Aged 32, finding each year more enjoyable as I grow into a career and have more disposable income
Not necessarily, but for the last couple decades the world has been getting progressively shittier, so it might feel that way, especially when you have chronic depression due to the world getting progressively shittier.
(Also the people you care about get older and sicker, and will eventually die, and you can’t really do much about that, which isn’t particularly fun either. It all builds up into the chronic depression.)
I am more content with who i am now but I am also quite restless and I’m finding it difficult to connect to people
Not in my case - I’m 73 and despite physical challenges I’m happier than I’ve ever been. What makes me happy is having wonderful friends, plenty of interests and all my marbles.
I look back on my anxious 20-something self with pity. Why was I so bloody worried what everyone would think of me?
For me it’s always gone in phases. My happiest phase in life was raising kids. Now they’re in college so I need to figure out my next phase in life
I think there may be something to brain chemistry and physical make-up changing over time, but I’d argue that for most people happiness is environmental.
I Norway there was a watershed moment in this question a couple of years ago.
Young adults (students) had always reported being more happy than older people (retired), on average.
Then, abt five years ago, this flipped! The older, retired people reported being more happy than young adults.
I’ll see if I can find the link
im 30, id have to say no, at least to this point
Sort of. Your brain produces less dopamine because it’s focused on retaining knowledge rather than enforcing learning.
Depends on what you do with your time. I’ve found that as long as you keep learning, you’re fine.
Here you go, OP (full-access preprint here). There’s no need to get anecdotal about this; it’s a very well-studied question in psychology, sociology, 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.
From Tech’s Link…
You missed a call
Hell yeah
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. 🤓
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.
There are peaks and valleys. I’ve been happier, but I’ve been more miserable.
My heart says no but the micro plastic in my brain says yes.
I don’t know about others, but as I grow older and realise I have progressively less time left, I grow less patient of other people’s bullshit. Some people may consider it a symptom of diminished happiness, but it’s more a degradation of my social filters.
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.
