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“Old age is not so bad, if you take into account the alternative. Joint stiffness, muscle weakness, vision loss and memory blurring, coupled with the modern world’s contempt for the elderly, seem like a terrible prospect. However, humanity is wrongly afraid of aging”, said many years ago Maurice Chevalierfamous French interpreter of musical films of the 1920s and 1930s and a symbolic figure of 20th century French culture, about the stigmatization that exists in relation to the passage of time.
Each person experiences life in their own way. But it is considered that happiness follow a certain path. In general terms, and according to some studies, life satisfaction tends to start quite high and decline over the years until it reaches one of its lowest peaks in mid-adulthood; it is then, upon entering the third age, that pleasant sensations, such as joy and happiness, return again.
This conclusion was reached in a study by the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom entitled “Cross-Cultural Comparison of Correlates of Quality of Life and Health Status: The Whitehall II Study (UK) and the Western New York Health Study (USA)”. To arrive at this hypothesis, the researchers analyzed the lifestyles of more than 10,000 American and British citizens and examined variables such as perceptions of general health, pain, well-being, or mental health, and concluded that despite suffering -In most cases- A physical decline, people feel happier with age.
The study shows that levels of stress, anxiety, and anger drop significantly as participants cross the 50-year barrier. Parallel to it increased levels of happiness and enjoyment of life. However, in the letter, the experts emphasize that the only feeling they found that does not have a linear pattern and is unpredictable is sadness.
An interesting fact to note about the study is that It was attended by people from two countries that have different systems of health care and care for the elderly. Despite this, there were no differences in the responses or observed behavior of the participants.
Dr. Saverio Stranges, who led the study at Warwick Medical School, along with Dr. Kandala Ngianga-Baquin, said in an interview with a British university: “It is clear that the physical quality of life of people deteriorates with age, but what is interesting is that the same does not happen to his mental well-being; instead of getting worse, it’s getting bigger.”
“We conclude that this this may be because older people are better able to cope with difficult or negative circumstances. life compared to younger people,” the expert said.
Other studies have come to the same conclusions. Such is the case with a 2010 survey by the US National Academy of Sciences of 341,000 people; Analyzing the responses of the participants, the researchers concluded that enjoyment of life declines from 30, reaches its worst state at 45, and only after that age increases again, culminating at 85.
“First of all you should start with what is not happiness it is not joy, not euphoria, not exaltation and not emotion. Happiness is the background state.”warned Dr. Daniel Lopez Rossetti in an interview conducted by LA NACION.
exactly, Office for National Statistics (ONS) in the UK conducted a study similar to those already mentioned, during which it came to the conclusion that the state of well-being throughout a person’s life can be represented in the form of a “U-shape”: peaks of happiness and satisfaction occur in childhood, adolescence and after 50 years; conversely, it is in the middle of adulthood that the “worst years” come and the person is least happy.
“This study shows that as one grows, one becomes frustrated. Stressful situations appear, such as: dismissal from work, separation, experiencing a bad economic moment and other factors that are associated with the prolongation of discomfort, ”said Dr. Lopez Rosetti.
Thus, according to the analysis of various institutions, only after 50 years “U” reaches its second peak of happiness. What is this for? As Dr Lopez Rosetti noted, people at this age begin to enjoy the results of everything they have done in the last 30 years of their lives and at the same time they still enjoy – at least on a general level – good physical and mental health to do so.
“Happiness not only makes people happy, it also makes them healthier,” he said in an interview. John Weinmann, professor of psychiatry at King’s College London and an expert on how stress levels affect wound healing in a group of volunteers. Dr. Weinman discovered that The wounds of the participants who were less stressed healed faster than those who were anxious or worried. In addition, Sheldon Cohen, a psychologist and director of the US Laboratory for Stress, Immunity, and Disease, infected volunteers with cold and flu viruses. To his surprise, Cohen found that those who were more satisfied with their lives were less likely to get sick, and if they did, they they had fewer symptoms of physical discomfort. Thus, it can be concluded that although older people tend to be less healthy than younger people, a positive attitude can help them counteract deteriorating health.
As for the period of intermediate adulthood in which states of the lowest mood appear, Gale Sheehyauthor best-seller Transitions: Crises of Adulthood highlights that around the age of 40, both men and women tend to fall into an aging crisis, with little time to achieve their goals and make life choices. To this psychologist Gonzalo Udaquiola replies: “This stage of discomfort is to be expected in most people, and you should be aware that It is not a condition that leads to a mental disorder such as depression or anxiety.” AND He adds that if someone understands that an acquaintance is going through this process, it can be helpful to accompany him and help him find places that provide him with tools for personal development. “These are periods of expected change that may be seen as an opportunity for some,” he adds.
Finally, Dr. López Rosetti stressed that most adults today they are stressed for reasons far removed from their inevitable reality: Situations that are not true, facts related to fantasy/imagination, or problems that are smaller than they appear. “We need to sit down, analyze and separate fantasy from reality when assessing a situation that is considered stressful“, he concluded.
