Just curious as to whether other peoples tolerances to stress have improved as they’ve gotten older, or got worse. I feel mines got worse. I’m also a lot less tolerant with things. Simple things seem to stress me out more than when I was younger. What’s everyone’s else’s experience with stress tolerance?
I agree about needing tech to do so much stuff, it is stressful, especially when you have learning difficulties or you want to ask a question and your question isn't amoung the FAQ's, in fact so bad are many FAQ's that I wonder who, over the age of 10 actually asks them?
I dread having to get anything new thats tech related, even a washing machine is complicated and I dread having to get a new tv, there seem to be so many assumptions made, like everybody having streaming services and paying big wads of cash every month so as you can watch on demand and record stuff, they don't tell you that you need a subscription to do these things. The lack of physical shops so as you can ask questions and have a look at somethng to see if it will fit, you'll be able to use it, seem t be getting harder and harder to find and then if you do find one, you go to buy something and get told you have to buy it online anyway. I'm going to stop now a I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about it.
Interesting overlap between many of the replies here.
I’ve definitely got worse as I have gotten older. Like as time has gone on more irritating or upsetting things have happened and they all just add up and when I’m having a weaker moment or many of them then I just get overwhelmed with the things that upset me, they invade my mind! And it can just take a simple trigger or a thought just pops in and boom I’m angry or sad etc. and take this from me being a woman defo doesn’t help.
My ability has got worse over the years. I put this down to several things.
As I have aged, I have spent a longer amount of time masking, so my ability to cope has reduced.
As I have got older there are more things to worry about, like health. Stress is worse for me when there are several issues at the same time. The one that triggers an issue might be something small like the Smart TV failing to function or needing resetting, or a change in the time of an appointment, as I have already planned the day.
Life has become more complicated, simple tasks often now require ability to use technology or remembering one of a numerous amount of passwords, rather than just turning a knob or getting a piece of paper from my filing system. Everything is also a lot faster but my brain doesn't function quicker.
I think I've got worse, but then for many years I had "coping woman syndrome", where you just take on more and more or have more and more piled on you until you break. I think I've become less willing to tolerate things that stress me out too, or rather other people who stress me out, this maybe because I've become more assertive over the years.
I've never worked well under pressure, people say that "everyone works well under pressure", I'd like to know who these people are and how they arrived at this conclusion? I think a lot of the time this idea comes from poorly organised people who then put thier lack of organisation onto others.
I am tolerant to a degree, but this is, to some extent, only managed by the strategies I have in place, which might be seen as masking or avoidance by some people. I experience hypersensitivity to external stimuli (mainly sound and vision) at times, less so at others. I’m never completely insensitive, but the range of feelings is extremely difficult for me to process (although I have got better at this). I have a sort of mode that I stick to, which also serves as armour against stress.
It’s hard to say because it is relative to the situation; also, you view things as being more or less meaningful at different ages. If you were in a relationship with someone whose values you shared, you might believe you have the same stress resilience as them. Really, it is the mentality you adopt, because stress is often you putting pressure on yourself to perform in time with someone else’s expectations — and how you deal with that.
I think it is more down to how stressed you are to start with. If your baseline is high you have little room for more.
If you are close to burn out you also lose perspective.
If you are able to manage yourself, keeps things in perspective, not take stuff too seriously (not much is really life or death), be kind to yourself, take breaks, pay attention to your feelings, etc. You can manage.
What I may be less good at is chronic long term stress, I seem less good as I've got older, but then it's not good for anyone and I put myself under too much pressure. I have recently learnt to let go and not feel guilty.
So I think it is mostly in the mind.
Mine has got significantly worse. I struggle with this push now that people need to endure stress to build resilience. Stress hasn't remotely made me more resilient. It just makes me less and less tolerant. I become hyper vigilant as I'm waiting for the next stressful thing to happen.
My tolerance is very high through years of developing coping techniques, but I have found my willingness to accept it is much lower now.
Simple things seem to stress me out more than when I was younger
I find the opposite - I can ignore these things much more effectively.
I do find my patience with fools and idiots is lower now but I tend to walk away rather than say anything or upset them. Life is too short to put up with these wastes of time.
At the same time I do have a lot of time for those I see struggling or in need of help, so long as they are not a fool or idiot of course. The amount of time I spend doing charity work is the highest it has ever been now.
Same, gotten worse. So much that I decided I should not have children because both they and me would suffer.
