![]() ![]() One of the distinctions in tiredness of life is that there is no desire for, or mourning of, a future only a profound sense that the journey is over, yet drags on painfully and indefinitely. This sort of suffering is often tied to mourning a future we feel we should have had, or fearing a future we are uncertain about. In these examples, part of the suffering is connected to the fact that there is more of life’s voyage to make – but that the rest of the journey feels uncertain and no longer looks the way we fantasised it would. Consider the existential suffering that might arise from a terminal illness or recent divorce. Of course, this sort of suffering shares characteristics (it’s depressing and painful) with anguish we encounter at other points in life. Larsson’s team raises the question of whether this might be inevitable for us all. They argue that people steadily let go of life, until they reach a point where they are ready to turn off the outside world. If we live long enough, we can lose our identity, physical capabilities, partner, friends and careers.įor some people, this elicits a deep-rooted sense that life has been stripped of meaning – and that the tools we need to rebuild a sense of purpose are irretrievable.Ĭare professor Helena Larsson and colleagues in Sweden have written about a gradual “turning out of the lights” in old age. The American novelist Philip Roth wrote that “old age is not a battle, old age is a massacre”. It is a stage of life I simply don’t want to go through. Gaunt and half-dead, pointlessly driven around in a wheelchair … It has nothing to do with being human anymore. Look at the condition of those old ladies in the building opposite. I simply feel ignored, completely marginalised. Humiliation is too strong a word, but it is bordering on it. ![]() The ship sets sail and everyone has a job, but you just sail along. One man of 92 told the network’s researchers: Tiredness of life also seems to arise in people who consider themselves to have lived fulfilling lives. ![]() This need not be the consequence of a lifetime of suffering, or a response to intolerable physical pain. ![]()
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