Does life just keep getting worse with age?

[Darkover]

It seems the older I get, the less enjoyment I am getting out of everything.
You know how when you are a kid, you feel like there are new and exciting things to do? You get some new video game or toy, and it's just pure excitement? As a kid, I had hope for my future as well as a much better appreciation for things as they were not yet old and stale. Life still had new things to offer and in my youth, I fell for those things.

Now at 37 I find everything old and stale. Life doesn't offer any excitement whatsoever. It's waking up, slaving at work feeling pissed all day (literally work is concentrated stress for 8 hours), and boredom at night. I don't enjoy anything. As I am getting older my tolerance levels are getting less and less for the constant frustrations of a typical day. What is there to look forward to when work is slavery and frustration, and the things outside of work are boring and unfulfilling?
Sadly, this is just continuing to get worse in my experience, amplified especially over this last year. I constantly feel crippling despair and desperation over how miserable I am feeling living a life permeated by disappointment and boredom. I realize I am a hamster in a wheel, a slave to society, and I live a hollow shell a life. This is how most people's lives are but they won't admit it. Most people pretend to be happy despite most lives being tedium. We think "next year" things will change but they never do. False hope.

Not only this, but I have to mention regrets. As the years pass, I have more and more regrets over past mistakes I have made. It seems this aspect of life gets worse with age. As we live our lives, doors which were once potentially open begin to close and the regrets start to pile up. Guilt is the result of this pain, and it is a constant source of depression and despair.

My life is not only is stupid and meaningless in theory, it FEELS stupid and meaningless in practice. It feels heavy. I'm not going anywhere, everything is the same but my frustration tolerance level just gets lower and lower as the years slowly churn on.

 

[FuneralCry]

I personally don't believe that existence was ever something desirable in the first place, I find it tragic and cruel how humans continue to impose existence, as all existence does is create unnecessary suffering, harm and problems. I see it as a curse to be enslaved in this futile and meaningless existence just slowly dying destined for nothing but to be tormented by old age. But in my case I certainly feel even more tired of existing as time goes on, it fills me with dread to think of how this existence could continue for much longer, it terrifies me how a human could potentially exist for so long.

 

[F@#$]

I couldn't have said it better. And yes it just keeps getting worse.

 

[Forever Sleep]

Not for everyone. Depends on the circumstances. O-10 for me had tragedies but love. 10-18 were the worst years (to date) of my life. 18-28 had ups and downs. 28-40 were the better years (to date.) The past 3 years haven't been good but, would I go back to my childhood or young adulthood? Hell no. Really depends on your circumstances I think.

 

[marina]

I feel most people aren't "Pretending to be happy", they are simply too busy serving themselves to care about negative stuff that depressives seem to harp over. idk if most people would describe themselves as "content", and idk how many of those people would truly mean it. maybe pretending is fun for them. Life feeling stupid and meaningless is a negative perspective that may be able to be addressed in a comfortable angle for a lot of people sometime soon with new research into psychiatric drugs and counseling, as well as major social reform, now that most of us feel this way about our stressful lives. In practice life's supposed to be stupid and meaningless *with* feelings. If you haven't already tried depression meds I would recommend seeing somebody if possible, my days feel shorter and my tolerance for life in general is much higher.

 

[ForgottenAgain]

Similarly to @Forever Sleep , my life was great as a child until 13, then it was hell until I was 24, then it improved a lot and now I'm 29 and it's not great. It depends on the life stage and your circumstances instead of it getting progressively worse.

I do relate to not getting excited about stuff, that's one of my reasons for feeling like I have no purpose and therefore thinking I shouldn't be here.

 

[oddetoad]

In 1 year I think my body will ransform to an 80 year old and im still only 35..
i already feel sometimes i cant lift my legs in the showers cause they feel too heavy ..

and people say a 30 year old have the best body??

 

[Gonnerr]

Same thing here , bad decision, bad choice but wait til you get health issues , it gets worse.

 

[mintgreendolphin]

Well, regardless of how we choose to see things, we all get older and as our bodies deteriorate gradually over time it will lead to health problems that will be objectively unpleasant to live with. Which makes me wonder why people (in my life anyway) seem to think dying peacefully in your sleep due to old age is the ideal way to go when you'll have to spend YEARS living with physical aches and pains before you actually get to die "peacefully".

 

[jadedspirits]

Turning 21 soon and I feel the same way. I spend my days alone in my room numbing my brain by consuming media that I don't even enjoy. The games and hobbies that I was able to dump countless hours over the years have become stale to me.

 

[Dliena]

Really is starting to seem so for me even at the young crisp age of catching 22.

 

[losing hope]

I'm older than 40 & yes it does get worse. I'd say unless their is a clear reason to stick around....

That's not even the worse thing, I literally don't recognise this planet or humans sometimes. Such is our love affair with technology. Life was so much simpler before the internet & when you had to earn your "thrills" (top shelf mags anyone?). I hope heaven has popcorn, cause I can't wait for the machines to rise up against us, like in Terminator. I'm sounding like an old fart now aren't I.

 

[Zebulon]

Eventhough im only 29, it feels like it gets exponentially worse, the older I get.
Everbody is always working, starting to have kids and spend the rest of their free time with their significant other.

 

[Fktw0rld]

Yes. I'm approaching 50 and the older I get the more detached from everything and everyone I become. I find no enjoyment in anything anymore. I find the smallest tasks like brushing my teeth, getting out of bed, eating and taking a shower the physical and mental equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest. I'm also unable to bounce back like I used to due to aging, physical injuries, PTSD episodes and / or nightmares. Everything seems to be getting heavier and weighing me down more the longer I go. Nothing gets better.

 

[tarococo]

I'm so scared of growing older and regretting that I didn't leave earlier, having to look back on my life and realising I wouldn't have missed much or maybe would've been spared from experiencing even more pain and loss and disappointment, even tho pro-lifers love to tell us that we could technically try to recover all our life. Why would I go through all this suffering when there's nothing good waiting for me in the future?

 

[Abyssal]

At least before when I was going through trauma I was focused on surviving it. Now it's caught up to me after being free from the source, which is strangely worse. I have more time to let it eat away at me, and the longer it does the worse I get.