Challenging Ageism: 5 Strategies To Shift Your Own Negative Attitudes

REDUCING AGEISM BEGINS BY EXAMINING OUR OWN BIASES AND CATCHING OURSELVES WHEN WE MAKE AGEIST COMMENTS. 

Here are some ways we can change society’s negative attitudes towards aging:

1. Challenge our ageist self-talk
A first step is to become aware of our internalized ageist messages and work to overcome them. Kathleen McInnis-Dittrich of the Boston College Graduate School of Work explains that these attitudes often begin in childhood when parents make subtle comments such as “I hope I don’t become forgetful like grandma” or “I don’t have as much energy as I used to, I must be getting old.” Such comments plant the seeds that aging is a time of deterioration. It gets reinforced as we age and use ageist expressions such as “I’m having a senior moment” when we forget things. This popular term contributes to the negative stereotypes of older adults. Reducing ageism begins by examining our own biases and catching ourselves when we make ageist comments.