At what age do we become doddery?

Depends on the person, and their luck with the physical/mental health gods..... my mother who is heading well into her 90's is still going strong, living on her own. I play tennis with a lady in her 80's, and I can tell you if I see her coming towards me to whack a short ball, I duck - it's a terrifying sight!

Some are not so luck in the lottery of life though.

But I agree with you that it's very easy to put everyone in the same "old person" box, and must be incredibly frustrating for someone who still has all their wits about them but has just slowed down a bit (will happen us all!).

asd and adhd here, so i probably entered the world already doddery, so im probably completely fcuked....

...both disorders have complex memory issues, dodderyness in old age is very similar, i suspect its related to similar parts of the brain...

I've seen people in their 60's away with the fairies and then seen people in their 80's that are sharp as a knife. Pattern I can see is those engaging with their community and friends regularly along with exercise seem to maintain the brain matter best.

no, not even close to the definition of doddery. More closely defined to weak movement

I think it is dependent on the person. My father is 82 and my father in law is 84.

My father loves his phone, laptop, streaming services, books, movies, travel. He has always exercised and taken care of himself

My father in law can hardly walk and watches one TV channel only. His only other interest all his life was drinking and he never looked after himself.

thank you, but i actually disagree with the term, a lot of old age issues are in fact psychologically related, as explained, this can induce many complex mental health issues including anxiety and depression

Ah good old WB.

I want Dylan Thomas poem at my funeral, cos I will be raging that I'm gone. I'm in the older category for many on this thread I guess, well past 50 anyway. Doing fine (touch wood) and enjoying life thank god. However if anything cognitive or physical should stop my gallop I'd probably decline in a week.

There's a physical aspect to it. You can be mentally very agile then an organic disorder can hit you such as Alzheimer's. But I think being generally mentally active and curious can stave off some of the gradual decline the elderly suffer from.

Some people assume they know it all when they've finished formal education or hit 30 and don't really bother after that. Those people, in my experience, start to decline rapidly after they retire from work.

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/northern-ireland/information-advice/health-wellbeing/mind-body/staying-sharp/looking-after-your-thinking-skills/

People are holding a lot better than they used to, in the 80s there wouldnt be too many remarks passed on someone dying in their late 60s. There is new medication on the way that'll go a long way to offsetting dementia, so the age people get doddery at is going to go back further. Go easy on the booze as you get older, that's a big help in limiting dodderiness.

Depends on what exactly you mean. Some cognitive impairment generally begins around 60, proper cognitive decline usually begins around 70, and 80 year olds are generally only going well if you hold them to a totally different standard than your average adult. But everyone is different. Bell curves and all that.

Old people have really interesting memories of a time that I didn't live through. So it can be fun to talk to them. But I wouldn't depend on them for serious insights into modern problems because, in my experience, they haven't a scooby and it takes them forever to get to the point of demonstrating that they haven't a scooby.

There's a reason we don't hold old people to the same standards as the rest of us, and it's because most would fail miserably. Give every 60± year old driving lessons and a driving test and I'll bet almost none would pass because most have given up on learning. But, we know old people having the independence of driving is good for them. So, we wouldn't dream of giving them a test - because we know most wouldn't pass.

Most old people are grand. They're patronised for a good reason, don't think too hard about it or you'll probably find they're not all they're cracked up to be.

I know only one old person who can listen to more than a sentence or two on a topic she isn't already familiar with without getting bored and interrupting. This wonan is class and she's nearly 89

Seventy seven

Big fan of your dad's attitude. That's the key. You talk to lots of old people who can't tolerate new ideas or can't face the world as it exists today.

The realy interesting ones are those can tell you about the old days and are curious bout the modern day. I find them few and far between but their class to chat with.

What a staggeringly patronising, ill informed, generalised pile of nonsense.

Well, that's not very specific. What did you disagree with, exactly?

El Duderino - Well, that's not very specific. What did you disagree with, exactly?

'Some cognitive impairment generally begins around 60, proper cognitive decline usually begins around 70, and 80 year olds are generally only going well if you hold them to a totally different standard than your average adult.' You state this as though it is fact, then try and qualify it with 'everyone is different'. 'Some people may start to experience cognitive decline around 60, some may have 'proper' cognitive decline at 70 etc.' That puts me well into the 'proper' range and I only have a couple of years before I collapse into a wittering heap. But 'everyone is different' so there's your out. You can apply 'everyone is different' to any mad generalisation you want to apply to any section of the community.

'Old people' can be fun to talk to. Well I am so happy that we have some use to you. But not trusting them for insights into modern problems - seriously? I can't even begin with this one. I wonder what a 'modern' problem is? What is the lower age limit for understanding them? 'in my experience' yes well possibly all those entertaining old people realised that they hadn't a hope of discussing anything with you with your closed minded, narrow view and concescending attitude towards them, so they just didn't bother.

'There's a reason we don't hold old people to the same standards as the rest of us', no, I am not going there.

Is this a wind up, or are you genuinely as patronising as you appear?

Well today's five year olds it will be common to live into their 90's

https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/IRL/ireland/life-expectancy

If we are talking about 'doddery' I would interpret this as unsteady on one's feet, though there is an implication of not being mentally sharp. This latter could be connected with hearing issues, it could also relate to medication, or chronic pain, or it could indeed be developing senility.

But also it could be that the people who 'get by' when they are younger, not thinking too hard or critically about anything, not attempting to have opinions, political or otherwise, because they are not interested, have never paid much attention to what is going on outside their immediate family, and find it easier to just go along with the opinions they were fed as children. If they were not very interesting as 40 year olds, they are not going to be interesting as 70 year olds. The more they do not push themselves to figure things out, exercise their brain, the more likely they are to become cognitively challenged.

I have a group of half a dozen or so people around my age, we range between late 70s and early 80s up to 88. We get together to have lunch and chat and the conversation ranges through politics, social affairs, local happenings, interests, and our families. I have not noticed any limitations to viewpoints. One has very racially mixed sons and daughters in law, two others have adult children in same sex relationships, a couple have grandchildren with various forms of disability, mostly fairly minor but still needing special attention. Everyone is very relaxed and open about all of these situations.

I could find among people that I know (some of them are relatives) another half dozen that would bore me to distraction by their conversation and negativity and general grouchiness. But they were like that when they were 30, it hasn't suddenly appeared.

As far as physical 'doddery-ness' goes, yes you do tend to have more physical issues as you get older. The longer you live the more time you have to aquire issues, but also older people naturally become less flexible, have less stamina, but it absolutely depends on the individual. There are people still running and swimming in their 80s and older. Others might have started to physically slow down much younger. I became a lot more doddery about 5 years ago as a result of a botched medical procedure, it didn't affect my intelligence though.

The slow and fumbling person at the supermarket checkout may have arthritis in their hands. Older people can tend to get tired more easily, its difficult to look sharp and alert when you are exhausted, but that also applies to any age. It gets more difficult to lift things and climb steps to do little jobs around the house, so yes, more help may be needed there. It can get more difficult to remember things, but this does not imply senility, you can have opinions and be able to function perfectly normally, but lose the odd word or forget a name more readily than when you were younger.

One real frustration of getting older is the attitude occasionally of some younger people, doctors who have the 'what do you expect, you are old' answer to any issues. People in 'institutional' situations (hospitals and medical mostly) who lean into your face and shout 'and how are we today?' That's more on them than on me though, I feel free to think they are just a bit stupid.

Indeed. The exact definition of doddery is indeed limited to ones physicality.

adjective

1. slow and unsteady in movement because of weakness in old age.
2. "he's a bit doddery on his legs and doesn't get about much"

an aunt of mine is doddery as fûck, currently hospitalised following a fall.

she had to get operated on…

she has a carer coming twice a day, her daughter bought a place next door, does all her shopping and is basically a second carer

in about 4 years she went from a well enough woman… driving, collecting the grandkids, once a week playing 9 holes of golf, going on very active holidays, cruises etc…. To doing none of the above, basically zero independence outside her own house.

the scary thing is the rapid decline. Free, well and able ….to completely unable.

the operation she’s having is aimed to relieve pain as she was eating painkillers like smarties which as she admitted… “ were making me stupid high “ and leading to other issues…. So any physical limitations will not be fixed…in any major way anyway.

Health plays a big part. Good health is so important. Hobbies. Interests. Consistent exery.

I'd also say non smoking and easy on the alcohol.

I work with elderly people most living with dementia and while I wouldn't use the word 'doddery', they're definitely not comparable to others younger or healthier.

The one big health issue we see is diabetes. And I really don't think people take it seriously enough.

Genuinely as patronising as you think.

You ignored the 'some may' part in the bit discussing cognitive decline. So you may, or may not be experiencing decline, the odds certainly increase with age. Unless we're pretending the odds of cognitive decline don't increase with age.

Modern problems i wouldn't rush to older people for advice on would include: modern employment issues, housing, technological issues. Not because none of them could possibly have good insights, but in my experience, the odds of good insights is lower and the odds of outdated info is much greater than your average punter. Parenting advice is a mixed bag in my experience. Some good, practical tips, some outdated garbage.

It'd often interesting to get older people's opinions, for context and sometimes for examples of what not to do.

There are great reasons to ignore cognitive and physical decline. Driving is a good example. When an older person drives poorly, it's probably better to let them drive and have their independence, than to take their driving licence from them. That would likely accelerate the problems. So we ignore it and pretend he average older driver is as good as the general population. I'm fine with that.