Do You Fear Growing Old?

S

SifuPhil

R.I.P. With Us In Spirit Only
Location
Pennsylvania, USA
Be honest, now - do you fear growing old? Are you afraid of ending up all alone in a nursing home? Are you fearful of contracting some old-age disease and suffering?

Or do you accept aging as a natural process, and participate joyfully in it depsite the occasional aches and pains? Do you look forward to aging gracefully and having time at last to do everything you always wanted to?

Psychologists have even given this fear its own name: Gerascophobia, or sometimes Gerontophobia - the fear of growing old.

What say you?
 

I never thought of being the age I am now when I was younger. I am a junior senior, so to think of being a senior senior - I can picture it but try not to think that far ahead. The group of seniors that I hang out with are very lively and spry, despite some of them being a generation older than me. So, if I can remain as upbeat as they are, then I don't mind growing old.
 
Hmmm ... I wonder what those generation-older folks think about? I mean, you're good up until THEIR age; THEY'RE good up until ... ? :rolleyes:

Oh, well - I guess I'm also a "junior senior" (and that phrase probably wouldn't make sense to anyone who isn't one!), and I also haven't thought much about aging - I'm too busy living.
 

I've been pretty lucky so far in my life as far as being sickly or suffering with pain. I'm grateful just to be alive, as many have gone before me at much younger ages. :( I'd probably contact a Dr. Kevorkian type though if I was doing too poorly. I don't really fear it, but I think more now about how I would feel if something were to happen to my husband, he's a big part of the happiness in my life for around forty years now. We both joke about how we'd rather be the first to go.

I'm a junior senior too, not quite sixty yet, hoping for a couple more decades of a pleasant life, but really don't dwell too much on the past or future...present is enough for me. :)
 
I think we tend to have different outlooks depending on if we are still working full time and in decent health. I hope to keep active mentally and physically for quite some time!
 
Well I am admittedly well aware of my mortality.
What was that Bob Seegar song? Something about 18 and like a rock. Well I ain't eighteen anymore nor have I been for some time. I am well aware of my mortality and some of the obvious flaws that have crept into 'the system.'
Nope not immortal and not a rock. But hangin' in.
Oh small add to, I guess I am full fledged senior, I hit and passed the 6 -0 mark a few years back.

Ryder13
 
The only thing I fear about of growing old is being diagnosed with some kind of horrible disease that will make me suffer for a long time before I die. I just want it to happen and be done with. I have seen a few of my friends go through a miserable death and it made me hurt for them. After their death, it would stay with me for quite a while. I can't think of anything worse than prolonged suffering before one dies.
 
It is not growing old that I fear. It's the aches and pains and going senile and slowing down and eyes getting dim and gray hair that I fear. But growing old doesn't bother me in the least. I hope to reach an age where I can show off how old I am - and I hope I can do that with a twinkle in my eye. Providing I can see well enough and hear well enough and my mind can comprehend the question - 'How old are you?' :)
 
To be 100% honest I do fear of growing old. I am afraid that I will never get to see my grandchildren! Just by the sounds of them saying, "Grandpa" makes me want to cry. Growing old will make more people pity me and look at me in a different way. This makes me sad, because I want them to look at me just like a teenager.
 
I don't know that I'm afraid of growing old, it certainly sucks big time. I miss having the energy to do as much as I use to. I have always been healthy and active and continue to walk and enjoy exercise.
If I had a fear it would be of getting to a point that I would not recognize my children and loved ones, that would be terrible. I am fortunate that I live with family and it has been a great to close to them and hopefully my health will continue to be good for another 20 years.
For the most part I have to say I am enjoying this time of my life. I am happier than ever, comfortable with who I am, more patient and compassionate than in my younger years and satisfied with where I am right now.
 
Well - I didn't know that fear of growing old was a recognised medical condition. Good job I'm not a hypochondriac !

No, I don't fear growing old - I've always lived in the moment. Of course, plans have been made and pensions sorted, so I'm lucky to have a modicum of security. I can't know if I'll ever be or feel lonely, certain circumstances cannot be catered for despite all the most careful planning. There's nothing I can do about that - but by living in the moment, by enjoying family and friends to the fullest now, by not being judgmental and by smiling when I speak to people, I am being me, now. Then? Well, I'll be me then as well.
 
That, my friend is a loaded question. Like most of the responses, I don't fear growing old as long as I'm relatively healthy and have my mind. If my mind ever goes, I'd rather be put out of my misery - then again - I might not know that I'm miserable. :) I wouldn't want my family to have to deal with me if I didn't even know who they were. I experienced that with my own Father and it was heartbreaking.

What I do fear, is dying before I check off the things on my "to do list". I have objectives to reach in the next 10 years or so and I'm going to pretty upset if I don't get to do them and enjoy retirement. After working for a lifetime, it is time to have some serious ME time.
 
Yep..I fear it everyday. I refuse to end up in a nursing home drooling and peeing on myself. I truly believe in assisted suicide.
If the time comes when I need it, I hope it will be available to me or that I have the ability to make it back to Oregon, where it's now legal.

I worked in a couple of nursing homes in my younger days and the memory of those old (and some not so old) people suffering physically and mentally is forever burned into my brain...not going there, no way, no how!
 
I don't want to end up in a nursing home either. If I'm going to drool and pee on myself, I want to do it in the comfort of my own home. :playful: I've said in the past that I would seek out a Dr. Kevorkian type for assistance if needed. When I'm in too much pain, and there is not more joy to life, then I'll be ready to move on. It's true that many older folks who are very sickly and tired, appreciate the life they've lived and are ready to say good-bye. :sentimental: There may be some good nursing homes, and if there's family visiting daily to check on their loved ones, that's great...but unfortunately, that's not always the case, and the patients are abused and over-medicated. :( Family members need to check in often, and make sure there's no funny business going on.
 
I've already BEEN in homes where I drooled and peed myself, but it was called "a great party".

The problem with finding a Kevorkian-type when you need them - one, they're illegal, and two, when you need them is the wrong time to go looking for them. If I were going that route I think I would put their number in my little black book while I still had time.

Otherwise I'll just have to fall back on my original plan of tying a pork chop around my neck and wandering around in the woods on all fours. :playful:
 
Oh damn, ya'll are a depressing bunch this am. Nursing homes do take the cake when it comes to sucking. I too hope to never see the inside of one. I'm going to hope that when I get that bad I'll be crazy as a bed bug and not know how miserable I am.
 
Nah, not depressing - realistic.

Maybe if, by some chance, I'm wrangled into one of those places I'll do an expose, ala Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.

"One bitter morning in February, the old man who worked the ****** dispensary with Stanislas came about an hour late, and screaming with pain. They unwrapped him, and a man began vigorously rubbing his ears; and as they were frozen stiff, it took only two or three rubs to break them short off."

SifuPhil, The Swamp, p.476
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SeaSparkle said:
I'm glad I've made it this far!! :rolleyes:
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Odd that you say that, because for the last few years I've caught myself reading news articles about someone who dies in an accident or from some disease at a much younger age than myself. I then start reflecting on the fact that I've lived the longest of my entire immediate family (mother, father, sister and two brothers).

When I get sufficiently depressed from that line of thinking I recall that my father's family lived to an average age of 99. Maybe I caught the good genes ...
 
Let's hope so SifuPhil , we ll need something to look forward to. I say we start a movement to revamp the nursing homes, get some fun activities. Good music, install some poles etc. hahah
 
pchinvegas said:
Let's hope so SifuPhil , we ll need something to look forward to. I say we start a movement to revamp the nursing homes, get some fun activities. Good music, install some poles etc. hahah
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I swear I saw pole dancing for seniors, on some TV special - or maybe that is strong wishful thinking that I've convinced myself is reality - lol lol

That's been needed for a long time but greed at the top gets in the way, I think.

There's a big expose on the local news about a 100-bed nursing home that will soon be closed down for several discrepancies that have gone un-fixed.

1.Not giving patients their medication and lying about the medication not being available. The investigative news reporter found the meds and video'd all of them.

2. Giving patients nothing but sponge baths, because they were short-staffed. The daughter of one patient said she could understand that but whose fault was the short-staffing issue? Those at top making the big dollars.

The patients have been given 30 days to relocate by the state. Pretty tough if that person is an invalid and especially tough if they don't have anyone to speak on their behalf such as a relative or family friend.

Once again, this reinforces my thought that, given the chance, I will crawl down to the Pet Cemetary behind the barn before I get hauled off to one of those places - lol lol
 
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