I'm 67 and still remember when I spent a year depressed at 46 because I realized I was on the "downhill" slope; my life was probably more than half over, etc. A lot of it for me I realize now is the whole, "what am I going to be when I grow up?" and the promise of a future starts to go away; I've done pretty much what I've wanted, gone through the education/marriage/children/homes/jobs/calling/travel and have begun to have to struggle when I finish one big project to find another I'm interested in.

I'm retired from work and even living in a retirement community so the challenges have changed and after being widowed a couple years ago, I find this period has become the most challenging of my life so far! We are "old". There's no way to get around it, it's not based on what we want or how we feel or what we think/are able to do, everybody has the same trajectory and goes through menopause and gets more frail over time and begins to have a harder time sooner or later with physical/mental tasks, etc. The body wears out, it was designed to. That we are in "control" at all is just an illusion. Yes, we can "help" feel better, longer, but we can't "reverse" aging or keep up beyond what our genes and interests (I'm more scholarly than active so not as physically fit maybe as some my age might be) might dictate.

In my community there are many women 15-20 years older than I am who still dress in the latest styles, have their hair done, wonderful makeup, etc. but that's never been who I am so I'm just continuing to be me, to the best of my abilities and just staying tuned to what my body asks for. I have my regular doctor visits and get my fitness test each year with the personal trainer and stay active in the groups I'm interested in and leave it at that. Maybe you might want to journal what "thinking" you are old means to you, what message you are trying to tell yourself? If that were my problem I would give a shrug and ask myself, "So?"/"So you think you are old, so what?" I would call my thought's bluff and discount it rather than "worry" about it.