Optimal Aging
Get Over Getting Older

Albert Ellis, Ph.D., and Emmett Velten, Ph.D.

America is graying. One in three people will be fifty or older by the end of this decade. Although Baby Boomers have made great strides in changing some of the negative stereotypes associated with aging, ageism is still prevalent throughout society. These deeply ingrained, harmful prejudices can be changed to benefit everybody, argue Drs. Albert Ellis and Emmett Velten. They believe that everyone can-with the right attitudes, tools, and hard work-invent their own lives, not just live out the scripts provided by an ageist society.

Written in a humorous and interactive style, Optimal Aging will help readers recognize and combat harmful attitudes that hold them back and develop more productive attitudes. The authors address everything from finances to health, personal relationships to retirement planning, dating to coping with loss.

"No one can erase the process of aging, but this book presents a realistic, optimistic, affirmative, and even adventurous approach to these welcome new years of our lives."
—Betty Freidan
author of The Fountain of Age

"A wise, warm, and funny book about getting older! There are tough things about growing older, but if we approach aging with the clear thinking and canny problem solving Drs. Ellis and Velten demonstrate in Optimal Aging, the future begins to look fascinating and worthwhile."
—Antonette M. Zeiss, Ph.D.
Past President of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy

"Say goodbye to the porch-rocker model of aging; elder 'tude is abroad in the land. The founder of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, Ellis does not have a prescription for ending agism. But he is an expert in using logic to dispute faulty assumptions 'individuals' and society's. Here he focuses his talent on defending your self-concept from a youth obsessed culture. Clear, crisp and sometimes downright uppity, the book is full of rebuttals to conventional wisdom about the horrors of aging."
—Dallas Morning News