When it comes to substance abuse, 18-year-olds are met with less surprise from society and more reinforcement from their peers. 80-year-olds experience a much different social effect. Both may realize the problem, but the latter tends to be more alienated, stigmatized, and under more pressure to address the problem.
But there’s a ton of other factors other than just who is seeking help, it’s impossible to really glean anything other than an amorphous blob of correlations. Younger people may look for help in different places. Their support networks in real life tend to look different. Maybe they are here but less vocal, or tend not to reveal their age.
Anyways, I think the more you get used to bonding with and having peers of different ages, the less you’ll find age makes much of a difference. A workout at the gym, a relative’s birthday, a stressful job, a good meal, a bad memory — most life experiences are pretty relatable across age.
On the partner thing specifically: it’s such a diverse relationship, there are often aspects to relate to even if the situation on a whole cannot be.
Maybe the part that is most relevant to the conversation in one particular post is that they are a roommate that the poster has history with. Or maybe the most relevant part is that they have a romantic relationship. Or a sexual one. Or maybe they’re best friends, or maybe they don’t actually feel like they know each other very well. Or maybe one of coworkers, either literally or metaphorically in the sense of running a household together. My point is, when someone mentions a partner, it doesn’t necessarily tell me anything about whether or not I can relate to that person.
Tangent reply to your tangent: this is visibility, not prevalence. Porn is more popular than cocaine, but you don’t see it at every party.
(I’ve also never seen cocaine at a party. It varies more by social circle than by decade)
Aaannywho… I’m in my early 30’s. I was barely 27 when I joined TS so not that different from your situation 