Feeling Old Yet?

As a soon-to-be university graduate, I cannot help but think I am getting old. Chatting with my younger cousins applying to university, or first years excited about their first May Dip, I am only 21 and already feel the looming fear of ageing. It is a feeling shared far beyond fourth-years: whether you are finishing high school, leaving your teens, or starting a new job, there is always an impending feeling that time is suddenly moving too fast. No matter your age — 16, 30, or 70 — conversations about getting old will always be rehashed. Gerascophobia, the phobia of ageing, is to blame for this. It is all part of the brain’s tendency to process ageing as a risk rather than a natural transition.

As the brain ages, various chemical changes fuel this fear. Gerascophobia — a psychological phobia produced by high-functioning anxiety — intensifies as cognitive worries about growing older deepen. This is driven by fluctuating levels of neurotransmitters, the means by which the brain sends chemical messages from nerve cells. Crucially, levels of Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA), the neurotransmitter that calms behavioural activity, decline, heightening emotional reactivity around conversations about ageing. The amygdala, a small central membrane that is the brain’s emotional processing centre, simultaneously becomes overactive, triggering a fear-driven response to perceived threats of ageing rather than a rational one. Combined with reduced transmission of dopamine, the hormone that regulates pleasure and motivation, it amplifies alertness and triggers the brain’s defensive mechanism, strengthening anxiety-based preconceptions of ageing. These changes all elevate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, the body’s long-term stress response system. This causes a gradual increase in cortisol, the body’s primary pressure and stress hormone, which, long-term, harms brain health by sustaining anxiety, irritability, and emotional irregularity.

Fundamentally, gerascophobia is driven and sustained by various internalised societal pressures. Negative portrayals of ageing in popular culture often frame growing older as correlating to loss of physical beauty, fun, or social life, creating a distorted narrative that deepens personal anxiety. Movies and TV shows rely on familiar stereotypes — the grumpy grandparent, the technologically confused elder, and the boring retiree — turning ageing into the butt of a joke or a source of constant pity. Furthermore, these stereotypes are reinforced by beauty companies and advertisements that treat ageing as a flaw their products can fix, promoting unrealistic standards of how we should strive to look. These all work together to worsen the brain’s cognitive flexibility, where individuals struggle with ‘psychic equivalence’, as concerns about ageing are perceived as an immediate and dangerous reality. This reinforces mental patterns that fuel persistent negative thoughts about ageing, making it difficult to effectively rationalise and consider other perspectives. At an extreme level, this can lead to Dorian Grey Syndrome (DGS), a cultural and psychological condition marked by a refusal to mature due to consistent fear of ageing. This leads to an excessive preoccupation with appearance, money, and cosmetic surgery, triggering longer-term mental health issues.

“For the first time in human history, we have entered an era in which old age is taken for granted,” said Chao Fang, Deputy Director of the Centre of Ageing and the Life Course at the University of Liverpool. In past centuries, growing old was considered a luxury reserved for the elite classes. Despite medical advances that have immensely extended life expectancy, ageing is framed as something undesirable rather than valued. It is time to shift this mentality. Growing up is exciting, daunting, uncertain, but ultimately inevitable. Embracing these emotions lets us face the future with curiosity rather than fear.

Illustration by Vera Kaganskaya