anxiety / panic.

And ps to my last post... is there anyone who had increased anxiety with menopause but that then settled later ?

I don't really understand it. Why does it happen?
My mum doesn't have any of this, in her late 70's apart from the driving in the dark which I can understand.

I had a coil fitted so I never knew when my periods stopped. I didn't know I was perimenopausal, I thought I was losing my mind. The menopause provision in this country is shockingly bad.

I think it started at about 48. I stopped being able to sleep, and just was loads more anxious. I went through the menopause at 53.

Just browsing this thread....

I'm 68. I do get more anxious about some things but it's mainly as I have a tetchy bladder which is a nuisance when travelling.

I still drive for 5 to 6 hours alone, on the motorway, to see a very elderly parent. I hate it now as I feel knackered for a day afterwards. In my 30s and 40s I'd zoom along and not give it a thought and have driven back the following day. The traffic is much heavier now.

I do think it's important to keep doing things. Work- I became self employed in my early 40s and I could manage my work load. I did some retraining at 50 (counselling) and am still working very part time (again, for myself.)

Thank you. It's all a bit of a mystery to me why I was ok in peri but then it all seemed to kick off 2 years after last period. (Although maybe it's not linked to menopause at all with me.)

Probably menopause. It sometimes only just starts after periods stop- not ends! HRT is brilliant for sleep.

I am 66 and all my friends are around that age, Some younger and some much older. They are all doing what they used to do, travelling, going out, socialising and generally having fun.

I have just flown from NZ back to UK to find a residential home for my Mum who was almost 92 and has been in her own home without care until a fall in March. Sadly she died last week and I am now organising her funeral on my own as I have no other family in UK and just getting on with stuff.

I am an only child and wonder if that makes you more resilient when you have just have to get on with stuff, because there is no-one else to do it.

Thanks @DorisDoolittle
I take ADs but going to look at HRT too.

I started to get chronic insomnia and became anxious at 49. Last period around 53. My father died when I was
49 and I thought it was grief. I now see it was hormones too.

.g. Take my gas and electricity meter readings and submit online. A totally simple thing but it takes me ages to read them and the readings done last week were written on a tissue box. I use the internet a lot but it takes effort to submit them. I still haven't submitted them and I can even see into the cupboard under the stairs where the meters are whilst typing this on my tablet!

This is totally me!!

I am in my 60s. I have had issues with anxiety for most of my life, thankfully now under control.
My attitude to risk has changed since I was younger, and nothing to do with weakness, I execise a lot and am very fit.

I think as we age we become aware of our fragility, we see people having accidents, being hurt- life experience build up,
I don't like travelling fast on the road, I don't like heights or roller coasters, I wouldn't walk around the city late at night.

For me it isn't anxiety as such, it's about risk taking.

Blaming it on menopause ignorance is really weak. We've all known about that for many years, it's been well advertised.

I'm 63 and currently travelling round Spain in a van with DP also 63. Doing lots of cycling and walking. I love driving (no good at navigating but that's what Google maps is for).
I do get irritated by people my age and older who won't use internet etc (but am nice and helpful to them!).
I have suffered anxiety but it's more about the world in general, not doing things.

Please speak to your GP re this chronic anxiety. Normalising it is not ok. It's not normal.

My nan experienced less anxiety and more anxiety as she's grown older.

She cares less about what people think (it used to really bother her)

But she gets more nervous about new situations and she requires a bit of hand holding with travel - I'm more than happy to help she's lovely.

So swings and roundabouts I guess!

Would you have gone on your own? That's what most of this is about, it's easy if there's a DP to go with or even one waiting at home to rescue should the need occur. Entirely different when you have to be completely self sufficient .

Its interesting posters discussing driving, particularly at speed. The last few years I've became TERRIFIED if I'm a passenger and the driver is going fast on the motorway.

Like, its unbearable.

I’m interested to know what the GP
would be able to do. Absolutely nothing apart from dole out ADs.

Where was It 'advertised for years ? I'm talking maybe 15 or so years ago. Obviously nobody told GPs who are still handing out anti-depressants like sweets.

We don't all have your amazing insight.

It's not inevitable. My parents didn't suffer from anxiety, nor my grandparents, and all were in their mid-late 80s when they died. Dad was still driving up until two months before he died, Mum up until a couple of months before she was diagnosed with mild dementia, and they still went out and about. However, I can see why some people would be anxious, many younger people are lacking in empathy with older folk, and if you add in hearing issues and technology they can be somewhat abrupt with people who struggle to understand. I'm in my 60s and am fine, as are all my friends, some of whom are 70, I can't say I've noticed anyone in their 50s/60s who are as OP describes.