When the World Stops Seeing You: Ageism, Depression, and the Hidden Toll of Being Overlooked in Midlife and Later Life

The Quiet Sting of Being Made Invisible

There is a particular kind of distress that comes from being overlooked. For many Australians over 50, the experience of being rendered invisible — in workplaces, healthcare settings, media, and everyday social life is not an abstract concern. It is a daily reality.

A large-scale 2024 Australian survey by Australian Seniors (the Gen Seen Report) found that 9 in 10 respondents over 50 felt they faced stereotypes related to their age, and 3 in 4 reported emotional impacts from those stereotypes; including disappointment, feeling patronised, and a persistent sense of being undervalued. Around 7 in 10 agreed there is a point beyond 50 where people simply become less seen or heard in Australian society.

What psychological research increasingly tells us is that these experiences are not simply feelings to push through. Ageism — discrimination and prejudice based on age — has measurable consequences for mental health, and in particular, for depression and anxiety across midlife and older age.

What the Research Shows

Ageism and Depression

A large study of the existing literature across multiple countries found consistent associations between experiences of ageism and poorer mental health outcomes in older individuals, including depression (Chang et al., 2020). The relationship held across cultures and contexts, suggesting it reflects something fundamental about the psychological toll of social marginalisation.

More recently, a study from 2025 in Current Psychology by Miguel, von Humboldt, and Leal explored ageism in relation to more than 1,300 participants across the ages of 18 to 60+. It was found that perceived negative ageism was a direct predictor of depression, anxiety, and stress across all groups. Of note, depression and anxiety followed a U-shaped pattern, with the youngest and oldest adults reporting the highest levels of distress and the midlife group reporting the lowest. This finding is clinically significant: it suggests that the transition into later life may represent a renewed period of vulnerability, or that people in midlife are often mischaracterised as being in their “peak” (Australian Human Rights Commission [AHRC], 2021).

The Australian Institutional Picture: What the AHRC Has Found

While research documents the psychological consequences of ageism across many contexts and countries, the AHRC's recent work brings this picture sharply into an Australian frame.

Dismissed, Spoken Over, Treated as a Burden

The AHRC's 2025 report, The Age Barrier: Older Adults' Experiences of Ageism in Health Care, draws on the lived experiences of older patients, their families, and sector experts. It found that ageism is experienced across the health system, from frontline interactions to systemic policies — with older adults reporting feeling dismissed and excluded, being treated as a burden, or being spoken over, with conversations often directed to family members rather than the patient themselves (AHRC, 2025).

Age Discrimination Commissioner Robert Fitzgerald AM put it directly: "People told us they felt rushed through the system, treated like a burden, a caricature, just another number. They described being dismissed by medical staff, spoken down to, excluded from decisions about their own care" (AHRC, 2025).

The Commission is calling for urgent reform, including better training, inclusive care models, and more research to tackle age bias.

When Internalised Ageism Stops People Seeking Help

One of the most psychologically significant findings in the AHRC report concerns what repeated ageism does to an individual’s sense of themselves. The report highlights how repeated exposure to ageist attitudes can lead to internalised ageism, in which older individuals come to adopt negative stereotypes about ageing, in turn influencing their behaviour and health decisions. Participants described feelings of frustration, diminished self-worth, and fear of seeking help, with some choosing not to call an ambulance or skipping appointments due to fear of being dismissed (AHRC, 2025).

This mirrors what psychological research finds when people absorb cultural messages that older age means decline: the anxiety compounds, the threshold for seeking help rises, and distress goes unaddressed (Levy, 2009). The Gen Seen Report (2024) found that 39% of those who felt unheard by their healthcare provider believed their symptoms were being dismissed as a normal part of ageing.

A Culture of Invisibility in the Media

However, the problem of ageism does not start in healthcare settings. The AHRC's 2024 report Shaping Perceptions: How Australian Media Reports on Ageing examined major Australian news networks and found that negative stereotypes of older people, and the under-reporting or misrepresentation of the matters affecting them, are widely prevalent in mainstream media. It was found that a culture of negativity towards ageing that either overlooks or minimises important issues, excludes older people's personal experiences, or portrays them as an economic or social burden was widespread in Australia (AHRC, 2024).

Commissioner Fitzgerald called for newsrooms to review their editorial practices and strengthen staff training. But the psychological stakes are also worth naming: a media landscape that consistently renders older adults invisible or burdensome provides a daily drip of cultural messaging that, over time, shapes how people in midlife begin to imagine their own futures.

The Workplace: Where Invisibility Often Starts

For many people, the experience of being made invisible begins well before they reach older age. The AHRC and the Australian HR Institute's 2025 research on employer attitudes found that nearly a quarter of HR workers surveyed now classify any worker over the age of 50 as "older" — an increase from just 10% in 2023.

Only about half of those surveyed were open "to a large extent" to hiring workers aged over 50, with negative stereotypes significantly impacting this age group. Commissioner Fitzgerald noted that this reluctance undermines both individuals and the broader economy. However, it is the psychological toll on the workers themselves that also deserves attention. Being structurally excluded from work, or treated as past one's prime at 50, does not simply affect income and career trajectory. It transmits a message about worth and relevance that people carry well beyond the workplace.

When Anxiety About Ageing Becomes Its Own Risk Factor

A 2021 study in the Journal of Affective Disorders by Bergman and Segel-Karpas explored ageism with more than 1,000 adults aged 50–67 and found that aging anxiety — fear and apprehension about one's own future ageing — was significantly associated with loneliness and depressive symptoms. Of note, ageism acted as a moderator of these relationships: for those who held more negative views of ageing, the link between aging anxiety and depression was much stronger. For those with lower ageist attitudes, the anxiety–loneliness pathway was found to be neutral.

This is what Levy's (2009) Stereotype Embodiment Theory describes: internalised ageism gradually shapes how people define their own future selves. A person who has absorbed years of cultural messaging that old age means decline or irrelevance may approach their own midlife changes with a level of dread that compounds into depression — not because the changes themselves are catastrophic, but because the story they attach to change is.

The Vitality Paradox

A second 2025 study by Miguel and Carvalhais, published in Social Sciences, introduced a counterintuitive finding worth naming. Across 792 adults, higher subjective vitality — the felt sense of being alive, energised, and engaged — appeared to amplify rather than buffer the harmful effects of negative ageism on stress and anxiety. People with high vitality who experienced negative ageism reported more distress, not less.

The researchers suggest that this reflected a painful mismatch: when people feel capable and energised on the inside, but encounter a social world that treats them as diminished or past their prime, the dissonance itself can sometimes become a source of strain. The psychological cost of having to continually prove one's worth against an ageist backdrop may be particularly heavy for those who are most engaged with life. This is not an argument against vitality; it is an argument for challenging the social views that question vitality in older people.

The Role of How We See Our Future

The Miguel et al. (2025) study also found that future time perspective — the degree to which a person sees their future as open and full of possibility — was consistently protective against depression, anxiety, and stress across all age groups. Viewing the future as narrowing and constrained predicted worse mental health outcomes. Believing there is still something ahead, and refusing to accept a cultural story of pure decline, appears to buffer meaningfully against the mental health consequences of ageism.

Why This Matters in Midlife and Later Life

Does ageism cause depression in older adults? Research indicates that repeated exposure to ageism — through workplace discrimination, dismissal in healthcare, social invisibility, and media stereotyping — is consistently associated with higher rates of depression, anxiety, and loneliness in adults over 50. Internalising negative beliefs about one's own ageing amplifies this risk. When internalised ageism starts to become self-referential as we age, older individuals may start withdrawing from life rather than expose their cognitive and functional competence to the judgement of others (Levy, 2009). However, viewpoints such as maintaining a sense of future possibility appears to offer meaningful protection (Miguel et al., 2025).

Depression in later life is frequently overlooked. Many older adults, and sometimes their clinicians, attribute low mood and withdrawal to "just getting older." The Gen Seen Report (2024) found that 39% of those who felt unheard by their healthcare provider believed their symptoms were being dismissed as a normal part of ageing. Research published in Clinical Gerontologist (Caskie, Kirby & Root, 2025) adds an important layer to this: approximately half of a sample of adults aged 65+ reported internalising the belief that depression and sadness are simply typical experiences in older age. Those who held these beliefs most strongly reported significantly higher levels of depression and anxiety (Caskie et al., 2025). In other words, ageism does not only cause distress. It also prevents people from recognising that distress as something worth seeking help for.

Midlife may be an underappreciated window for preventive psychological therapy. The Bergman and Segel-Karpas (2021) findings suggest that ageing anxiety tends to peak in the 50s and 60s, a period when physical changes are beginning and cultural messages about diminishing value are intensifying. Addressing internalised ageism prior to this window — before internalised ageism and ageing anxiety has time to deepen — may reduce long-term risk.

Psychological Insights: What Protects Us

Belonging Counteracts Invisibility

One of the most robust protective factors against both ageism's effects and depression more broadly is social connection. Holt-Lunstad et al. (2015) found that social isolation carries mortality risks comparable to smoking. For those navigating ageist environments, meaningful relationships and community belonging provide a counter-narrative: you matter here, and to these people. This is not an abstract comfort, it is a neurobiological buffer against the stress response that repeated social devaluation triggers.

Meaning and Future Orientation Disrupt the Narrative of Decline

A strong sense of life purpose is associated with lower rates of depression and greater wellbeing across the lifespan (Steger et al., 2008) and The Gen Seen Report (2024) noted that 57% of those surveyed felt they had not yet hit their prime; evidence of considerable vitality waiting to be recognised.

Working With Internalised Ageism; and Finding Community

The Bergman and Segel-Karpas (2021) findings point clearly toward therapeutic practice: it is not enough to address depressive symptoms in isolation. Examining the beliefs people hold about ageing — about what their future self will be worth, what they will be capable of, how others will treat them — is often equally important.

Encouragingly, there is now preliminary evidence that group-based intervention can help. A pilot study by Steward et al. (2026), published in the Journal of Applied Gerontology, tested a peer-facilitated, ten-session anti-ageism programme called Aging Together. Participants met weekly to learn about ageism and its health impacts, and to share and reframe their own stories of ageing. The programme resulted in significant reductions in both relational ageism and depressive symptoms. Participants consistently reported feeling less alone, more aware of ageism as a systemic force rather than a personal failing, and more empowered in how they saw themselves. While the study was a pilot and needs replication at scale, it offers an important proof of concept: ageism is not simply a social fact to endure. It can be challenged; and that challenge, when done in community, appears to support mental health.

The AHRC has moved in a parallel direction at the systemic level. Its Breaking the Age Barrier project aims to embed positive attitudes toward ageing across the health sector through targeted workshops with health workers and older people, building awareness of age bias and supporting more inclusive, person-centred care. What individual therapy and community programmes do at the personal level, this kind of institutional work does at the cultural level.

When you think about yourself at 70 or 80, what do you imagine? Is that image your own — built from people you have admired and experiences you have observed — or has it been mostly shaped by a culture that reduces older adults to a handful of out-of-date stereotypes?

Seen, Heard, and Psychologically Alive

The growing body of research on ageism and depression — from international studies to the AHRC's own documentation of Australian experiences — tells a coherent story: being made to feel invisible, irrelevant, or past one's prime has real psychological consequences. But embedded in that same research is something equally important: belonging protects, future orientation protects, and challenging internalised ageism — especially in the company of others — appears to help.

Depression in later life is not an inevitable feature of ageing. It is, at least in part, a response to internalised ageism and widespread marginalisation of older people in the media (AHRC, 2024; Levy, 2009). As the AHRC's Age Discrimination Commissioner has put it, ageism is the enemy to positive and healthy ageing. That culture can change — and in the meantime, so can the stories we tell ourselves about who we are becoming.

Ready to find out more?

If you have noticed a low mood, growing anxiety about the future, or a quiet sense of no longer mattering as you once did, these experiences deserve attention. At Upside Stories, we work with indivduals as they approach midlife and beyond using online therapy and a range of evidence-based therapy styles to help them examine internalised beliefs about ageing, reconnect with meaning and future possibility, and build the psychological foundations that support wellbeing across the lifespan.

If you’re ready to find out more, book a free 20-minute consultation to explore your next chapter. 

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References & further reading

Australian Human Rights Commission. (2021). What's age got to do with it? A snapshot of ageism across the Australian lifespan. https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/age-discrimination/publications/whats-age-got-do-it-2021

Australian Human Rights Commission. (2024). Shaping perceptions: How Australian media reports on ageing. https://humanrights.gov.au

Australian Human Rights Commission & Australian HR Institute. (2025). Older and younger workers: What do employers think? https://humanrights.gov.au

Australian Human Rights Commission. (2025). The age barrier: Older adults' experiences of ageism in health care. https://humanrights.gov.au/resource-hub/by-resource-type/reports/older-peoples-rights/the-age-barrier-older-adults-experiences-of-ageism-in-health-care

Australian Seniors. (2024). Gen Seen Report 2024. https://www.seniors.com.au/news-insights/the-australian-seniors-series-gen-seen-report-2024

Bergman, Y. S., & Segel-Karpas, D. (2021). Aging anxiety, loneliness, and depressive symptoms among middle-aged adults: The moderating role of ageism. Journal of Affective Disorders, 290, 89–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2021.04.077

Caskie, G. I. L., Kirby, M. E., & Root, E. Z. (2025). Perceiving greater ageism in barriers to mental healthcare relates to poorer mental health for older adults. Clinical Gerontologist, 48(5), 1268–1281. https://doi.org/10.1080/07317115.2024.2425307

Chang, E. S., Kannoth, S., Levy, S., Wang, S. Y., Lee, J. E., & Levy, B. R. (2020). Global reach of ageism on older persons' health: A systematic review. PLOS ONE, 15(1), e0220857. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0220857

Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T. B., Baker, M., Harris, T., & Stephenson, D. (2015). Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality: A meta-analytic review. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(2), 227–237. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691614568352

Levy, B. R. (2009). Stereotype embodiment: A psychosocial approach to aging. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18(6), 332–336. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01662.x

Miguel, I., & Carvalhais, L. (2025). The impact of perceived ageism on psychological distress: Insights into the role of subjective vitality. Social Sciences, 14, 103. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14020103

Miguel, I., von Humboldt, S., & Leal, I. (2025). Does time matter? The role of time perspective and ageism in mental health along the lifespan. Current Psychology, 44, 6724–6735. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-025-07657-7

Steger, M. F., Kashdan, T. B., & Oishi, S. (2008). Being good by doing good: Daily eudaimonic activity and well-being. Journal of Research in Personality, 42(1), 22–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2007.03.004

Steward, A. T., Keane, C. T., Lee, Y., & Cho, Y. (2026). A pilot and feasibility study of the Aging Together anti-ageism peer support program. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 45(3), 489–499. https://doi.org/10.1177/07334648251340445

Sutin, A. R., Stephan, Y., & Terracciano, A. (2018). Perceived discrimination and depression, emotional instability, conscientiousness, and openness: Findings from the Health and Retirement Study. The Gerontologist, 58(2), 215–222. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnw105