I often compare young children to those that have been lucky enough to live seven, eight, even nine decades.

The similarities may not be clear as day for most, but as someone who really cares about teaching people about taking care of themselves through good nutritional choices and exercise, it’s as noticeable as a bee sting on your own nose.

Sitting in church on a Sunday, I often see young children in the pews in front of my family investigating, moving around, and smiling at others around them.

This past Sunday I started thinking once again about the connection between young and “old.”

Young people have a strong tendency to attempt things all by themselves. “I can do it myself” may be heard from afar as a parent is nervously running toward a two-year-old trying to scale her bureau to get her toy.

There is no fear, or at least no understanding of consequence, so from the time they are toddlers, they continue to explore their world and try things without concern or thinking twice. This goes on for years and years into the teenage years and beyond.

As we get older, experience leads us to analyze things way more than we should at times. We call it “analysis paralysis” and it can stop us from making a good decision because we simply talk ourselves out of it. And then there is the effect of inaccurate societal beliefs about aging and health.

For instance, we see way too many seniors believing that getting weak, balance problems, pain, and decreased independence are all “natural” as you age.

There is nothing “natural” about getting weak or feeble as you age.

Ok, yes, I need to get back to comparing a young person to an older person. The issue is that young people are often feeble in some way.

As a toddler, their physical capabilities not yet developed can be described as feeble. Or as a teenager, their brain is not ready to make life decisions. Yet, they regularly, perhaps mistakenly “try” things citing “I can do it myself!”

Older people often say, “I don’t need help!” in situations that involve poor balance, dizziness, pain, weakness. All too often, in my physical therapy business, we hear about older folks who are struggling with poor balance, weakness, or pain decide to go it alone or do nothing rather than accepting or seeking out help for problems that can be improved like the issues noted.

The mistake young people make is they try stupid things. The mistake older people make is that they don’t try smart things. Isn’t that the same thing?

A young child might climb a bookcase … the likely result is not a good look. An older person may choose not to try physical therapy … the likely result is that their problem gets worse … we see it all the time with our In-Home PT program.

The take-away? Try something that will benefit your functional mobility or your health overall.

Try exercising, try eating better. But, in the end, please recognize that doing nothing as an adult is often just as bad as doing something stupid as a young person.

Joel J. Digris is a Schuylkill County resident with a master’s degree in physical therapy. He is currently employed by Achieva Rehabilitation as an outpatient provider of physical therapy and serves residents in Carbon, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties.

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