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Essay on Why most fear growing older
From the point of the an aging person
Underlying basis of ageism is the dread and fear of growing older, becoming ill and dependent, and approaching death. This leads to denial and ambivalence. The young dread aging and the old may envy youth. Behind ageism is a corrosive narcissism, the inability to accept our fate. Ageism is manifested in a wide range of phenomena, on both individual and institutional levels stereotypes and myths, outright disdain and dislike, simple subtle avoidance of contact, discriminatory practices in housing, employment, and services of all kinds, and of course elder abuse.
In a time when we are told to look younger, act younger, dress in a younger fashion but appropriate to our age, and gain back our young appearance and body, we are still growing older. It seems clear that aging is not a disease. Everyone ages and everyone seems to inherit a particular life span. It is also assumed that stress is the most important factor in the environment that will affect aging.
It is no wonder that there is so much emphasis on staying young when the prevailing attitude of aging is of decline and loss. It is not only fear of decline and loss that often drives us wants to stay young but it is fear of our own mortality. The older we get the closer we come to the end of our own lives. When our parents decline and then die we have the feeling that we are next. Death is inevitable. But the richness of life and what we can do will be cramped if we fall victim either to the fear of aging or to an unrealistic sense of trying to stay young.
The aging person fears isolation, lack of meaning in his/her life. The aging person fears being ignored, and fear becoming useless....................
