“That voice inside your head doesn’t change, but what you see in the mirror does.”
Here are some of the challenges they shared.
It’s way more work than I expected!"
u/Putrid-Stage3925
3.
“How your mind stays young while your body starts to slow down.
“I’m 61, and sometimes I feel like this world is not for me anymore.
I feel almost like an imposter.
I’m an educated person; I still work and have an active life.
I’m not a recluse.
But a little at a time, I feel the world is moving on without me.
Her world was long gone.”
u/Odd-Telephone9730
5.
“It’s not just you who is getting old.
Your parents are getting even older.”
u/Resistant-Insomnia
7.
“If you choose not to have kids, you may end up losing your friends.
I turn 40 this year, and my partner and I don’t see many folks these days.
Parents like to hang out with other parents.
“Remember when you were younger, and you’d ask your dad, ‘What’s wrong?’
and he’d say, ‘I don’t know, I must’ve slept funny.’
That’s you now.”
u/willyv4pres
“I’m in my 50s.
A while back, I injured my back when I sneezed.
It hurt for six months.”
u/andrewse
9.
“How much time you wasted in your life trying to make others like you.”
u/richb83
10.
“Time fucking flies.”
“It’s really lonely being an adult.
I have been trying to make more friends, but it’s not easy at this age.
I am thankful for the people I do have, but some days are just really lonely.”
u/theanxiousknitter
12.
“For me, it’s that you lose motivation to do things.
I also chased relationships, romantic ones especially, but also friendships.
I enjoy my alone time more and more, and romantic relationships are absolutely not on my radar anymore.
Your wants and needs change!”
“You will realize that you hate planning meals and making food every single day.
It’s boring and easy to fall into monotony.
I am so tired of planning and making food.”
u/lonelyronin1
14.
“Everyone on earth relies on you in your 40s and 50s.
A mid-life crisis has nothing to do with you.
It can be exhausting.”
“Adults aren’t real.
At least not in the way they’re viewed when you’re a kid.
That voice inside your head doesn’t change, but what you see in the mirror does.
On top of this, everyone is winging it absolutely everyone.
A one-dollar bill costs just as much to print as a hundred-dollar bill.
In short, everyone is just doing whatever until we die.”
u/SoonToBeMarried43
16.
“How much it hurts to fall.
I fell off the roof of a house as a kid and just got up and walked away.
Now, I’m careful when stepping off of a tall curb.”
“You start to tolerate rough emotional states, such as crippling anxiety.
You will still feel it 100%, but somehow, you have learned to just live with it.
Nobody prepared me for this the quiet tolerance of inner pain.”
u/rci_ancilla
18.
“I’m in my mid-40s.
I used to think aging is a mindset, and for the most part, I still do.
I also used to think I wouldn’t be someone who lamented about aging.
I felt I was better than that.
Yet here I am, in the last year, bothered by it a lot.
It can be defeating.”
“Things like drinking, eating unhealthily, smoking, and spending will catch up.
You will care, though.
You’ll still be you.
Those things won’t seem like an issue right up to the moment they are.
And then it’s too late to take them back.”
u/DavidC_is_me
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
