The silent struggle of aging: Dr Eve explains the trauma of growing older

Aubrey Masango is joined by clinical sexologist and family therapist Dr Eve to talk about the trauma of ageing.

Listen below.

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In a world where we're encouraged to both stave off the signs of ageing and also grow old gracefully, the emotional and psychological impacts of getting older are often overlooked.

Attitudes about ageing depend on where in the world you live, the culture you come from and one's own personal standpoint.

Dr Eve has just returned from America where she watched the new Demi Moore movie, The Substance, which shines a spotlight on society's views on ageing.

"It's in a genre that's called body horror... It's quite gritty, quite gory, but the essence of the story is quite magnificent."

- Dr Eve

The film follows the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, played by Moore, a renowned exercise influencer and TV aerobics instructor who faces a devastating blow on her 50th birthday when she is fired.

She is then offered a substance which promises to transform her into an enhanced version of herself.

"You see the lengths she goes to to be able to recover from that rejection of the ageing process, of what ageing has done to her... I think it's something everybody can relate to."

- Dr Eve

Dr Eve says society continues to equate youth with beauty and beauty with worth.

As such, she says, people are employing increasingly drastic efforts to delay the signs of ageing.

"Plastic surgery, exercising, we're all doing something."

- Dr Eve

What are you doing to manage the challenging experience of becoming invisible, asks Dr Eve.

Such is the impact of the ageing process, says Dr Eve, that it can be viewed as trauma.

"It really can be quite a traumatic experience. There are many, many factors that can lead to ageing being distressing, challenging,  stressful, difficult to the end of the continuum that really is feeling so much stress that it becomes PTSD and traumatises you to the point where you do socially isolate."

- Dr Eve

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Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interview.