My Mom is 55 and is obsessed with the fact that she is aging and that she thinks she's losing her looks. She has always been a very attractive woman, she still is, but she's put on weight and has wrinkles now from years of being in the sun. I'm only 21, but it makes me so sad when she always talks about aging. I can feel how sad and worried she is about it and it breaks my heart. How can I try to help her?

Your mom needs to get a life so to speak other than obsessing about herself. This will take her mind off of aging. Once beautiful, always beautiful, beauty comes from within. Aging is a natural process. Losing weight will make a difference in how she feels about herself.

Does she use any sunscreen? Remind her to use it religiously everyday. It's critical to prevent premature aging. She can use use things like chemical peels and Retin A to reverse the exsiting sun damage.

Dig: At 55, your Mom's just abt on target. If single, she's worrying abt the
competition. If married, she's trying to live up to expectations. If she was
a popular teen for her beauty, it carries over to a new era she never had
to deal with. We're all insecure abt something. At age 5, my mom put me in lipstick & blush after covering my nose freckles. Inside I was a tom-boy &
thought I was an ugly child for years & very shy. Later, in my early teens I
was a gymnist & in track thru high school. She went many places `alone' during that time. It just wasn't my thing. If she's that obsessed, give her
reassurance & plan a salon trip together once a month to bond? Pampering
like that helps. Find some old family photos that she admired & remind her
that `she got lucky in the gene-pool'. Does she compare herself to others
all the time? If so, there's more going on than what U can fix quick. If she
has to look flawless now, lay low on her 60'th. Try to bring out her beautiful
qualities w/ hobbies, volunteering together to get her mind off the face. Let
her know that she's setting U up mentally to fail if U don't meet her
acceptance. Nothing wrong w/ wanting to stay youthful looking but it's
un-healthy to be obsessed. It might be that she really needs attention and
slowly has to learn different ways. She did raise a good daughter!

I think we've all gone through what you mother is going through and you'll probably go through it to when you get in you 50's. You love your mom and you hate seeing her so upset but with time she should calm down. If she's married or has someone in her life ask them to pay a little extra attention to her. You can tell her too how beautiful she is. My friend is upset about getting the wrinkles and I don't care about them. I'm not happy with the weight gain and she doesn't care about it. We're both 54.

Tell her to stop worrying about it as there is no way in God's Little Acre's that she is going to stop aging. My husband and I are 68 and nearly 70. Oh, that hurt. But not really. On a good day I may be 58 but not much older. We just plain have a great time. Last April I decided on the spur of the moment we should take off for Florida and enjoy at one of the large resorts. Made reservations for $400 per night for 4 days and nights. What a ball. Went over Mother's Day. Left the kids at home to tend to their kids. This was our time. And believe me it was. The oldest either one of us got on that trip and in the wonderful concerige suite at the hotel was 27 and 29.

We had the time of our life. Tell her to forget about age and concentrate on fun and all that you can be. No wonder I adore that man.

Just tell her to live.

Tell her its exciting to see all the anti aging research going on . From Gene therapy to Stem Cells ,Telomeres , Rna interferance, Proteome mapping and ALT-711 which is a crosslink breaker to restore youth !! Also Carnosine works on this on a nutrient level !! The next 10 yrs are going to be exciting in this field !!! later!!

Hi there!!

My Mom is going through the same thing. Just yesterday she Emailed me and wanted to retake the Xmas photo our family had taken. She thought she looked fat wearing at turtleneck sweater. I had to convince her that she looked great. She is 63 and says she is just now really seeing the effects of aging. Well, she's always been a smoker and that adds to aging. I think she's beautiful and when whe was younger, she was a knockout!! I also have a very vein father, so what does that make me?? Super vein!!! I'm 39 and already am sad about my skin and whatnot.

I think it's probably normal for people to worry about their looks as they age. I would just tell your Mom that she looks great and it makes you sad that she is so down on herself. That's what my hubby always says to me.

Oh, my hubby just reminded me. I think my Mom likes that I'm aging, she makes comments that I think aren't very nice. She has no idea!! My hubby finally told her to knock it off, in a nice way. He's the best!! :)

Good luck!!