Gerascophobia

Gerascophobia (from Greek geraso, meaning "I am getting old") is the fear of getting or. People fear growing older mainly because they are getting closer to their demise. For some who fear growing old, they might have heard horror stories about the nursing home and fear that they will also be put in one of those homes when they grow old. For others, the thought of losing one's self-control such as not able to dress and feed oneself may be the triggering factor for this fear. Others also fear that when they grow old, they will be left alone by their family. Or some may fear that they will get sick when they grow old and will be left alone to die without family members to take care of them.

Sufferers can have following symptoms — thoughts of dying, depression, fainting, inability to think or express oneself clearly, shaking and shivering, palpations and rapid breathing.

Gerascophobia can be treated using a variety of methods, like, , , , and medications.

Gerascophobia is closely related to gerontophobia, fear of the elderly.

Surgery
Some sufferers are more likely to seek plastic surgery to cut and stretch wrinkles to make them look more youthful 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, to do formerly self-possible actions in everyday life (loss of freedom and personal independence), which includes self-care, climbing stairs, crossing streets, walking, driving and carrying things.

Biological failure
Gerascophobists especially fear the fade of health, the risk of age-related diseases, Frailty syndrome 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 (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 (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, and the permanent loss of overall quality of life , 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”, the name of the song Fade(d) or song lyrics such as “fading memories” and the sight of old and disabled people, 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, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.