u/Plantpotparty

I miss who I used to be but it feels like the world sees this is being vain.

Everything was sparkly, easy, energetic, novel, exciting.

Now I’m getting older it’s really hard to feel and embrace life how I used to? I feel like I genuinely feel less alive in my 30’s. Does anyone else feel the same? I used to have a glow in my eyes and a burning fiery desire to do everything and now everything feels a bit flat.

I miss her.

I left the film industry and took on a masters, I finished in September and now I’ve been trying so hard to get a job and it’s not happened yet. I do currently have a 0 hour contract job which has a lot of hours over the summer but in autumn / spring there isn’t many due to the nature of the job.

I had to start from scratch last year from a break up and I’m now 33, panicking about getting my life back on track because I don’t have a steady income and I’m worried if I’ll still be in this same position next year.

I’m living at home after moving out of mine and my ex partners house last year, so luckily I can save a bit with my job but I’m really worried about my future. How do we progress at this stage in life if we can’t get a solid full time secure job? I’m scared tbh.

That's it really. Anyone else feeling weird about appearances changing?

Everywhere I look, everyone I speak to, every other reel is something saying ‘your 30’s mean hitting this goal at a certain age / timeline shrinking etc’

Every other reel is a 30+ woman talking about her face changes and brain changes.

Every person seems to assume we turn into frail old people at 30.

It is causing me to SPIRAL! If you have a real fear of aging how do you cope with this messaging forced at us every day?

Some exciting results of a clinical trial have now been shared from one of the companies involved in the Healthspan XPRIZE competition -

https://www.renascience.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/xprize-healthspan-trial-results.pdf

I’m just wondering if anyone can relate to this feeling I’ve been struggling with for maybe a few months now.

Throughout my twenties and around age 30/31/32 I still felt like the same person, full of youthful optimism but also a sense of feeling grown and knowing myself and just a sort of sense of feeling grounded.

But I’m now a few weeks away from 33 and something deep has shifted. I feel like I’m now pretty much living inside of my head and no longer feeling connected to my physical self because of watching myself slowly age and my face change. It’s like I’m controlling this new identity that no longer feels like home. I think this is because of my appearance changing quite a lot recently, I know I’m still me inside, but the way aging is changing me was something I’ve never really heard anyone talk about other than what types of aesthetics help or how we need to embrace it etc.

I’ve noticed I’ve gone from looking pretty much the same to noticing a shift in my face, it’s not bad but it also feels like the sense of who I am, and the face I recognised for so long has suddenly left this world.

I know everyone goes through this but I feel like because my physical self has suddenly changed, I’m finding it hard to feel like myself because I no longer look like who I’ve known my entire life up until recently. It feels like I’ve gone through a metamorphosis that I didn’t sign up for! It sort of feels like I’ve died (I know this is deep but it is how it feels)

Like I can still feel my conscious self, but there was a glow, a magic energy I felt deep in my self that has shifted and I can’t quite grasp that feeling. There was a lightness in my body that now feels heavy.

When I was younger I knew I was so afraid of this feeling and now I’m experiencing it, it doesn’t feel great at all. Is it hormonal loss?

I’m just wondering if anyone feels the same? And how to cope if so. I’ve never felt so deeply disconnected from who I am, I just feel so lost.

I’ve also had therapy and also already went on and then off anti depressants to cope with existential worries, but if anyone can recommend anything it would really appreciated!

Honestly, if you’re feeling the same how do you cope?

I was born in 1993 and I’m struggling with so much about getting older.

I’m struggling with the aging transition, I don’t like how I feel in myself anymore, I feel like I’m lost and stuck in this new older body.

I know I’m not old yet but time is flying by, more aging signs are showing up that are clouding my optimism and excitement for life nowadays. I used to feel so sure of myself, like I could do anything and like I had so much time. I know I still do, but that time also now comes with setbacks that are because of age. I still hopefully have 50 years left, but most of those are taken up by aging. In my 40’s I won’t feel as energetic as I do now, and then that’ll probably come with a lot of loss. Then the menopause will hit and that’s more loss of health, energy, time and my hormones.

As well as this I feel like I’m experiencing the feeling of time passing much differently. Days are flying by, I can’t quite grasp that it’s nearly May?!

I’m watching everyone I love get older, and it feels like a living nightmare.

Aging honestly sucks. I know it’s a gift, but it also feels quite horrible changing, no longer feeling secure or like myself in my younger version of myself, watching my parents show signs of aging, seeing my friends youthful optimism and excitement slowly shift.

Also I felt so happy in who I was in my 20’s, and people used to tell me I was a kind person who they like, and now I’m shifting into someone who isn’t as soft and as optimistic because I don’t feel like I look or am her anymore?

I could talk for a long time about how much I’m struggling deeply with this physical metamorphosis I didn’t sign up for.

I just want more time to stay young and healthy. I feel like aging is a curse and takes so much from us.