Is Life Better or Worse Now Than When You Where Younger?

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Is life better or worse now that you are older?
Yes 64%  64%  [ 91 ]
No 15%  15%  [ 21 ]
No Sure 22%  22%  [ 31 ]
Total votes : 143

Bobcat
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26 Aug 2007, 3:14 pm

Life is much better for me now. The first 18 years were the worst. Having control of my own life has made a big difference. And building strong boundaries to stop the abuses. No more of that stuff from others. A comfortable nest helps. And a great cat for company.

Ticker, I feel for you. I hope you feel better soon. 'Been there, done that' sort of thing. Take care.



hoqnq
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28 Aug 2007, 9:18 pm

I'm 27 and my life is definitely better now. I have a stable job, loving friends, a very understanding girlfriend, and my parents don't hate me anymore (i think). As a child up to my teens i was messed up and always with the wrong crowd. I was never diagnosed and i only knew about AS a year ago. Looking back i think i did pretty well considering nobody really understood me and i regret nothing. I think the hardest part is not having anyone to ask for advice and making mistake after mistake and getting through each one in the hardest possible way. It kinda hardens your heart but i see it as a positive thing.



ADoyle
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18 Sep 2007, 12:16 am

It's definitely a lot better, even though I'm working for a temp agency until I find a permanent job. I have a great boyfriend, a car that will last me for several years, and truer friends than I had growing up.


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faithfilly
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19 Sep 2007, 7:40 am

I'll be 53 yrs. old in less than 3 weeks. The older I get, the more I like my life; however, the older I get, the more I dislike the direction life on earth is going.

Life in the US during the 50's was at its peak of perfection. Life in my 50's is appearing to be the peak of my perfection (so far).


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techstepgenr8tion
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19 Sep 2007, 6:24 pm

faithfilly wrote:
Life in the US during the 50's was at its peak of perfection. Life in my 50's is appearing to be the peak of my perfection (so far).


Taking a wild guess just from watching and reading a lot of history, I don't think there was ever really a time and place quite like it so I can understand how baby boomers would be pretty jaded. If I look at times before that though - the 30's, the 20's, the 1800's, and especially if you look at humanity in the 1700's and back; even now were nothing nearly as scandalous or wicked as we used to be (though we do have a lot more televised in front of our faces).



faithfilly
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20 Sep 2007, 3:10 pm

techstepgenr8tion wrote:
...nothing nearly as scandalous or wicked as we used to be...


I know there will be disagreement to my response and I don't want to create a debate, so please just permit me to add a finishing touch to my opinion (we all have them and there is nothing wrong with expressing different opinions so long no one takes such expressions as a personal offense).

As how I see today in America, the scandal and wickedness has gone way beyond anything it used to be. The determining factor behind such different views is what people perceive as being evil along with what they know or don't know.

I do realize that most people think this present time is filled with far less scandal and wickedness compared to the past. It's probably a small minority who think like I do, but if I didn't say what I think, others would not realize that not everyone thinks like they do.


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"Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?" declares the LORD. "This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word." – Isaiah 66:2


techstepgenr8tion
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20 Sep 2007, 4:34 pm

faithfilly wrote:
It's probably a small minority who think like I do, but if I didn't say what I think, others would not realize that not everyone thinks like they do.


Can't debate that and wouldn't. I think I was just saying earlier that I can understand where your coming from, seeing people go from generally being much better toward eachother to really going back to being more basic and on the 'what the f--- you looking at?' page; saddening but by human nature I think inevitable.



jaydog
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27 Sep 2007, 7:56 pm

this question is very hard to answer, but i have to say it's better now then the past. cause I dont have to worry about the stress of school, getting a job now, and just live the rest of my life in peace.

but i also am pissed cause it would of been better if aspergers was noticed 25 yrs ago when i was starting school, so my parents could of done a better job. they did a great job already, but i would of liked to known i had asperger 15-20 yrs ago, instead of now at age 27. so i couldnt have got the medication and more help. I'm just happy that i learned how to use a computer and did my research on aspergers. thanks to wrongplanet.net too :0).

cause i now have a way to communicate and notice other people like me who have had a hell of a past and life.



Yellowriting
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05 Oct 2007, 7:14 pm

Much better now. All that anxiety before, wondering what was going on and what was the matter with me...yuk!



Avalon
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07 Oct 2007, 7:35 am

Some things better, some things worse. I think when I was young, the good parts were much better and the bad parts were much worse. Now life is more of a shade of grey.

I miss friends, family and fun from my younger days. I don't miss being bullied, being nervous and isolated. I think I am more respected now, but at the same time I now have very few friends or family. I have a lot more materially, but I would trade that for having more family, friends and good times.

Life has become rather monotonous and boring now. Then again, at the moment I'm still waiting for a diagnosis of AS, so I don't know how, or whether, that would ultimately change things for the better or worse (or not at all).



Chapter13
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14 Oct 2007, 1:42 pm

From 0-3, no recollection.
From 3-5, some happy recollections.
From 5-17, wouldn't want to re-live it.
From 17-20 (undergraduate college), overall not so bad (a vast improvement).
From 20-24 life was wonderful: I was in vet school and had a whole classroom of friends.
From 25-34 I was in graduate school: I had some really supportive friends and enough frustration to fill several landfills. Somehow I survived, but only by a thin margin.
From 34-37 I tried to build my own career in research but struggled, and Katrina (the hurricane) destroyed what had been developing as the one true love of my life. God, that hurt!
Now (37) I've restarted again in a new place: I'm disconnected once again, and the new job isn't turning out to offer the opportunities I'd hoped. What comes next?

I guess every so often I end up starting a new phase, which offers different tradeoffs. Seems most of my friends are made when I volunteer for church work (e.g. Habitat for Humanity, Stephens Ministry Counseling), and some from work. Some of these people love me to my soul, but that doesn't insulate me from getting lonely, despondent, and depressed.

I don't know if I really have Asperger's Syndrome, but I certainly can relate on many levels to what people have said here. I feel as if the rest of the world can 'smell' something wrong with me and strains to avoid me, while I'm unable to sense whatever it is that's wrong.

I hope I haven't blathered on too much and too far off topic. I'm new.



Beenthere
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14 Oct 2007, 1:48 pm

Chapter13 wrote:

I hope I haven't blathered on too much and too far off topic. I'm new.


Nope you didn't. :wink: Welcome! :D


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thyme
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14 Oct 2007, 9:55 pm

Welcome Chapter13 :)


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Starr
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15 Oct 2007, 3:25 am

Yes, welcome to WP Chapter 13. :D



Space
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15 Oct 2007, 8:06 pm

Life is definitely better as I get older. More complex and challenging, yes, but I am more free to be myself too.



techstepgenr8tion
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18 Oct 2007, 7:55 pm

One other thing I will say, while the freedom has been a plus not to mention the added wisdom the one thing that has been hard about hitting my later 20's is that nasty feeling like my youth is sort of slipping away, kinda rotting out from beneath me, and being that I've been single that added sense that I haven't really shared the quote unquote best years of my life with anyone tends to dig at me more.

Even though I doubt I'll be a completely different person by the time I hit my mid-30's I still do feel like who I am, as I am now, won't last forever and neither will all the things that I kinda feel are my strongest points since they seem like something more or less tied to the 20's. Mind you I have friends who are in their early to mid 30's and living that sort of life (they're definitely in society's winning circles as well - major restaurant owners, ex pro-skaters, sportbike riders, etc.) but I think watching a lot of my other friends as well get what they want and then seeing the sort of work world that I've been drawn into makes me realize that for everything I really seem to be emotionally gravititated toward the time window that's still available for me to still be in that groove is closing by the month and by the year (and the sense that my AS has me trapped for that period as well tends to even put more fuel on those pangs or urgency telling me that I need to somehow get out, live life, and somehow break down boundaries that I've been crushing myself against for years with little avail).