Happier after 50! True?

A study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has good news for any of you that are getting old. Well, I know of a friend that just had a celebration to announce her coming new 40. Based on the study, apparently people start out at age 18 feeling pretty good about themselves, and then, life begins to throw curve balls. They feel worse and worse until they hit 50. At that point, there is a sharp reversal, and people keep getting happier as they age. By the time they are 85, they are even more satisfied with themselves than they were at 18.



In measuring immediate well-being — yesterday’s emotional state — the researchers found that stress declines from age 22 onward, reaching its lowest point at 85. Worry stays fairly steady until 50, then sharply drops off. Anger decreases steadily from 18 on, and sadness rises to a peak at 50, declines to 73, then rises slightly again to 85. Enjoyment and happiness have similar curves: they both decrease gradually until we hit 50, rise steadily for the next 25 years, and then decline very slightly at the end, but they never again reach the low point of our early 50s.

SO IS IT ENCOURAGING TO SOME OF YOU THAT WE CAN EXPECT TO BE HAPPIER IN OUR 50S THEN WE WERE IN OUR 20s? AND FOR THOSE WHO ARE ALREADY IN THEIR 50s, IS IT TRUE?

For me, the unhappy facts of going into 50s is that there'll be more wrinkles and every physical part seems to be sagging. Other then that I enjoyed the more matured me, the more knowledgeable me, the more experienced me. But one friend commented otherwise, that he's definitely not too happy after 50 as the "mental age lags physical age by about 10 years".

To read more, click or copy&paste this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/health/research/01happy.html?emc=eta1