Do any of you get depressed about getting older?

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I'm turning 40 in 8 months which isn't exactly tomorrow or week and not exactly ancient. But I feel like I'm a young girl sometimes trapped in a nearly middle aged body. If you guys can picture the movie 13 going on 30, the older movie Big or Freaky Friday (I'm feel like I'm various ages going on 40.) Anyway, I feel sometimes my goals about getting a job haven't worked out well. I didn't finish high school properly, never went to college, (I don't think I can do any more education because I can't understand things that are at a complex level, and I don't see too many friends in person often. My closest friend is over 21 years old than me and I have low self esteem issues. How do any of you handle getting older knowing you have regrets?

All the time.

What scares me is the physical effects of getting older. How weill I feel when I'm 45? Will my body be in constant pain due to the effects of advanced age?

I don't concern myself much over regrets about what I might have done better, but I hate getting older because I don't like knowing that my time is running out. Sometimes I wish I didn't know my age.

Not having many years left isn't a great thing, but in general, I am probably at least as happy as I was 20, 30, or 40 years ago. There's a chance I'll get dementia before becoming aware of my imminent death, as it would seem I have a slightly elevated genetic predisposition. Not sure which is worse. FYI I am also 70.

I think it's tough. I certainly struggle with regret and feel like I've lost a lot of time in awful situations. I try to focus on enjoying life to the best of my ability now, but it's not always easy. I'm hoping to make my final 40 years better than my first. On the plus side, that shouldn't be hard to do.

Of all the dimensions I hate, time is the absolute worst.

Imagine if space behaved like that, relentlessly moving you forwards, never letting you go backwards. People wouldn't put up with it.

But for some reason time gets a free pass to behave like an as*hole and we all just suck it up.

It's not the age itself and it's consequent changes that I'm worried or depressed about.

It's this...
Lengthening of duration having to deal with something that could've been prevented if I have the means of knowledge -- yet in which currently having no choice around it to change something that I do not like.

It doesn't matter which part of my life's circumstances that would be.

I get more depressed and anxious when there's no agency to change it.

The longer I stay stuck dealing with it, the more I get depressed about it because it seems hopeless.

Spending too much of my time coping with something particularly unwanted; doesn't matter if it's a form of sickness or not knowing something for too long or a form of mistake; especially if it's born from someone else's mistake, someone else's helpless and someone else's ignorance...

Which is something I dealt with for most of my life.
Now that I'm an adult, I want my decisions to be heard, I want to create my own means of accessing those decisions, I want the consent and knowledge of decisions and choices.

I want the power that I did not have as a child.
I want the world and myself of my own doing -- not whatever the heck those helpless, ignorant and insensitive people made me over my own will and this stupid childhood programming did to me.

The longer I have to deal with all this childhood crap, all this generation crap, all the unwanted echoes in life, the more I'd be depressed.

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I regret plenty of things. For example, he was way too tolerant over rude behavior from precious lil "people". School, work.

You can't change the past. Try to think *here and now*.

Plenty of people "can't understand things that are at a complex level". Plenty of them have bachelor's, masters and PhDs. Sometimes they say they "can't" do something, but really they mean they "won't"

There are plenty of ways to define and measure success. Financially and occupationally are just two of them.

Some people have plenty of education and earn minimum wage

Some people have little education and earn a lot of cash

There are eight billion people in the solar system

You can't measure self esteem

I think almost everyone is like *confidence not proportional to competence*

I am 40 years old and work a job with heavy lifting. During the past two years, my worthless corpse has gotten really weaker and slower physically. Not just bench press, but bladder and intestines too. Age 35, started getting frequent intense bouts of itching. Exhausted all the time.



I don't know how much longer I can handle that job or any other ones. Certainly not 67.

On the other hand, every day is one day closer to death. That is a good way to handle getting older

I'm 59 and I am the same person I was when I was 13, at least in a basic, fundamental way. I have, on the other hand, learned a lot and I am better able to cope with the stuff that life throws at you. I am more tolerant, though I don't always succeed at acting that way, but I am at least more conscious of it. I don't have regrets because to me everything just is. That's how it went, it's how things happened.

I'm not worried about getting older, other than no longer being independent and possibly having to move into a nursing home, but that is likely a long way away. And being 59 is not old in any practical sense. I have a chronic illness so there have always been a lot of things I couldn't do, so it's not any different.

This may sound counterintuitive, but I find it helpful to think that all of life is suffering, and the things we get that are not suffering are moments of grace. Grace is a religious concept and I am an atheist, but it still holds. In religious terms, grace is an unearned blessing that you receive randomly. Sometimes you will receive grace, most of the time you will be suffering. That is the way of being a human in this world. All you can do is try to let go and find acceptance. Which is easier said than done, I know, and I am not always good at it.

I'm not bothered by getting older. Most of the things that stress people out as they age, they started happening to me in my 20s. It's not aging that bums me out, it's life in general. And damn that sounded pessimistic.

Not necessarily depressed more anxious about it actually, as the older you get the closer to death you get..and not really looking forward to that part.

Idk maybe as one gets older it gets a little easier to deal with, but I worry when I am old I'll be like afraid to sleep and such because I don't want to die in my sleep and never wake up again. But maybe as one gets more worn out and old it might seem more like a rest at the end of everything, and not such a dreaded thing but I'm not sure.