im 22 year old male. My looks are very important to me even if it sounds vain. I fear of getting old and not taking full advantage of my young years. I want to look like I do now always but sadly I will get old and wrinkly :(. I know this is a fact of life but how depressing is that fact that we wil all be old, frail and ugly someday :(

HHHmmmm...well you might become ' old frail and ugly' but not me. Im a 42 yr old female who takes very good care of myself. I think better of myself than that to become what you seem to think youre destined to.

So do you think that 'old people' are ' old, frail and ugly' ?

deana

We have no choice but to get old. You do have a choice of whether or not you're frail and ugly. Take good care of yourself now. Be mindful of all the decisions you make today. They will affect your future. Let me tell you, I thought life was great when I was in my twenties, but it pales in comparison to life now. I'm 48 and if some time machine could could take me back to my youth, I wouldn't go. You haven't experienced just how good it can be getting older. It is what you make it.

I AGREE !!!!!!....great post !....I wouldnt go either !!!

Look at Jack Lalane... at 92 still does 500 pushups a day and worksout 2 hrs a day. I pump iron daily and don't/can't do 500 pushups a day. Infact most twenty yr olds can't do 500 pushups a day. Its how you view life as to how old you feel and look. As far as going back to my twenty's, well i do miss my 80's music and Navy days in the Carribean Islands..........later !! :cool:

rapidfire,

From a womens point of veiw,some men look better with age.
I wouldn't go back to my 20's ,I do miss the 80's music.
Getting older is a process of life.Through this process comes great rewards,chidren,grandchildren,wealth and wisdom.the outside packaging don't really matter to most it's what comes from the inside.As far as being frail,it can come at any age,disease,trauma or the aging process.Your a young man,enjoy life now,it goes by to guick.Worrying about getting old will make you old.kid, just have fun!!!Be good to yourself and others.Getting older has been good to me.It will be to you.

Toni

I would hate to be 22 again, spotty and with a raging sex drive.
The cost of car insurance goes down as well.
Look on the positive side if life.

im 22 year old male. My looks are very important to me even if it sounds vain. I fear of getting old and not taking full advantage of my young years. I want to look like I do now always but sadly I will get old and wrinkly :(. I know this is a fact of life but how depressing is that fact that we wil all be old, frail and ugly someday :(


I had issues like this too when I was around your age; now I'm in my early 30s and do not worry about aging any more.
I think these fears are common in your early 20s.
I think what you are actually experiencing is a fear of growing up, a fear of being an adult and not being a child or teenager anymore. And this is manifesting itself as a fear of aging.
Once you become comfortable with being an adult, you may find that your fears about the physical aspects of aging will lessen.
You should also keep in mind that men are often considered to be attractive and "in their prime" until their 50s, or maybe even early 60s!
In this regard they are much more fortunate than women, who are often considered over-the-hill by that time.
So you still have a very long way to go before you are perceived as old and decrepit.
And by the time you get there, if you're lucky enough to live that long, your life will be full of work and hobbies and children and grandchildren, and a wife who is your age, and friends who are your age... and chances are you will not be dwelling on the fact that you have wrinkles. :rolleyes:
It is normal to be somewhat "shallow" and concerned about appearances in your early 20s.
By the time you are old, it is likely you will have advanced beyond these concerns.

Take it from an old woman of almost 65, sorry to say this, but it's pure HELL! Between the health problems, and then when you look in the mirror...WOW
I really don't look my age, but too old to be happy with the way I look also. And in my case it seemed to sneak up on me.
Six or seven years ago I still looked real good. And it's like all of a sudden you look in the mirror one day and Bingo! you can't beleive your eye's. Sorry to be so negative but the truth is the truth. I know there's nothing you can do to change it unless you've got big bucks, but I for one just can't seem to take it and like it.

Hey Greeneyed Granny !...I know lots of people male and female over 60 who have now and have had nothing to complain about health and look good not only to themselves but everyone else. Maybe its the way they perceive the enivitable(SP?) that , yes , they are aging and getting older and to enjoy life and whats been dealt to them . And NO they have no money to pay for plastic surgery. They work with what they have and they look GREAT!...I hope I have their attitudes towards aging and look and feel as terrific as they do when Im their( your) age.......but I really bet you look alot better than what you think you do !!

deana

My mother is 80 and she has not got any wrinkles and she has got a sharp mind. She is however, crippled with arthritis which I think runs in the family because her mother had it.
She refuses to have a home help and I would not want her to go in a nursing home so she has moved in with me and I look after her.
It is the least I can do for her because she brought me up.

Its a normal fear......no-one likes to feel their own mortality. If its any help...all the people you get to know over the years will be aging along with you...unless science comes up with a way to halt the aging process totally. Plastic surgery can only do so much. And you DO get tired of that sort of BS after a while, when you realise its how you act and feel/experience is what counts....not how you look because generally...other people couldnt give a crap about how you look...unless its totally abnormal.

Do YOU really walk along the street and think bad thoughts about other people who dont look like yourself? Do you cringe at every person above 30, every fat person, every skinny person, every short, too tall, wrong color, wrong nose shape etc? If not...why would you think that others will look down on you for being yourself as time goes on?

Now...if you were the last person on earth (no-one else would see you)...would you still be worried about wrinkles? Nope? And that is because there would be no-one to "judge" you or to "impress". So if that were the case....you fear only others opinions about your looks. It would be fairly arrogant to believe that everyone else is judging you, when they probably wouldnt give that a second thought.

So maybe...its because YOU are judgemental of others...so you expect the same in return? Kids do judge, abuse, torment etc.....when people mature...we dont do that anymore unless we have issues about our own self-esteem. Perhaps if you change your view and look for the 2 best things first, in every person you meet, your fear of aging will lessen and even go away because you will re-train your mind to look beyond the superficial and that will flow back to how you feel about yourself and how others percieve you?

If its any help...all the people you get to know over the years will be aging along with you...unless science comes up with a way to halt the aging process totally.

This is it, exactly.
When I was a teenager, I thought I'd hate getting older because I wouldn't want to hang around with people in their 30s-40s or older. I thought people that age (which was the age my parents were at the time) were unattractive, boring, etc.
Now that I am in my 30s, I can't imagine wanting to hang around with people much younger than me; my kids are in their teens now, and to me, teenagers are boring to socialize with. And (no offense) but so are most people in their early 20s.
Their concerns are not my concerns, their experiences are not my experience. I can't relate to them like I can to people my own age (or even older).
And I think it will continue to be this way as I get older. When it comes to choosing friends, I mostly prefer to socialize with those of my own generation.
They are the most interesting people to me, the ones I can relate to the best. Young people do not fascinate me simply because they are young.

One advantage for the aged male is that when the sex drive diminishes,the females loose lots of their control over you...........But the smart female will getcha with the delicious cooking.A well prepared steak smothered in mushrooms and onions now ranks at the top of my passion list. ;)

I never worried about getting older until just this last year. I am 35 and injured my lower back last year and have gone through hell. I couldn't walk for some of the time and had surgery and now I have to be careful to be sure I don't cause any harm to the disc again. I worry if I am this way at 35 what am I going to be like when I'm old. I'm trying to look on the positive side of it because they do have new surgeries that can give me a new artificial disc so I sure hope I will be fine when I'm older but I do worry about it. Just today I had a little pain in my lower back just standing at the gas station and I thought man how bad is it going to be when I'm old. After going through something like that wrinkes are the least of my problems when I get old I'm sure. I just hope I am pain free and healthy when I get older even if I look like a raisin...lol.

hey this rapidfire7 again under new ID. Wow i didnt expect so many replies to my whining complaints but thanks it actually has helped me some of the things that have been said. Just sometimes I feel i havent taken advantage of these years. I suffered from bad depression for years etc but im feeling great these days. Just feel i missed out a great part of my life almost. Anyway i guess everyone has regrets

I'm glad your feeling better Mustaine. I think we all have our regrets and feel like we've wasted some of our youth. Seems like we think we're buying a ticket for a smooth ride but end up on the roller coaster. :D