How Old Do You Feel?

Me too MOnica, but makes you wonder if “the self” is not just a collection of neurones working together and not a separate entity.

I'm just 68 (birthday a couple of weeks ago). Physically I still feel 30, mentally, a little older. I'm small and still climb on the kitchen cupboards to reach things and am blessed to be quite active and agile. My son keeps telling me off and to take things easy, but I'm happiest when I'm busy. Sometimes my hand aches after I've done too much (probably arthritis) but on the whole physically, I still feel young. Mentally I feel youngish, but notice some lack of confidence creeping in (no longer want to drive, though I still do), and I'm happy staying in in the evening, whereas I used to love any opportunity to socialise.

Physically, about 72, my age. Mentally, in my twenties. My GP Surgery chose me for a survey. They said I was the least likely patient to have dementia. I joined in their research for about five years but the questions became so intrusive I dropped out. They wanted to know my investments and other stuff so unrelated to my mental health. I am a pensioner and don’t have any investments.

In my head 40, in my feelings 399, in actuality 86!

Still feel young in my mind and a bit silly sometimes. As a teenager in 1960s I enjoyed the freedom. My body feels its age sometimes. I find I can be full of life one day and then a niggling pain will remind me of my age.

I bought a birthday card which says “ Inside every old person is a young person wondering what the hell happened “
I haven’t decided yet who to send it to

Grammaretto

No spring in my step anymore. I miss that. I watch the teenagers enviously as they leap about.
I am probably much as you'd expect a 75yr old to be.
I couldn't imagine getting to this age and now I have

Happy birthday CC 🎂

This is the card I recently sent to a male ex colleague who was hitting 70.
I shall shortly be hitting my 3/4 century and feel exactly the same!

Mentally I’m in my thirties, physically I feel about 150 and in reality I’m 65

Hi I am a very you full I'm told at 73 !
I've had 2 knee replacement 😐 survived Ovarian Cancer and now live each day best I can.
Tonight I'm Djing at a MOBO night at Cleethorpes.
Everyone younger than me but always made very welcome .
So tonight I will be 50 years old 😆 🤣
Tomorrow I will be 73 ha ha . Keep dancing .

Im as old as the man I feel lol he’s younger than me but I’d say I probably feel in my fourties. Mentally though thirties I’m in late 60’s

flappergirl

Up to the age of 60 I really didn't feel (or act) any more than 40 but from then on I did start to feel more tired. To be fair to myself I do a pretty demanding job and I was suddenly widowed at 59 which knocked a lot of stuffing out of me. I'm 67 now and I'd say I feel my age, not younger or older.

Same here. Up to 65 I felt about 45, then my husband died suddenly. I seemed to age 10 years overnight! Before that, I had still had a “glow” in my skin. Now I have deep wrinkles and I feel my actual age, which is 68. I keep thinking that I am only 12 years off 80!!

A very interesting question. I was disabled at 46 and have had difficulty walking properly, sometimes not at all. I have a speech problem because my salivary glands don't work and a lot of other problems.

Now I am old, but because I have lived a very slow inactive life - movements take energy so I am not overweight - I do not have age related disabilities others have. My house has been adapted and I have a band reduction for council tax. I own my own house, though keeping up with maintenance sometimes feels impossible. I can live in this house. I have a care giver every day from disability benefit. A residential home would not be able to cope with my disabilities and I dread the thought.

However......

I am regarded as old, no matter how long I have been in this same house. If you own your own house and it is in a desirable location, level walks to schools and shops, big plot, at the end of a cul-de-sac, (with visitor parking x 6) no traffic noise or pollution, set back from the other houses, sun all day, then your life is in danger as you grow older, and if you live in similar, sell it and move before it is impossible. Desirable properties are snapped up by property managers, letting agents (check companies house for local partnerships, especially those with enough clout to stop you selling yours to outside people) who grow rich by keeping the elderly at home or put into residential care and buying their properties cheap. How else do you think they get rich? You cannot take out equity release no matter how much equity you have, because that would not suit the vultures. That way the house increases in value, and reduces their profits.

It may sound cynical; it is a warning.

I had to laugh yesterday i only work in the office one day per week and yesterday shortly after setting up my equipment I overhead a young girl I reckon she was about 19-23 yrs old tell her colleagues about an incident the previous day which she was involved in argument with an old lady when pushed for an age of this lady she replied 40’s. I laughed out loud and she looked at me quizzically and I told just wait until you’re in 40’s you won’t feel old.

No particular age in my head but then I pass a mirror and reality sets in, oh dear never mind!

I’m 64 today feel 40;not moving on! 😂😂

At 81 I’m considered old and I accept that I’m viewed as ‘well aged”! Younger friends who are in their late 50’s or early 60’s have said to me on more than one occasion that ‘I want to be like you when I grow up” - probably because I’m still relatively active at 81. Still enjoying yoga classes - although I go for the ‘slow flow’ sessions these days, regular tennis games in the summer with like minded girlfriends and a passion for regular spin sessions at the gym, and most rewarding of all, the ongoing joy of growing my own veggies on my allotment plot. If I can continue to enjoy these activities that mean so much to the quality of my life …..and even if it means taking these activities at a slower pace and I feel it’s time to be in bed by 9.30 most nights……I hope my physical and mental stay in sync and I’ll be happily 62 till the day I die!

I was 70 yesterday. Physically I have aged dramatically in the last few months due to having had a heart attack and several weeks in hospital. If I compare pictures of myself taken before my illness with those taken since it is shocking!! However, I have the ability to regain the weight I have lost, work on my mobility/fitness and given time my health and physical appearance will improve. It’s really up to me to achieve this. Mentally I feel mid 40’s though.

I think too much significance is attached to numbers. People are pigeon holed when their age number is known. I'm a practising 5th dan black belt in Shotokan karate. I train and teach almost every day. I'm fit, strong and flexible. I know people will judge, patronise or even dismiss me if my number is known so I prefer not to own or broadcast it in that sphere of my life.

29 !

petra

How do you know what a certain age feels like🤷‍♀️

Cos we’ve been there…at that age!
Other people are ‘old’ to me …even tho I’m the same age! My father had to be told he was 90 …”am I” he used to say slightly bewildered…and when taken to an old peoples club for afternoon tea etc, he’d say the room is full of old people.!
I don’t think any of us consciously think of ourselves as old…until we look in a mirror! And my mirror lies! 😁

I sometimes feel 21, at other times 75 (I’m 59). When I’m with my mother, I feel about 15 on many occasions. I have even been known to roll my eyes. With little pupils l sometimes say “of course, I’m very old.” One little boy said: “yes you are. You must be at least 27!” I’ll take that.

@suelld, my grandmother was horrified in her final illness when she realised that she was in a geriatric ward. She was 90 at the time.

Different parts of my body...including my brain feel different ages. Especially as just been diagnosed with Coeliacs as well as the thyroid problems I have. But just seen granddaughter and son in park for an hour, so a bit younger at the mo. 🤣

Since I’m coming up to that age myself, lately I’ve been remembering a granny’s neighbour, who we often met in the road outside.

Everytime we saw her she’d proudly proclaim, ‘Seventy-five! And everyone says I’m wonderful!’
😂 - but the Awful Warning!

I'm 80 but my default mental age is 7. I still have so much more to learn and I've only just begun to find a satisfying way of being, how can I cram it all into what's left before my body gives up on me?