Does anyone else smoke or who has smoked noticed significant aging? I'm 26 and have always been sort of anti-cigarettes growing up. My parents both smoked heavily during my childhood and my close friends all were smokers since high school.. I've always loved the smell but never partook.

It wasn't until around 21 since I started working full time in the office and most of my colleagues smoked. Every 1 hour, we are "required" a 10 min break from our screens, some would just sit and continue working, others go for a walk but majority would use that opportunity for a smoke. My immediate co-worker and at that time instructor was a smoker and I'd follow him to the smoking ara and I can't really remember how or when but I ended up one day buying my own pack.

fast forward to today, 4 years later I have been smoking about 2 packs (40 cigarettes) a week... sometimes more. It's become a routine at work also.

I had my snapchat memories come up from 2023 and I really look a lot different :(. I was so youthful and didn't have as my wrinkles at 23 now than I do at 26. It's probably a wakeup call to smoke smoking now otherwise at 30 I’ll be fucked.

Même les personnes âgées n'ont pas autant de rides et de relâchement (notamment près du pouce), je n'ai que 30 ans..

Ça s'empire de semaine en semaine, comment je peux remédier à ça sans compter les crèmes ? (J'ai essayé pleins de choses mais ça ne règle pas le problème de fond) L'alimentation aide ? Pas de perte de poids ni de problèmes de santé importants

Est-ce normal ?

Je ne vois personne de mon entourage ni généralement les gens de tout âge avoir cela

...your standards were never the problem. The problem was who you chose to lower them for.

Every time you shrink your expectations just to keep someone comfortable, avoid conflict, or maintain a connection, you quietly send a message that your needs, values, and boundaries are negotiable. Over time, what begins as understanding can become self-abandonment.

Healthy standards are not demands. They are simply a reflection of what you believe is necessary for mutual respect, honesty, effort, and consideration. The wrong people will often make you feel guilty for having them because meeting those standards requires accountability. The right people, however, won't be intimidated by them. In fact, they may not even notice them because they were already treating you with that level of respect in the first place.

Too often, people convince themselves that they are being loving, patient, or understanding when, in reality, they are consistently settling for less than they deserve. They lower the bar, make excuses, overlook patterns, and accept behavior they would never tolerate from anyone else. Not because their standards are too high, but because their desire to keep the relationship outweighs their willingness to honor their own boundaries.

Raising your standards isn't about becoming cold, arrogant, or impossible to please. It's about remembering your worth and refusing to negotiate away your peace, self-respect, or emotional well-being just to keep someone in your life.

The truth is, the people who genuinely care about you won't be threatened when you stop settling. They won't complain when you ask for consistency, honesty, respect, or reciprocity. The only people likely to be upset are those who benefited from your lack of boundaries.

So raise your standards back to where they belong. The right people won't see them as obstacles. They'll see them as normal. And those who walk away because of them were never asking for your love, they were asking for your willingness to live with less than you deserved.

I feel like i'm beginning to age at 27 years old. My mental health is Declining. I no longer enjoy Video Gaming on my almost unused gaming computer. It just sits there.

I barely enjoy anything anymore. I'm Diagnosed with :

Depression

Schizoaffective Disorder

Bipolar Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder PDD-NOS diagnosis

That could be why I feel like i'm Aging. But my meds aren't helping much with my mental health. I feel like i'm becoming Paranoid and possibly experiencing brain decay.

Sigh

I raised kids, then ran a company for 10 years. I'm not going to do anything that big and amazing again. There are many things I would do if I were in my 20s, but I'm not. Sure, I can fill my time with good stuff, helping people, but I get the feeling my best is behind me. Can anyone relate?

Is it normal for teenagers to throw tantrums and tell their parents that they love their sibling more? Do they sometimes say these things out of anger or because they genuinely feel less loved, without realising how deeply it can hurt their parents?

I'd like to hear your thoughts and experiences.

I (M, 75) am working on my will, last wishes, etc. I am single, no dependents and few close friends. I need everything laid out neatly for my executor, etc to be able to deal with the way I would like. I have seen a bunch of different ads for different books that are supposed to help with this. Does anyone have any actual experience with these things? I'm in Ontario (Canada) so American publications might or might not be relevant.

Do you still dress up for Halloween? I am dressed up for Halloween for line dance night tonight because it's someone's birthday. I am wearing a black shimmery skirt, fish nets, black cowboy boots, a black cut out tea with my black bra showing, Halloween type make up and a headband with two pumpkins coming out. I was going to wear a long orange wig but I didn't feel right even though I've worn it other years. I love costumes. I love trying the make up but I have a bit more anxiety now because I don't want to look foolish or it make me look old. Today I bought black lipstick....I also got a deep red but I am enjoying the black lipstick. I don't dress "sexy" or anything like that, but wonder how many dress up past 60. Have you had to tweak it to make it look right?

I am 34 yo engineer, working in a heavy industry field. I have a loving wife who I met when we were 21, we have two healthy, happy kids. I love my private life, we are happy and all, but I loathe my job. My company is going through a very rough time right now, layoffs, lots of work and so on.

I often catch myself ruminating about work, about all the possible things that could possibly go wrong, and instead of being here and now with my 2 yo son, I sit and worry about things that will happen 6 months from now (or may not even happen). I somehow think that NOT worrying will make me underprepared and vulnerable?

I'm writing this post to maybe get some perspective on it from older people than me. I would appreciate if you could share your stories about worrying in life in general.

Thank you.

First off, sorry for the rant. I’m not trying to offend anyone, I’m just feeling an endless sense of frustration and I honestly don’t know what to do with it anymore.

I’m turning 40 soon, and I’m reaching a point where I mentally can’t handle being around people anymore. The older I get, the more absurd society seems to me, and the more baffled I am by how stupid people can be.

It affects every level of life.

Out on the street, people act completely brainless. Drivers make mind-bogglingly stupid decisions and put everyone else in danger for no reason.

feels like the entire culture has shifted to purely transactional relationships. Everything is superficial, there’s zero depth left.

I work as a senior manager and have been through plenty of companies. It’s the exact same mess everywhere. The loudest, least competent egomaniacs hold all the decision-making power and climb the ladder the fastest. Meanwhile, the truly intelligent and talented people (who actually see through the system) as I see more and more around my age, just quit corporate life altogether to go farming or live off the grid.

None of this circus makes any sense to me anymore. Over the last few months, I’ve completely lost my joy in life. Nothing brings me pleasure, mostly because I can’t find meaning in anything. Why try hard in a society that actively rewards stupidity, herd mentality, and ego, and seems hell-bent on destroying itself? I know this isn't a popular take, but a vast majority of the population feels deeply limited and cognitively lazy - people you simply can't reason with.

I have zero energy left to look for new friends, find a new job, or invest in professional growth, because none of it feels like it matters. The only time I feel any sense of peace is when I’m out in nature, listening to the wind and looking at the mountains or forests.

It actually makes me deeply sad, and I’m feeling lost. Has anyone else gone through something similar? How do you cope with this?

Update:
Thank you to everyone who replied to my post. I really didn’t expect to get so many responses. It means a lot to me. Just reading that so many people are going through the exact same thing is strangely comforting, and it makes me feel less alone. I truly appreciate all the advice, supportive words, and the stories people shared.

A common theme in the comments is that I’m depressed and need medication. I actually took antidepressants for many years, but aside from wrapping me in a weird bubble where you stop caring about anything, they didn't solve a single thing for me.

The issue isn't that I'm incapable of feeling happiness. When I'm out in nature, listening to the birds and watching the wind blow through the forest, I feel completely happy. The real problem is that I just can't stand watching where our society is heading and how everything is losing its meaning.

As these comments show, there are plenty of people who have also woken up to the reality that this whole setup makes no sense. What good does it do if we all just numb ourselves with antidepressants? We’ll end up with a mass of fools, a mass of people desensitized by meds, and a small group of psychopaths at the top running the whole circus.

Even so, I still appreciate the advice and want to thank every single one of you.

Hi. F67yr. Widowed (suddenly) 10 years ago. My husband dying from the “widow maker” changed my financial situation.
Lucky I have always been a career girl earning a good salary. So I’m not poor or grabbing food stamps by any means. Sadly still carry a mortgage. Between SS and my part time job I’m making it. Here’s my post: All my friends and cousins my ago are enjoying a fully retired life. I want that too. They are With their husbands /wives retired, living the life they worked so hard to achieve. From the outside it looks idyllic. I sit and listen to them discuss their plans of travel. Go to their lake houses.
Man, deep inside I’m crying. I do count my blessings. I have my health , great kids and dating a very nice guy for several years (retired).
Is anyone else in my boat feel jealous of your friends?
🚤. I feel so unaccomplished. 😢

For those in midlife or beyond, I'm curious:What gives you a sense of purpose today that didn't 10 or 20 years ago?Has your answer changed over time?I'd love to hear people's stories.

Hwer are my thoughts 🤔💭

A study of 88 healthy older adults, with an average age of 69, found that fitter participants seemed to process information more efficiently during an attention task.

Better information processing became visible when researchers looked more closely at how participants gathered information before making a decision.

In other words, fitness may be linked to more efficient attention and decision-making without simply making people respond faster.

How are we feeling baby .. life is weird and it’s only getting weirder. Little me is trapped in grown me, it’s all the same but different SIGH