https://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080129/...ression_age_dc

British and U.S. researchers found that happiness for people ranging from Albania to Zimbabwe follows a U-shaped curve where life begins cheerful before turning tough during middle age and then returning to the joys of youth in the golden years.

"It happens to men and women, to single and married people, to rich and poor, and to those with and without children," Oswald said. "Nobody knows why we see this consistency."

One possibility may be that people realize they won't achieve many of their aspirations at middle age, the researchers said.

Another reason could be that after seeing their fellow middle-aged peers begin to die, people begin to value their own remaining years and embrace life once more.

But the good news is that if people make it to aged 70 and are still physically fit, they are on average as happy and mentally healthy as a 20-year old.

"For the average persons in the modern world, the dip in mental health and happiness comes on slowly, not suddenly in a single year," Oswald said. "Only in their fifties do people emerge from this low period."

And here I thought it was just the relief from getting divorced.

Ha! That's probably a good-sized chunk of it! In my case, it's being married to the right woman (and I am). Wrong ones abound, or maybe it's that I'm one of the wrong men .

-soma5

I've got a buddy that spent decades looking for the perfect woman--and he finally found her. Unfortunately, she was looking for the perfect man.

Thank Goodness! Only three years and five months to wonderful bliss.

Whopee! I'm headed for my 20's again

My fifties really were great years. I was blessed with good health, a good job and an ex

+1

ha ha ha ha ha

OK..I for one feel fabulous, Darling... just fabulous!!

Well, at 53, I at least still have the mentality of an 18 year old.

And you look Mahvalous, too.

Aw. What a shame. This whole time I thought the reason I was so happy because of riding my trike. Now reality comes back and gives me a good one - up side the head. {{{sigh}}} I 'd better sit down and eat Bon-Bons.

countersTrike

I heard this on the radio this morning. Reminds me of Yen's tag: "I feel like a kid again!" I'm ready to embrace it. With all us Baby Boomers headed for the other end of the bell curve, maybe this country will stop being so self-loathing and pessimistic? Maybe it is just a phase...

And all these years I took credit for it - only to find out that I couldn't help it...

Where are you at? Behind the at! At least that is what my grade school teacher would say when someone ended a sentence with at. And yes grade school teacher. 2 room school with grades 1-3 & 4-6.

I just figured that as I became older, I was happier because I had forgotten those things which were making me less happy!!

Yeah, that would be me too. I feel like the "Grand Jackpot Winner" in the lottery of love.

I've done 2 things exactly right in my life. I was born in the right country and I married the right woman. Everything else that I've screwed up hasn't been enough to counter balance those two facts. My life is definitely on the up-curve of that smile.

Been thinking about this...

I wonder if those crazy hormones that ramp up in adolescence and start fading out in our 50's have anything to do with this. I've felt like I've been coming out of a fog the last few years. Maybe once those hormones stop their surge, we really do feel more like we did when we were kids?

Hmmmm.... (remembering a lot of angry boomers in the 60's and 70's when they were in their 20's)

I think that I went through that curve with a low point in my 40s. Now, at 61, I'm definitely on the upswing, especially with retirement coming up later this year.

The purported U-shaped happiness curve gives a new perspective, making "over the hill" a good thing.

My personal experience and observations of friends suggest that the happiest people are indeed the young adults and the empty nest couples who are affluent and still young and vital enough to enjoy life fully. So I guess my wife and I have been happiest when either young and poor and in love or old and rich and in love. Raising kids and building a career, though extremely worthwhile and rewarding, can be quite stressful.

I still recall a sermon given by a 65-year-old minister -- "Some say life begins at conception, others at birth. I can tell you life begins at age 60, when the pets are dead and the kids have left home. Of course, I have to be careful to say that last part correctly."

In the social gerontology classes I've taught over the last 13 years I've consistently told people "I can't wait to get old." It's nice to have some evidence to back up my claim!

I am not as good as I once was, but I am as good once, as I ever was.

Yeah, I figure I'm past my second childhood and into my second young adulthood.

And here I thought it was just because the kids moved out...

Lots of happy, fit, well-balanced cyclists in the prime of their lives on this forum, which is why I like it so much.
And I have to say that seeing my kids grow up to be kind people with interesting lives evolving, is a complete joy.
One little downside - I get photographed a lot doing talks and seminars - and I swear, every photographer photoshops a monk's tonsure on top of my head. Can't be legal to do that.
However, I was just given some 30 year old pictures of me when I thought Jonny Winter and Rory Gallagher had a good and imitable look - so maybe, as the thread advises, now is better