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Just got back from a large family reunion. 22 people, all different ages. Interesting to see this thread in context of having just spent time with a group of all ages.
On the one hand, I did not have the energy of the teens, who went out to clubs every night, then went to Dennys, and then went down to the beach to go surfing at the break of dawn. So when I look at them I suppose I could come to the conclusion that getting older could mean getting tired.
On the other hand, I can look at the 30-somethings and 40-somethings who are younger, yet definitely were much more tired than we oldsters were. We went on the trip to have fun, they were all sorely in need of a good rest. I remember those days of being exhausted by busy careers and the challenge of being parents (not sure who was more tired, the parents of the babies or the parents of those teens who went clubbing and surfing ).
So I guess my answer is I don't feel old age = tired, but maybe that's just because I'm content with the energy I have. I don't feel any waves of excess energy that needs to be burnt off like I did when I was 18--and that's just fine by me.
What I was trying to determine is if old age, in and of itself, causes one to feel tired. I realize there are many variables to how a person feels - I should have inserted "with all else being equal" does old age = being more tired? In other words, in a perfect world, where all of your needs are met, will you still be tired in old age?
I was looking at two ends of the spectrum - on one end, the retiree living the carefree life - on the other end, the "retiree" living a very demanding life (in terms of daily responsibilities).
It depends on what you mean by responsibilities. We see people in general same age who can see responsibility differently. One will be stressed and thus tired constantly. Other will be ready to go afterwards. I have seen some who seem tire just talking about all their responsibilities and being consumed by the stress they seem to create. But aging has its physical effects on everyone science tells us.
Responsibilities. That is a key word in the OP. But the whole problem in trying to discuss this is how the responsibilities affect a given individual. If they are overwhelming, and especially if the individual has little control, then they will be stressful and tiring. But at the opposite extreme, having no responsibilities at all, for many people, would be tiring too because one has nothing to energize one.
One example: I am about to start a five-week project of part-time work four days a week for half days (8 to 12 noon). I am responsibile for the outcome and must do some planning and thinking each day. But I have almost total control, I enjoy myself, and the people I work with are wonderful, for the most part. This moderate level of responsibility energizes me and makes me less tired.
We all thrive on different levels of stress. Ray Cortines, who had been superintendent of schools in Pasadena, San Jose, San Fransisco, and New York City, returned to southern California in his seventies to be superintendent of schools in Los Angeles, the nation's second largest school system. It is a pressure cooker of a job, very political and very subject to public scrutiny. It is a job in which you are damned if you do and damned if you don't. The man thrives on that sort of work. I have a hard time relating. I am 69 and will settle for my very easy yoke of responsibility.
Good point. A little food for thought on the news today--the new Iranian president Hassan Rouhani is 64. That's a helluva lot more responsibility than I would take on at 64, but as Escort points out, different people respond to responsibility (and age) in different ways.
To the OP: We would have had a fuller understanding of your OP and your subsequent posts in this thread if you had just shared what the responsibilities are which are weighing you down so much and making you tired. I just discovered in another forum a thread which you started where you explain that you are responsible for managing the care of an elderly person who seems to be your mother, although you refer to her in that thread only as "the person".
No wonder you are tired. You have an on-going heavy responsibility which tends to be daily and you are dealing with a difficult individual. You are in a difficult league of your own compared to most of us who have responded to this thread. The worries alone would be enough to make one tired. The Caregiving Forum was certainly the correct place to post that other thread which I ran across, and reading various threads there should offer you insight and suggestions from others who are bearing the same kind of load.
I find as I enter my mid sixties ...I who had fantastic super human energy all my life ....am now tired most of the time...It has nothing to do with a changing body...It is about being world weary...about giving up....about being jaded - and about NOT being active and getting out of shape...once you let yourself go...You loose endurance...muscle mass ...and interest...also you THINK you can not have a lover because you have an expiry date....You are tried because you are no longer enthused about life...If you let yourself go there is a point of no return...Don't do it...You should dance into your grave - not fall asleep and tumble into it.
If you are in good health and still very tired you need to find something to be pasionate about and it may recharge your batteries. There was a time in my life when I was totally exhausted for a long period of time. That time passed and things are better now. I do get enough sleep and try very hard to eat well and do something I love at least once every day.
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What is energizing and what is tiring?
