Did you hit an age that your mortality became a real concern?

A year ago I had a fear that I had got breast cancer. It all started when I got that pain in my chest now and again, and my breast got very hard. It turned out that my breast was just developing.

And just recently I got dizzy all of a sudden and vomited. I thought I got some horrible disease, but the truth was that my body reacted to the drug I was taking.

Overall I haven’t reached that age yet. But I tend to overreact so it isn’t unusual that I get panicked when my body has some small problems.

Maybe I am oblivious but I just don’t think about it very much at all. I’ve run my statistics and know I have a statistical check-out date 30 years in the future. That means there is a 50% chance I can go sooner. However, it is just as likely I will live longer.
Since we all know everything is better when we are in good shape, my job is to keep what I have working in the best condition I can without going overboard about it.
Every minute I spend worrying is a minute I am not enjoying.

Oh no, don’t be so hard on yourself @JLeslie. Imagine what a doctor would say. If you eat a few bad meals, maybe go for a light jog, or eat some vegetable and drink some water etc. Don’t give up the ship, I believe in you :)

In the words of Ivan Drago…“if he dies, he dies”
Pretty much my philosophy, only I can do a better Russian accent.

My very best friends brother, age 46, whom I was very close to also, died Monday. I’m worried about her also I couldn’t live without her. Her family has been short lived. Myself, not especially worried, eat well and exercise hard.

I don’t worry about when I will die, I just worry that I won’t have a truly happy period in my life again before I do or that I will die slowly and painfully.

What @janbb said, exactly.

I’m not concerned with my own mortality, but I worry about what affect it will have on those I leave behind.

My trajectory has sort of been backwards. After years of angst, I precipitated a test of my mortality a couple of years ago. When I saw how life scooped me up and set me back on my feet, I stopped worrying.

The more I identify with that flow of life, the more I see that worries like these are just the product of an inventive mind.

Long ago.

I’ve already outlived one relative who died of natural causes, and the longest-lived person in the two generations before me on either side of the family only made it to 66.

I’ve also had a couple of bad car accidents to kind of remind me that I could go any time been if I had a genetic predisposition towards living to see 70 or older.

I think about it sometimes and have for the past few years. I had a very hard time turning 40, but I think that was more about where my life was then. It scares me that I can so easily remember and relate to being 30, and that was only 16 years ago. 16 years from now I will be 62. I’m not ready to be there in a flash. Because I see people dying in their 60s all the time now.

I no longer worry about aging and mortality. It seems a natural part of life.

Now that my children are grown and on their own, no. I have had a history of bizarre life-threatening medical events that have made me prepare for death (a crap load of paperwork) so that now, when I’m comparatively healthy, I’m just not that worried. I simply assume I’ll be fine until I’m not.

Fiddle-dee-dee, I’ll think about that tomorrow.

When I hit my late forties, and realized I had more life behind me than in front of me, but we will go on.

Hit me directly about fifteen years ago after someone I knew well died suddenly. Now the more I live the more suffering I see around me and the less I appreciate this thing called life. Personally, I think most people around us including myself are better off dead. It does not worry me, I just wish I could go before my loved ones do. Not really fond of waking up daily, wish it could all end discreetly and peacefully.

@Blackberry I would say my doctors worry about it more than I do. Not that they worry about me once I leave their office, but I pretty much can’t eat badly, it shows right up in my blood work. Many of my doctors would like me to take cholesterol lowering drugs. Not just my cholesterol is high when I eat animal anything, but my other fats run high too if I do a full cardiac panel when I have been eating whatever I want. I’m not overweight. I never have been. I would like to lose the ten pounds I put on, but according to all the different measures I’m not overweight. Just bad genes.

I also have had colon polyps since my early 30’s. My grandfather had colon cancer.

I don’t think about dying all the time or even daily. It doesn’t overwhelm me or anything like that.

I don’t think there was a specific time when it dawned on me that one day I would die. I have always accepted that one day I would face death and can honestly say, I am not afraid of it. It is getting there that bothers me, I hope it is quick and sudden because I do not want to suffer or be a burden to any one. I really don’t think about death much and just enjoy life on a daily basis.

It wasn’t the age but the circumstance that made my mortality a concern. The first time I faced death face-to-face. I was 6.

Aware of it? When a friend dropped at age 45.

Become a real concern? Not really at all. As I aged in my 40s, I began precautions to care for children (I wasn’t a father until I was 40). So life insurance, will, trust set up, all that was done a while ago.

I did have a fright getting a physical at age 50. I had to have an echo-cardiogram on my 50th birthday because of a weird EKG. And the echo came back weird so I had to have radioactive dye injected for a more intense picture. Turned out nothing was wrong, but for a week I thought I might drop without warning.

But a real concern? Nope, because we don’t get out of this alive, so why worry? Taking care of myself makes life a lot easier to live with anyway.

@zenvelo so well and realistically said!

I am in good health but not so young anymore and this thought does pop up occasionally. My best friend died earlier this year and that certainly made me aware of my mortality.

Well, when I almost died from pneumonia in 2012 that was pretty scary. When I do think about it, I think in terms of all the stuff I’ll be missing, all the great grands I’ll never know. So, I don’t think about it! I just hope memories of me are worth passing down through the generations.

I have been worrying about mine or a loved ones death since I was about 4 years old when I witnessed a neighbours 6 month old baby die.

Oh God, @OpryLeigh! You witnessed it? What happened??

She had meningitis but my mother didn’t realise she was that ill when she got the call from our neighbour (who was also my mum’s closest friend and the time) to go round and help so she took me as well. She died in her mothers arms.

Oh how sad. How scary for you.

At the time I didn’t understand the situation but as I have aged it has been in my mind more regularly and shortly after it happened I started to worry constantly about death and that’s never changed.

I lost my parents at a young age so I’ve always been acutely aware of my own mortality. As @Adirondackwannabe said, my concern is never about me or how I go, but about making sure my loved ones are okay. I’m a bit pedantic about both making sure I’m insured and my husband has insurance. I saw my father struggle to manage a young family after my mother died with no life insurance. Had she had even a small policy, I suspect he would have had a slightly easier time. Apart from the practicalities of ensuring I take care of those I leave behind, I don’t worry beyond making sure I’m as healthy as I can be.

@OpryLeigh When I was around 6 or 7 a schoolmate of mine lost his brother to meningitis. He was 2 years old.

When I was really young death didn’t really register with me. My parents kind of sheltered me from the finality and sadness that surrounds death. I didn’t feel like death could affect my mini world until I was in Jr. High. My grandfather died and I took it very hard.

I’ve reached that age (early 60s) where I likely have 10 to 20 good years left. My hope is that my remaining years are healthy and independent. If I do lose mental faculties and complete awareness of my surroundings, then I wouldn’t wish to carry on and have prepared a living will in that regard. If anything, my concern is that this request would not be honoured.