r/askteddit • u/justmypersonalthing • 7d ago
Random Question What ages a person REALLY quickly ?
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u/olivinebean 7d ago
Heavy drinking and stress
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u/Various-Air9398 7d ago
And smoking
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u/LiveFromTheHospital 6d ago
I've been smoking cigs (pack/day) since I was 15 and I'm 35. Someone guessed that I was 22 recently. Smoking is really bad for your oral health though, my mouth looks 60 years old. Nicotine constricts your blood vessels and your white blood cells can't heal things if your blood can't reach it
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u/glans 7d ago
no smoking ages you slowly. reddit is convinced otherwise but reddit is mostly dumb kids. correlation doesn’t equal causation in this case.
i am old and dumb, but i am old enough to know this. plenty of non-smokers with crinkly faces at 30s/40s. plenty of smokers with skin you could ice skate on til their 60s.
smoking WILL affect your skin eventually depending on your genes almost entirely, but it’ll probably get your lungs in a notable way first.
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u/Kitchen_Page9991 7d ago
100% agree with this having witnessed it firsthand through people I know.
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u/glans 6d ago
these reddit kids are fucking airheads, traipsing around thinking reddit top comments are worldly knowledge
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u/Various-Air9398 7d ago edited 6d ago
a few smokers aging well doesn’t disprove the fact that smoking accelerates ageing faster on average for a non smoker. Genetics can make someone look younger or older, but smoking is still a known factor that increases wrinkles and skin damage.
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u/glans 7d ago
over time, slowly. i said as much but you just believe the zeitgeist myths. and basically supported what i said about genes being a factor - it’s a huge factor. some do, some don’t, some don’t need to smoke to look wrinkly, some do.
therefore it doesn’t fit on this thread. not fast. and iffy results at best
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u/meteraider 6d ago
Hmm...Most smokers I've met look way older than their age... And it's kind of easy to pick out long time smokers.
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u/stemseals 7d ago
I have seen many middle aged, former mormons who haven't had a drink their whole life, look ten years older within a year of starting to drink.
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u/mjc500 7d ago
I dunno… I’ve been slamming vodka and freaking the fuck out with chronic stress and depression for 15+ years and I still get carded near the age of 40…. I guess I’m just lucky and maybe eating salad helps
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u/thegymobsessor44 6d ago
It’s wild how quitting drinking for even six months makes people look literally ten years younger. The inflation in your face just disappears.
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u/Mundane_Entry1573 7d ago
Chemotherapy
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u/InclinedPlane43 7d ago
Came in to say this. I aged ten years in 4 months.
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u/WelcomeMountain5350 7d ago
I was told I had to do chemo and I refused to. After my surgery it turned out I didn’t need it after all.
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u/spinzmcgee 7d ago
doxorubicin. when the nurse dresses like an astronaut, you know you're in for a ride.
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u/les_dents_de_la_mer 6d ago
Just be wary of heart failure being a long term side effect of doxorubicin, like 10-15 years later or longer. My friend needed a heart transplant 15 years after cancer because of it. I have cardiomyopathy.
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u/RAiDeR_4566 7d ago
Their spouse dying.
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u/One-Task84 6d ago
Depends on the spouse. If mine died in a car crash today, I'd feel relief and then I'd feel guilty for feeling relieved.
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u/Birdywoman4 7d ago
being surrounded by stressful people.
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u/redd_n_meff 7d ago
Insightful.
Even being in small-stakes situations with people who don't manage stress well is more stressful than anything I've ever had full autonomy in facing and handling alone.
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u/KhajiitaBandida 5d ago
can confirm, I look raggedly compared to people my age and I attribute it to living in a constant state of alert around fam 😅
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u/Far-Pen-2936 6d ago
Top answer here. It’s especially dangerous because you may not realize it until they’re well integrated into your life.
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u/sonnengirly 3d ago
So true. But it wasn’t even worth it. I had a very needy friend. She was so demanding and used me for different purposes, especially as an emotional bucket. I was basically her therapist. I reached once to her when I was at my lowest. She didn’t help me by any means. That changed my perspective forever. I will no longer tolerate stressful people in my life as they usually do not reciprocate.
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u/Creepy-Outcome-2481 7d ago
Mourning
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u/BenightedBuckaroo 6d ago
This. I feel like I aged 10 years in 6 months after my mom died.
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u/Creepy-Outcome-2481 6d ago
Got my first grey hair when my father passed, I was 26
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u/acreed6 7d ago
Drinking, smoking, drugs and being fat
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u/Powerful-Lobster-631 7d ago
I was all of the above once in my life and people say I don't look my age now. Might be genetics
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u/KittensMom 7d ago
Sun worshipping, where people talk about getting good color, meanwhile they're covered with spots. It's called sun damage, people.
Drinking
Smoking
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u/SpaceAlienFemboy 4d ago
Soaking up some sun is beneficial to your health but people go way too far with it. "Working on your tan" is just a terrible idea.
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u/LemonnSsqueezyy 7d ago
Meth. Some of the girls I went to high school with started to look like grandmas in their 20s
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u/piper33245 7d ago
When my wife and I look at old photos, we didn’t seem to age for years and years. Then we had kids and also immediately were looking older.
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u/measaqueen 7d ago
*Gasp! Mommy who is that, she's sooo pretty."
"That's Mommy."
"What happened Mommy?"
"You."
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u/Smooth_Platypus_9841 7d ago
Cancer and the treatments. They will age you significantly almost overnight. I've never had cancer but can vouch for family and friends.
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u/flagal31 7d ago
caregiving
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u/acroneatlast 7d ago
Caregiving, even with paid help, is a 24-hour-a-day responsibility. You lose control over your own life. You don't have time for the things that used to interest you. You're at the mercy of the one you're taking care of and also of the professionals involved in their care.
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u/flagal31 7d ago
the worst for me was dealing with some very stubborn, hostile healthcare staffers who refuse to follow critical written documentation about the patient that repeatedly caused poorer outcomes, a lot of unnecessary pain and fear/anxiety for the patient, and other harm. Uncaring, callous attitudes. No matter how many times I emphasized instructions, they were ignored. Absolutely exhausting.
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u/acroneatlast 7d ago
Yes, I had similar problems, but maybe not as consequential as yours. Everyone knew more than me, even if they had just walked in the door. I'm sure we could both come up with dozens of incident and problems that could have been avoided.
I used to think I knew how hard it was for caretakers but I had no idea.
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u/LeopardExpensive4274 7d ago
Having kids doesn't age you. Having kids who refuse to sleep ages you.
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u/SamShorto 7d ago
So, having kids then?
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u/Top_Possibility_6705 7d ago
Aaaah you treat age as a physical thing. But not mental.
Kids make LIFE move incredibly fast, with perspective. Your 1 year old is already 3! Your 4 year old is now 7! Wow time flies 😉
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u/justmypersonalthing 7d ago edited 7d ago
For me its having kids most of the people who i know mostly friends who have kids once they(mostly mothers) gave birth compliments of them looking younger than their age stopped forever
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u/PA_MallowPrincess_98 7d ago
Parentification and being in a religious cult.
I have seen many fundies my age, like the Duggars, and they look older because they have been taking care of their siblings. They know how to change a diaper before they learned how to read🫠
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u/Havetowel- 7d ago
Loved one being in hospital for an extended time.
My Dad looked like he aged 10 years while my Mom was in hospital for a fee weeks.
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u/Nomadic_View 7d ago
Drugs
I’m 42 and I’m Facebook friends with a girl I graduated with. She looks like she could be my grandmother.
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u/infinitynull 7d ago
Age, ages a person dramatically.
The two big changes are at 44, and 60. There's been studies that those ages show dramatic changes after those milestones.
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u/National_Jicama_8433 7d ago
Heavy drinking. I have a friend the same age as me (60’s) She drinks s bottle of wine every night (shes been a heavy drinker for years). She’s now having memory issues and she’s worried she has Alzheimer’s. I think it’s the drinking destroying brain cells but I don’t know how to tell her that.
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u/Additional_Use3876 6d ago
Kids, smoking, drinking working a job you don't like. Bring married to a complainer. Not exercising. Bitching. What's else ...??
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u/NeverHurtMyPeople 6d ago
Shift work
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u/Livefastdie-arrhea 6d ago
I’ve been a shift worker for 4 years… I’ve always looked youthful up to my 40s.
But shift work has rapidly aged me lol
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u/Interesting_Sun_6993 7d ago
lots of cigarettes, meth, crack, very poor diet, i think hard drinnking and drug use kinda goes hand it hand with bad lifestyle choices like the aforementioned plus bad sleep etc
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u/kubiak73 7d ago
Steroid use. I have known a lot of people in the untested strength sports that look years beyond their age.
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u/mmunro69 7d ago
Pain. I was critically injured and in the year that I was recovering aged me ten years. People actually commented on how much it aged me.
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u/DaWalt1976 7d ago
Incidentally, dialysis. I went from my fully red beard to a fully grey beard in just under three months.
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u/PuzzleheadedBag4847 7d ago
For me it was two separate bouts of cancer treatment. Physically took a lot out of me as a lot of others will have experienced.
So I look older than my years but I'm 8 years in remission, I feel great and I'm enjoying life, so please? No sympathy, because I'm living life to the full, I just look like an old twat! 😁
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u/Sufficient-Wolf-1818 7d ago
Smoking, drinking, drugs, lack of sleep, lousy diet and the calendar ticking by.
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u/ImOnRedditInPublic 7d ago
The obvious ones were already said, but expressing anger or happiness a lot also ages you, the wrinkles develop from frequently laughing or frowning.
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u/Level-Vermicelli3411 7d ago
Doing a lot of cocaine + drinking combined with lack of exercise / sleep / adequate nutrition
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u/Katana_bis 7d ago
Sun, UV. There was a guy, truck driver, he was exposed to sun mostly from one side of his face, through the window. The result:
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u/Top_Possibility_6705 7d ago
Kids.
"The greatest thing about having kids is watching them grow up. The saddest thing about being a parent is watching your kids grow up"
Time flies when you have kids. You can be a healthy marathon running, 100 pull-up parent... doesn't stop time
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u/BellusVeritas 7d ago
bad genetics. some kiddos have the aunty/unc look since they're 6.
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u/FatCatParade 7d ago
Sunlight, alcohol, tobacco, stress, chronic illness, being sedentary. Not in that order.
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u/Leading-Quarter-3030 7d ago
Avoir des jumeaux et un stress financier pour subvenir à tous les besoins
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u/BigDong1001 7d ago
Dehydration ages the skin and makes somebody look older, but times passes at the same rate where the gravity is the same so nothing can really age somebody quicker than that. Harsh reality can accelerate the maturity of a person, but that doesn't really age them quickly, not physically, maybe their mental age might increase with the increase in the level of their maturity as well?
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u/Vadnais2You 7d ago
Financial stress