Is getting old sort of like getting drunk?

Question

When people get drunk, they lose their inhibitions. Some drunks are "goofy drunks", while others wanna fight with the first person that they see. Basically, their true colors shine through. I've noticed the same thing for older people. Throughout life, we develop various inhibitions which are deemed appropriate for social interactions and being in public in general. However, a lot of older people seem to lose those inhibitions. So many older people are mean, while others are really nice. In general, many elderly people say whatever they feel like saying without considering the consequences. Others drive recklessly (which is not to be mistaken for vision problems). Sometimes we are so quick to forgive and overlook the behavior of older people because "They're old ... they can't help it.", but I'm beginning to think that the way that these people were really bad all along, and now it's just more apparent. What are your thoughts on this subject?

Answer 1

Well, when I stopped laughing....

As we age, a lot of things change, particularly physically. Some people mellow out while others become cantankerous and nasty. We begin to lose people we have known all our lives. Our perspective and priorities change. We begin to face or are facing retirement and eventually the end of life. We may be experiencing the joy of having grandchildren.

How we age is very individual, each in our own way. But its really not much like getting drunk.

Answer 2

I think that all elderly people should be treated with polite respect. Even the grouchy ones. They have lived a long life, probably suffered many losses and endured them. I also think that some of the grouchy behavior is rooted from today's youth and the ill mannered disrespect they have for others. And if the parents don't say something by golly some one should. I also think that the as you grow old you care less of what others think, they've lived many years suppressing thoughts and comments that often shouldn't be. Location is a factor as well. Elderly people in rural or southern areas tend to be much friendlier. This could be due to the slower pace rather than the hustle and bustle of metropolitan areas, which I am sure is much harder to keep up with as ones body ages. Yes, I can see the similarities between happy drunks and the polite elderly, and to the belligerent drunk to the grouchy ones. But as they say drunken words are sober thoughts. I guess you could say that the grouchy ones speak their mind.

Answer 3

I think you need to study psychology if you really want to form some reasonable ideas about the workings of the human mind.

There are various and complicated reasons for the changes people undergo as they age. I personally have not studied psycology much, so my list is very insufficient, but just to get you started, some of the things you need to consider about aging people are:
- they are facing their own mortality, which of course is disturbing and depressing and can lead to all sorts of psychological problems. - Just try to imagine not being able to do what you used to being able to do and knowing you will never be able to do them again because you are approaching death.
- again- depression sets in as loved ones die, they have regrets of what they didn't do, anxieties about current health problems, and horrible feelings over loss of freedoms and the general decline of their bodies.
- By the time you're that age, experience has given you different attitudes about certain things that younger people have.
- After a certain amount of time, some people just stop keeping up these "inhibitions"- and I disagree, by the way, with your concept of "inhibitions." We all have ways we act to be acceptable, and we have reasons we act that way. Some people decide early on (like in college) that some of these actions just aren't as important as doing their own thing is. Some people don't decide that until after dealing with the bullshit for a much longer time.
- There are mental diseases such as dementia and alzheimer's that will seriously affect some people's mental processes.
- and one more time I'll mention depression and anxiety, which can cause people to act out in strange ways too.

Again, I'm no psychologist, and my list was VERY narrow, but hopefully that helped expand your thinking a bit.

Answer 4

I'm not drunk. I just don't care anymore. When I was a kid in school, I was the one all of the guys loved to sucker punch -- they knew they could get away with it. I was afraid of my own shadow. I was the guy all of the girls laughed at anytime I'd try and ask one out on a date. When I became a man, I moved away and learned to put on a false vibrado and swagger that'd make a fighter pilot/jet jockey envious. As I grew older, I learned to be more bold and self assured -- it wasn't fake. Now, I just don't give a rat's a_ _ anymore.

Answer 5

My aunt Jean is old. One day she started to repeat everything and so my sister took her to a doctor who said she might be reacting to the additives in her vitamins and to make an appt in 3 months and bring the list of ingredients with her.
They did and he said that it wasnt from that. Then she started walking funny and he said it was that she was finally wearing closed shoes in the winter instead of her usual sandals and that her bunions were squished in her shoes and making her walk that way.
Then when she handed her entire wallet to a cashier at the supermarket, the woman thought she was drunk.
The doctor however said it was the start of dementia.
As soon as my sister heard, she went to a lawyer to try to get power of attorney because she didnt trust things like check books in the hands of my aunt. However she was unsuccessful at proving that my aunt needed someone to take over all her affairs.

Answer 6

Dude... that's awesome. I never thought about it that way before. It would be cool to look into the real similarities/differences in what happens to the brain when you drink and when you get old. Yeah, I agree with you here.

Answer 7

if your giving her Beer its actual undesirable even one can be seen overlook ... however the very concept Your giving a Minor a lager is observed as "Contributing to the Delinquency of a minor" in allot of states that 5-10 yrs those days .. So yea um its undesirable

Answer 8

for how many years have you made these observations? will you continue this in your old age, or just get drunk?

Answer 9

someone should have told you..You're going to get old someday..be nice to old people and your humanity will blossom..young grasshopper

Answer 10

Getting drunks is for fools.