Getting soft with age?

[e30m3Mark]

I'm not really sure where to start with this but now I'm firmly in the ''middle aged'' bracket, I have just become more aware of getting emotional and even having the occasional wetness around the eyes. I've noticed that things I have watched or listened to in the past have more of an effect than they ever used to and certain pieces of music can bring a tear.

Last night I watched a program about Spike Milligan and it reminded me of his ''Children's Book of Silly Verse'', a book I loved as a kid. I still know many of the poems by heart. There were interviews with his daughter and footage where Spike answered questions about the divorce from his first wife and the passing of his second. It was very sad but there were also moments of real joy.

I guess I'm just wondering if this is just something that comes with age? Do we get softer and more sensitive to emotions? I don't feel embarrassed or anything but I suppose it's just that realisation that I have certainly mellowed and am not worried about outward displays of emotion. There are things that have surprised me though, such as my feelings around the death of David Bowie. I was genuinely moved by the event but then I suppose he has always been a factor in my life. Maybe it's a reminder of my own mortality?

[marcosgt]

I think you've encountered one of the benefits of getting old.

You care less about what others think and, probably, wish you'd felt that way earlier

I must admit, too, that I get a little more 'lump in throat' things than I used to, but I'm not prone to welling up, I guess I never will be, but who knows

M

[bigandclever]

It's the manopause.

[HTP99]

I have become softer with age (43 in a few weeks!!), it started a few years ago, I get set off quite easily, I'll watch something on TV and start sniffling, the wife will say "getting emotional?", I always say no just a sniffle!

Choirs get me, I think it is because my late dad (died coming up to 3 years ago now), loved a choir and I associate choirs with him.

It is funny, I was terribly unemotional, I think my dads death has made me more so.

[Gary29]

Naturally lower testosterone levels

[Riley Blue]

Gary29 said:

Naturally lower testosterone levels

From your mid-20s it's downhill all the way...

[sgtBerbatov]

I don't think it's an age thing.

Frank Williams doesn't look like he's ever had a moist eye in his life.

[BoRED S2upid]

I was going to suggest you can now buy viagra over the counter but that’s not what you mean.

[227bhp]

I'm guessing you'll weep a bit when you get your second engine bill

[e30m3Mark]

I think that'll be more like uncontrollable sobbing.

[Squadrone Rosso]

I was a horrendous bottler in my younger age. Both my parents died when I was 16 and I muscled through the aftermath.

I had a brief crack in 2004 when my then dog died at 15 then had a fairly serious back injury in 2005.

I fought the tears but this brough self destruction & anger. Numerous back operations & various degrees of incapity coupled with a shed loads of meds didn’t help.

Further surgery in 2011 coupled with a rush back to work to protect my team from a psycho bully boss almost did for me. Lots of counselling afterwards meant I’m more open now.

My Uncle (my Dad since my own Dad died in 86) passed in February. My dog died in October. One of my best friends has months to live at just 45 years old. All have meant tear shedding.

It’s hard though. Self destructive feelings are never far away behind the thin veneer of normalness. But I do my best to be open.

My point, don’t fight your emotions. If you do, it’ll bite you on the arse big time at some point.

[e30m3Mark]

I was in a car crash 13 years ago now and in an induced coma for a couple of weeks. When I came out of it, I had awful dream and hallucinations, which were diagnosed as ITU Psychosis. I thought I had been responsible for the deaths of 3 children in the accident (I hadn't and there were no children involved) and the guilt meant I spent many hours in tears. No amount of reassurance got through to me and I suffered terrible feelings of persecution. I could hear people planning revenge attacks and imagined all sorts of awful events, all of which lasted a month or so. Eventually these feelings began to subside and I was able to reason with myself. Even writing this now though, it's all still there and as vivid as ever, despite the years that have passed.

The mind is an incredible thing and although I'm just about recovered now, I know how fragile mental health can be sometimes. I'm sure the events surrounding that accident influence my emotional state now.