I’ve reached the idgaf phase where most things I was worried about when younger are just irrelevant. As for being happier, my life is better, but my mental health has declined. I don’t think that is necessarily age-related. Or maybe I just don’t have the energy to cope with it anymore.
Not necessarily. I’ve been getting happier and happier over time, even despite the world getting shittier. Of course there still are problems, but I’m fairly sure i can fix those over time as well.
Though that might be more from that my childhood wasn’t that great, not the worst physical abuse either, but not a normal one either with a dash of psychological and emotional abuse and minimal support, only what’s required by the law.
So getting older, getting nore comfortable within my body and figuring myself out, stuff which usually is done in childhood and teenage years in a safe and supportive environment, has been helpful in making life more comfortable and having more control over my own life, which ultimately allowes me to make life more comfortable for myself and become happier.
I’m in my 70’s. I feel I’ve been getting happier over time. Kids grow up and leave, Work becomes stable. Finances become more stable. When you retire, it’s like a whole new life (as long as you plan it correctly).
My unhappiness peaked in highschool. Although current events have me closer to that level than I’ve been in a long time. Having friends that don’t suck now helps a lot.
Yes, the hardest part of my life was 14-20 or so. only halfway through college did things start to improve.
And the biggest component was the people around me being awful. Currently I’ve having another dip in my life… and it’s all due to the people around me again. I feel like I’m going backwards to high school in terms of people surrounded by provincial small-minded and nasty people. I miss being around open-minded folks.
I hope you find some better people to be around.
It’s less about age and more about our ability to take care of our responsibilities. As children, we have few, and taking care of them takes little time and is easy. As we grow we get more and more, and if our abilities don’t grow in tandem we become stressed and unhappy. It’s easy to find yourself in a situation as a young adult where you have lots of responsibilities and not enough time, money, and training to discharge all of them. Similarly in middle age if you haven’t kept upskilling and you find yourself outclassed professionally by younger professionals.
Some ways to fight this are by keeping your lifestyle simple and inexpensive; by constantly seeking to improve; by being parsimonious with your social commitments; and by building a network of mutually supportive friends and colleagues who can help you during sudden spikes of need or sudden dropoffs in ability, such as unexpected illness.
Nope, it’s personal and specific to how you lived your life.
No, there is a well-studied and objective answer to this general question. Even though people will vary, there’s a crystal-clear trend that’s been studied over and over again as a perennial question in psychology, sociology, and economics. We don’t have to base any of this on vibes, and arguably a question with a definitive answer like this doesn’t belong here.
There is no empirical way to measure happiness, just because a paper says so doesn’t mean, that it’s objectively correct
Whoah, watch out. We got a scientific badass over here! Don’t follow too close, peasants, or you’ll trip over their trailing list of doctorates! 😱🫡
Why they less happy? Closer to death yay!
I don’t think so. I’ve read the opposite and IME you learn not to sweat the smell stuff. That helps a lot.
There are peaks and valleys. I’ve been happier, but I’ve been more miserable.
I don’t even know what happiness is at this point. I am, however, at peace.
There isn’t a universal answer, I expect it depends a lot on your worldview and whether you got past your hangups earlier in life, and what your health, regrets and living situation are. I have anecdotal evidence both ways.
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Here you go, OP (rehost here). There’s no need to get anecdotal about this; it’s a very well-studied question in psychology and economics. The U-shape has extensive evidence supporting it. If “have you gotten progressively less happy as you age?” were the prompt here, I wouldn’t be doing this, but you asked a general question that can be and has been answered empirically over and over.
So, it can get better, but rarely if ever does it compare to the blithe joys of youth.
I do wonder if this upturn is related to cognitive decline, and therefore ties into the old “ignorance is bliss” adage, then.
Hell, maybe that has something to do with old folks enjoying reruns: it reminds them of their life, then and now. 🤔😅
They’ve also often got lower stress levels, higher wealth and/or more time than people in their thirties to fifties do. I’d be really interested if they’re also happier than their middle aged counterparts in countries where the elderly are disconnected from their communities and not financially supported.
Edit: it’s true around the world, but I’m not sure if it’s true in every country or just generally yet
And, when younger, expenses were less likely to be their responsibility, ergo “more wealth”, et al, in youth as well. 🤓
From Tech’s Link…
You missed a call
Hell yeah
The question is, if this is correlation or causation. Maybe some people just do less things, that make them happy as they age? Doesn’t mean that you are gonna be unhappy.
Also, this is an average and I imagine, that there is a very high variance among different people. A lot of people may very well get progressively, happier as they age.
I would say, that happiness comes very much down to how you live your life, how you view the world and what you do.
If you have a job, that makes you happy and good relationships and stuff like that, you are probably gonna be happy regardless of your age.
Another lemming posted some data already but I guess, intuitively, it makes sense: no responsibilities and usually taken care of -> some responsibilities without the PFC/maturity necessary to handle them efficiently but you still somewhat prioritise and have time for fun-> even larger responsibilities (usually caring for other people as well, like children and parents) but with enough maturity to handle them without needing to focus on youthful hedonism -> fewer responsibilities but still mature and now probably in a better financial position, and you can already be satisfied with your lot in life and what you’ve done with it -> little to no responsibilities and you’re usually taken care of.
I would say it depends on your ability to live your life in a way that makes you happy. It’s a kind of nothing answer, but human experience largely boils down to ability to self determine internally and externally.
