You are as old as you feel -

[razz]

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/2018...tual-birthdate

"Like your height or shoe size, the number of years that have passed since you first entered the world is an unchangeable fact. But everyday experience suggests that we often don’t experience ageing the same way, with many people feeling older or younger than they really are.
Scientists are increasingly interested in this quality. They are finding that your ‘subjective age’ may be essential for understanding the reasons that some people appear to flourish as they age – while others fade. “The extent to which older adults feel much younger than they are may determine important daily or life decisions for what they will do next,” says Brian Nosek at the University of Virginia...

Its importance doesn’t end there. Various studies have even shown that your subjective age also can predict various important health outcomes, including your risk of death. In some very real ways, you really are ‘only as old as you feel’...

Feeling younger than your years also seems to come with a lower risk of depression and greater mental wellbeing as we age. It also means better physical health, including your risk of dementia, and less of a chance that you will be hospitalised for illness...

Working with Nicole Lindner (also at the University of Virginia), Nosek has investigated the ways the discrepancy between subjective and chronological age evolves across the lifetime. As you might expect, most children and adolescents feel older than they really are. But this switches at around 25, when the felt age drops behind the chronological age. By age 30, around 70% of people feel younger than they really are. And this discrepancy only grows over time...

And given its predictive power – beyond our actual chronological age – Stephan believes that doctors should be asking all their patients about their subjective age to identify the people who are most at risk of future health problems to plan their existing health care more effectively."

How old do you feel? i am struggling with the question as I never felt that I was any particular age ever. I love my life now but never didn't like it. I have had my challenges along the way as life happens but they worked out. I have a neighbour who is still driving herself to church each Sunday, going to play cards with me at age 96 and attending the local Seniors Centre. She is busy and happy. I think that is normal. How old is a 96 year old supposed to feel?

[pinkytoe]

Hmm...I feel sort of ageless when not having minor "issues." I actually feel better at 63 than I did at 40. Appearance wise, I don't have a clue 'cept for people who act surprised when they hear my age. No gray hair certainly helps as well as being petite. I know several really old (chronologically) people who I consider "ageless". One of the things that is different about them is that they never discuss any health issues if they have them. They only talk about positive things and the world outside themselves.

[catherine]

I know several really old (chronologically) people who I consider "ageless". One of the things that is different about them is that they never discuss any health issues if they have them. They only talk about positive things and the world outside themselves.

I have some great elder role models. My great-aunt was ageless--I'm starting to appreciate just how ageless. She wore 1" heels every day and navigated the steep steps to her bedroom as well as down from the porch to the front lawn every day until she died at 92. I never heard her talk about any physical ailment--ever. She took pride in her appearance and she was engaged in the world. It was with my great-aunt that I watched the coverage of man on the moon, as well as Watergate.

I have no complaints, and I feel the same age-wise as I always have, and I hope to age like my great-aunt.

[SteveinMN]

I feel about 15 years younger than I really am. Well, most days, anyway. lol

DW's mother is on the other end of the spectrum. DW claims her mother was always "an old lady", dating back to primary-school days. DW defines it by her mom's reactions (then and now) to how "younger" people behave (how they dress, what TV shows they watch, etc.) and her mom's stamina (never high despite a lack of chronic illnesses). My mom -- only two years younger than DW's 85-year-old mom -- is a dynamo compared to DW's mom.

[Ultralight]

I would guess I feel about 55.

One thing I have noticed is that as I have gotten older my emotional range has narrowed.

I feel happy-ish sometimes, but never ecstatic anymore. I giggle or laugh, I even laugh hard once in a blue moon. But the wild laughter of my youth seems like a relic of the past. I can romantically love a woman, but I don't really get that "I am so in love!" feeling anymore.

And so on.

[ToomuchStuff]

There are certainly various ways this tends to be tested. From taking some of the tests (which tend to be knowledge based), I test out an average of 20 years older then my mom. (I test 60's, and she 40's)
In the last 7 years, I have had attempts of people to set me up with girls 18-26, because they think I appear younger then I am. (in the one case I am within four years of her mother/aka the one trying to set me up) These last couple years (and especially the last few months of 80 hour work weeks), have been less kind (hair greying more, walking funnier, etc), from lack of rest. (working more while bosses have been fighting diabetes issues.)
For me, I have always felt older then I have been told I look/physically am. Not having a lot of friends/contacts my own age, and then experiences from childhood on, that mentally aged me, makes me feel vary old. I remember when the gal I proposed to was around, people thought she was my older sister the way we could finish each others thoughts. When they found out we weren't related, there was generally some comment (she is nine years older).
Not sure how this will play an effect, since I have lost many friends to old age, since my 20's, and have nearly zero, in my age range. (those that are, are older and yet think I am older)

[rosarugosa]

Hmm...I feel sort of ageless when not having minor "issues." I actually feel better at 63 than I did at 40. Appearance wise, I don't have a clue 'cept for people who act surprised when they hear my age. No gray hair certainly helps as well as being petite. I know several really old (chronologically) people who I consider "ageless". One of the things that is different about them is that they never discuss any health issues if they have them. They only talk about positive things and the world outside themselves.

Pinkytoe: I almost could have written this, although I am 60 and I do color my hair. But I would say I feel about 40, and I do feel better now that when I was in my forties, which I attribute to smoking cessation.

[Yppej]

I would feel younger if I didn't keep butting up against society viewing me as older.

[goldensmom]

I forget how old I am until I get senior discounts without asking, when young people hold the door open for me, when younger folk in stores call me sweetheart, dear and honey. I feel way younger than my chronological years and I see myself as younger than my years but others apparently see the older me that shows on the outside.

[JaneV2.0]

So you'll be judged (and found wanting) until you die. Figures.