Age is just a number - or is it?

It is said 40 is the new 60, do you think there will be a difference in opinion of that statement between the healthy population and those who are living with pain as a constant companion?

[thenunn]

Hi as a fifty year old living with chronic pain..I would say NO lol..its what you make it no matter your age . When I was told my back was 30 years older than me,it hit me hard I wallowed for a few months,'woe is me' kinda thing BUT then I grabbed hold of myself and shook myself off and thought blow it..Im 50 ok I cant move like I did ,walk like I did but I still can do ,as long as I can do then I'm a spring chicken

[joe69]

With the pain am living with, I feel that am a 44yr old with a body of a 84yr old... My father is 74, he worked all his days, with hardly any time off...and here is his son with major back & neck pain, have had a really bad time of it since 06...

So ye I would have to agree with cee.... Ye, not every case will be the same...

Joe

[Hidden]

I don't think it matters how or why you measure age. Its what you do with your life that counts. One of the first things we learn as babies is to smile. Anyone at any age can smile, makes it timeless or ageless.

Unfortunately trauma and chronic pain can speed up the aging process, so we tend to get age related conditions earlier than the normal population. But we are better educated than previous generations, so we can find out how to slow it down with lifestyle changes.

If you think and behave as if you were old, then that is what you will become.

I am 47, I was told my trauma and subsequent stresses to my body were equivalent to an 80 m/hr car crash. Shock, horror. Life as I knew it ended. How was I going to cope? Young family to look after, work. But then, if you turn it around, how many people can walk away from such a crash? not many. Slowly build on the idea I walked away from a serious car crash, build a new life with new priorities. For every negative in life, there is a positive, you just have to look for it.

Anyone at any age can sit by and watch their life drifting, and equally anyone at any age can make their life fullfilling and worthwhile within the confines of chronic pain. But YOU have to do it for you.

These are general observations, and should be read as such.

[Hidden]

Hello

One saying here is

You are only as young as the person you feel.

Seriously when we have a disability the body makes you feel older even though the brain is still as young as you are.

A further saying,

Use it or loose it

comes to fore

All the best

BOB

[Hidden]

I was told my body was older than me, trouble is my mind did not hear, that was back in my 30's. My mind still has daft idea's about all the things I will 'just' do ! Love it when I do do the things I set out to do - get the snap shot in my mind of arms flung wide and heels tucked up behind my knee's as I jump for joy..... you know the one.

Get very upset when 'normal/healthy' people bring me down about I have accomplished, I know it's only because they would not even try it, the 'store bought' people I call them.

We do have fuller lives - we don't take things for granted. zanna, I love your smile and I so agree, it crosses every boundary from age to creed and culture

Hope you are all wearing your biggest smiles today.

Cee

[teadrinker]

I'm 41 so if 60 is the new 40 that makes me 21 again!

But to be honest I would not want to have my 20s and 30s again - not unless it could be very different. My 30s weren't brilliant but I grew up such a lot, learned that I am actually a very resilliant person, and think that having the shoulder of a 90 year old has made me a bit of a nicer person.

My grandma is in her late 80s and says she still feels like a young girl sometimes. She was born with a serious medical condition, has frequently suffered from back pain, but lives life to the full. If I am half as good as her in my 80s (I am going to be very old when I quit this world, I have decided!) I will be satisfied.

[Hidden]

I am 55, been pretty wrecked since my mid 30's & VERY wrecked for the last 10 years, and it never ceases to amaze me that I don't look as old a my school friends do now... even with the impact of years of Opiate drugs and the measurable toll they have had on my body - yet inside I feel older than my (long dead) Father would be now, and I am not even as bad as I was about 4 years ago!

Age and how it looks seems to mean a lot to how people see you, it means for me I don't get taken very seriously, despite walking so badly and people assume I am much fitter than I am, and can't understand - even last night when I had to leave VERY early from the one social activity I do just about manage due to the snow falling (and the real fear that if I got stuck - I would never be able to leave the car and walk to safety).

Even though in most respects (it doesn't apply with everything, as I get far more wound-up and stressed as I did then) I don't think too much older than about 25, I think it is very much true that you are as old as you feel, and inevitably I feel much older than I look, and that is far older than I am, I think I am doing better than I was as for me 45 was 80 and 55 is only 85!

The expression that " You are only as young as the person you feel" is only partly true, (maybe the reason I look so young!?) as I am very much in that position, and yes, it does help, unfortunately the damage I have, and the damage subsequently done by the drugs most definitely doesn't let me get anything like the best out of it, so at times might even be responsible for making me feel so old and ropey

Now I would certainly have my 20's and 30's again...(even my 40s!) - if only I knew then what I know now, among other things I would be not as "broken" as I am, & I could have buffered against some of the problems that have developed, nor would I have passively wasted some of the opportunity I didn't know I had I did back then!

Doesn't pay to dwell too much on that though.