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Gerascophobia

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Gerascophobia is an abnormal or incessant fear of growing older or ageing (senescence).[1] Gerascophobia is a clinical phobia generally classified under specific phobias, fears of a single specific panic trigger. Gerascophobia may be based on anxieties of being left alone, without resources and incapable of caring for oneself due to age-caused weakness.[2] Sufferers may be young and healthy, because Gerascophobia can affect people at any age.

Due to humans being mortality salient, sufferers will often feel as though aging is the first sign that their immune systems are starting to weaken, which makes them more vulnerable and prone to diseases. They view aging as a human flaw, brutal slow-motion torture, decompositive decay, long-term disability, biological time bomb, a parasitic, disgusting,[3] creepy,[3] scary[3] deadly chronic disease[4][5][6] and the ultimate involuntary biological self-obliteration, rather than a natural progression.[7][8][9][10]

To them, the age of decay, even aging's earliest noticable stages on oneself or others, seems like a prerequisite, a very early sign, an initial step towards the direction of taphonomy (fossilisation) and being dust, which equals absolute non-existence, if not a creepy[3] form of existence.[11]
It is a feeling of powerlessness, knowing that age-proneness is currently inevitable, no matter in what physically healthy state one is at the moment. Aging is symbolized and personified as an archenemy to life and a (literal, in this case) mortal enemy, similarly to Grim Reaper with his Scythe is for death.

Even children who get confronted for the first time with the idea of evanescence, finite healthspan, external dependence (e.g. medication drugs, geriatrics tools such as wheelchair, rollator, reading glasses), aging and it's self-destructive effects, such as cancer and loss of health, presbyopia (loss of eye's self-ability to focus due to failing ciliary muscle), fraility, Arthritis, facial distortion[3], death, etc. could become gerascophobic due to horrification[3] and cognitive dissonance.

Symptoms

Surgery

Some sufferers[8] are more likely to seek plastic surgery to cut and stretch wrinkles to make them look more youthful[12] while the main concern of many other sufferers is the internal, biological long-term damage caused by the aging process.

Loss of mobility and independence

Symptoms include the fear of the future and the dread of needing to rely on people and external tools due to loss of strength,[10] to do formerly self-possible actions in everyday life (loss of freedom[10] and personal independence), which includes self-care, climbing stairs, crossing streets, walking, driving and carrying things.[10]

Biological failure

Gerascophobists especially fear the fade of health, the risk of age-related diseases, Frailty syndrome[10] and the inevitable loss of well-being which comes along with the aging process. This includes restricted individual mobility, reliance on prescription medication, tooth decay and loss of denture, loss of bone density, accumulating genetic damage, facial distortion[3] (loss of attractiveness), vocal distortion, the loss of body functionality (e.g. eyesight, which leads to reliance on external tools (i.e. reading glasses) that can break, malfunction, be forgotten and/or get lost), Cataract, Arthritis, Gastrointestinal disease (food digestion and issues and dyschezia, obstructed defecation), hydration malfunction, desert-dry skin, the increasing risk of kidney failure and cancer, lymphoma, permanent irreversible brain damage (leads to restricted environmental sensory perceptions, slower response times and weakened ability to think and make rational decisions), hearing loss, the loss of muscle mass (while fat increases), loss of fertility and potency; sensory deficits[13] (including the ability to feel emotions), cognitive decline (forgetting, loss of remembrance (fading memories), clusminess, dementia, alzheimers, loss of mental chronometry and neuroplasticity), repulsive ugliness,[3] and the permanent loss of overall quality of life[10][8][9], all of which only gets worse and leads to a dead end.

Reminders

Any reminder of impermanence, biological failure and evanescence, such as the bare mention of the word “lifespan”,[14] the name of the song Fade(d) or song lyrics such as “fading memories” and the sight of old and disabled people,[3] can trigger a wave of gerascophobic emotions, possibly combined with cognitive dissonance.

Physical restrictions

Gerascophobia gets amplified if oneself lives in a suboptimally capable body with disabilities (e.g. wheelchair reliance, circumcision, blindness, diabetes, dwarfism, Heart block (pacemaker reliance), rheuma, tourette syndrome and more…), which restrict one's ability to experience pleasure at any age and enjoy one's one and only ever life. By the time scientists will possibly have found a cure for one's disability, that person might already have past his/her healthspan, after which their ability to experience freedom, pleasure, mobility and life enjoyment without the former disability is already restricted by new, old-age-related factors.

Loss of significance

Many also fear they will not play an active role in society when they get older,[15] thus a fading significance and the loss of sense of purpose, the fear of missing out and the fear of being forgotten.

Social restrictions

Another sense of insecurity is caused by the possibility of being affected by ageism (social antipathy and reluctance against aged people) oneself one day.[10]

Potential jealousy

Jealousy, lack of self esteem and feelings of inferiority can possibly be caused by watching others enjoying the freedom of youth, vibrancy and mobility, while oneself is stuck in a biologically age-crippled, lesser capable body.

Second-hand Gerascophobia

Second-handed gerascophobia is when one fears the aging and biological decay of someone else, commonly grown-up offsprings for their aging, therefore slowly dying, parents.[16]

Sense of purpose

Due to the currently irreversible harmful effects of the human-biological time bomb (or age bomb) that were mentioned above, a human being's physical capabilities and freedom become increasingly, permanently restricted by old age, which could lead to uncertainty and a fading sense of purpose for life.[17][18]

Crime target

Due to being weaker, lesser able-bodied and slower reaction time, thus lesser able to defend themselves, elderly people are an easier, therefore more common target for criminals such as thievery and robbery.[19][20]

Due to declining brain performance and sharpness, age-harmed people are more prone to being scammed.[19]

Inability to participate in life

Gerascophobists fear that their old age will make them lesser able to participate in fun activities in life, miss out on quality time with close people, and miss out on inventions scientific innovations made in future.

This is different from the classic fear of missing out.

Etymology

The term gerascophobia comes from the Greek γηράσκω, gerasko, "I grow old" and φόβος, phobos, "fear".[21] Some authors refer to it as gerontophobia, although this may also refer to the fear of the elderly due to memento mori.[21]

See also

Videos

References

  1. ^ Definition of gerascophobia on MedTerms.com
  2. ^ John G. Robertson, An Excess of Phobias and Manias, p. 90.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i (at 02m:07s): Man from the film “STOP wasting your life (2019)”, directed by Prince Ea, looks alike a zombie from a horror movie.
  4. ^ 2015 StatNews article about aging
  5. ^ Futurism.com article by medical experts
  6. ^ Article by LongevityReporter.org from December 5th 2016.
  7. ^ https://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/47264/title/Opinion--Aging--Just-Another-Disease/
  8. ^ a b c Quote from BBC documentary “Can ageing be delayed, stopped or even reversed? BBC News” by Unity Biotechnology founder Nathaniel David: “Everyone you know suffers from aging. Everyone.”
  9. ^ a b Quote from BBC documentary “Can ageing be delayed, stopped or even reversed? BBC News” by Unity Biotechnology founder Nathaniel David: “Anyone, who tells you that aging is beautiful and something to embrace, is either dishonest with you or dishonest with themselves. I see no beauty.”
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Anonymous Quora answer to “Why don't some people accept aging?”, written by a then-nearly-60-year-old woman on 2016-11-04.
  11. ^ TED-ED video: “What happens to our bodies after we die?”
  12. ^ http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/BeautySecrets/story?id=2991351&page=1
  13. ^ FightAging.org article “The fall into nihilism”, 2017-07-25
  14. ^ Reddit comment: “Word I hate: ‘Lifespan’. Reason: Reminds one that there is mortality and end of life.”
  15. ^ "Symptoms of Gerascophobia". Retrieved 29 September 2011.
  16. ^ Quora question: How can I deal with the horrible thought of aging parents?
  17. ^ PsychologyToday article: The complicated relationship between disability and purpose
  18. ^ Article from ConfinedToSuccess.com about lacking sense of purpose due to disability: Finding purpose when disabled.
  19. ^ a b NJ.com article “12 disturbing ways criminals have targeted the elderly”
  20. ^ Document by Marianne Pinkerton James from the Australian Institute of criminology: “The Elderly as Victims of crime, Abuse and Neglect”
  21. ^ a b Perspectives on Aging, by Priscilla W. Johnston, 1982, ISBN 0-88410-734-5, pp. 239-241


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