To ask when you started to feel ‘old’?

[goodluckandgodspeed]

I didn’t feel old until the birthday just gone but suddenly it’s hit me like a ton of bricks that I’m old now and getting older fast!
I don’t know if it’s like a mid life crisis but time suddenly seems to have sped up and be running out. I no longer feel like there are a lot of opportunities for me and this time is now just ‘waiting time.’
It’s very depressing!

My DM is 93 and doesn't feel old!
(She does look it though, obviously).

40 here and dont feel old. I think at 70 you are objectively old but dont have to feel old. Health has a lot to do with it and when you have kids it starts to age you so having kids earlier seems to make you middle aged sooner.

When my colleagues reminisce about 'growing up' with the spice girls music. I am the same age as the spice girls and was already like 21 when they came out!

70 for me, up till then I was ok. I had breast cancer in 2006 and put my aches and pains and lack of energy down to chemo. By 2014 when I was 70 I accepted that I was old and a lot of things were not coming back.
I am now 75, do some childcare after school for 10 and 12 year old grandsons and all the driving as my 83 year old dh isn’t really up to it now. However, I am most definitely ‘old’ on the outside and ‘young’ inside my head.

Last year when we worked out in the office that I was old enough to be the mother of most of the other people in my team, and in two cases their grandmother.

I had something similar. I realised that I was old enough to be Younger Colleague's mum, and we all had a good laugh about it. Then an Even Younger Colleague started, young enough to YC's daughter.

It took about a week before they realised this made me old enough to be her GM. That was nearly 10 years ago, and EYC still calls me Gran from time to time!

I started to really feel old about 2 months ago. I've had arthritis for quite some time, but in the last couple of months it's got really bad. I can barely get up the stairs, my knees keep giving way and I have excruciating tendonitis in my Achilles tendon (both legs).

We went out to lunch with DP's son yesterday and had to park about 1/4 of a mile from the pub. The pavement pounding walk made my legs hurt so much that I was practically in tears on the way back and had to take to my bed when we got home.

We need a bloody stairlift, or a bungalow.

I still don't look old though. I'm nearly 64 and a lot of people think I'm in my 40s or early 50s. When it was my 60th, there was (apparently) a lot of debate about how the person organising a surprise must have got it wrong and it must have been my 50th.

In my early 30s my life was consumed by my husband's alcoholism. First I was trying to help him, then I was sticking with him so he wouldn't die alone. I was worn down, abused, so gaslighted I had no real concept of reality. I was so stressed my body was physically breaking down, I ended up in an ambulance on 3 separate occasions, I had full blown psoriasis resulting in cracked weeping skin. I was heavy (I don't mean overweight - though I was a bit - I mean my whole self was just heavy and crushed from stress), my face was a constant stress frown. I got a lot of grey in my hair.

A decade on and I'm single and about as young as I was 25 years ago. I'm physically incredibly fit, my body is in the best shape of it's life. I have so very much energy. My hobby is so frickin' cool and I literally play every day. For the first time since I was a teenager, I have a fashionable wardrobe. I wear tiny dresses and skinny jeans. I do that 40s factory worker for victory style bandana and bun hairdo that's in fashion. I'm about to start working in a great new job that I'm insanely excited by.

I'm really hoping that as I got to be "old" in the last of my youth, I'm going to be youthful for the rest of my life.

34
First pregnancy 😭

I'm now 50 and I still don't feel old. True I many have aches and pains more than years ago, but I keep trying new things.
Planning to walk the Cotswolds Way later this Summer and wild camp along the way.
You are only as old as you let yourself feel

60. After my parents died, I realised I would probably be next - and when I realised my new colleague was born after I started this job.

alittleprivacy

What an inspiration you are

I'm 59 and don't feel old. I'm physically fit and healthy so thats probably why.

I had a massive wobble when I turned 30, felt ancient! 40 came and I embraced it! I'm mid 40s now and although I look older, I feel much more confident and happy

The day I sat in the funeral directors to arrange my dad’s funeral and realised I’m in the front line now. Very sobering.

I'll let you know when I do, 71 last birthday, my birth certificate is 50 years older than my head, although that's the only part of my body that feels that way!

35. I don’t know what happened, but I suddenly aged, like 15 years from 32 to 35. Put lots of weight on and just look drab, old and puffy. I am almost 38 now and have been making frantic efforts to get back to my normal self (diet, exercise etc), but every time I have my picture taken, it is a shock. I don’t recognise myself in the photo, I have to double check who the fat middle-aged lady is. How can it happen so quickly in the space of 3-4 years????

I almost feel despondent, trying so hard and nothing getting any better. Is that it now? The end of any looks I had?

After reading this thread, I just did this quiz on BBC

www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zg3hk7h

answer a few questions and it gives you your biological age. I am 35 and it says my body is aged 45... so that’s not great!

@ethelfleda that test is nonsense, put me at 59 instead of 41 and I just conceived a baby at 40 and am a picture of health! My bloods, urine, blood pressure are perfect.

Just done the test and it is indeed rubbish. It put me at eight years over my real age. I’m in better nick than any of my contemporaries at 65, low blood pressure, no chronic conditions, no stiff joints, no meds.

I am overweight and I smoked for 40 years which is, I assume, heavily weighted in the assessment.

Well I'm 40 and I don't feel old. Though I work a lot and have young kids so I need to exercise and relax more in order to stay healthy..

I played around with the results at the end to see what would make a big difference - I used to smoke so that didn’t help me! I smoked from the age 17ish to 33ish so moving the answer down by one bracket reduced my age by 5 years!
But I’m not overweight and exercise fairly regularly!

I don’t feel “old” yet but I’ve noticed a big change over the last year (age 31) - I can’t stay up as late anymore, don’t enjoy drinking as much anymore, don’t want to watch teenage trash on tv anymore or even to eat junk food. My tastes and past-times all seem to have changed suddenly.

My grandmother was very young-minded so I’m hoping I get another lease of life later on when I’m actually “old”!

And as for fasting... how can that be good for you??

@ethelfleda intermittent fasting has really good health benefits. I do it occasionally (when not pg), really helps your metabolism but also can lower blood pressure. I love the 5:2 diet.

I disagree that it's all in the mind. If you are lucky enough to have good health, maybe.

That’s a new one on me Megan
I eat a lot though I’ve always been a healthy weight but I have noticed a little fat creep on around the middle lately.
However, I am still breastfeeding so I guess I won’t try anything like this until I stop. But I am intrigued...