Think You Look Younger Than Your Age?

Many adults believe they look younger than their age, yet dissatisfaction can persist. This mismatch can drive an ongoing search for additional ways to improve appearance. Preoccupation with looking younger can lead to stress, anxiety, and depression when the desired look is not achieved. Not meeting the goal may intensify the urge to do more, rather than reduce anxiety. The pursuit can become a cycle where each attempt to maintain or enhance youthfulness increases pressure. Appearance-focused priorities can outweigh attention to overall health, increasing emotional strain as aging progresses.

"Wanting to look younger than your age is certainly a thing-a personal measure of pride and a belief that you have succeeded in overcoming the inevitability of age showing in your appearance. Research has found that 59 percent of adults between the ages of 50 and 80 actually see themselves as looking younger than their ages."

"That over half of adults believe that they look younger than their ages coexists with an obsessive pursuit of searching for the next thing that can be done to look younger. The preoccupation around looking younger and the inherent need to do more and more is what seems to fuel stress, anxiety, and depression when the goal of looking younger is not attained."

"It seems that not looking your age does not suffice to lessen anxiety but perhaps rather fuels the need to do more and more to maintain and achieve the "you look younger than your age" goal. If anything, it seems to exacerbate the need to do something to improve appearance."

"In my work as a therapist helping adults manage anxiety and stress, one of the biggest causes of excessive anxiety in aging adults, more acutely in women, is the perception of deteriorating appearance and panic over not looking the way they looked decades ago."

Read at Psychology Today