As young adults look forward to their future, older adults tend to reflect and have negative feelings toward how their life has progressed. The author of the study also points to social media and technology as reasons why older adults are unhappy.
"The Healthy Geezer" answers questions about health and aging in his weekly column. Question: Do we get sadder as we get older? Answer: It seems that just the opposite is true. There's a lot of evidence that we get happier the older we get.
Aging America: A Happy Place
Not only did researchers find that older people tend to be happier, but that happiness is not something older participants have had all their lives. In other words, as people get older, say starting at age 50, happiness comes to them.
As we grow older, we often face significant life changes that can increase the risk for depression. These can include: Health problems. Illness and disability, chronic or severe pain, cognitive decline, damage to your body image due to surgery or sickness can all be contributors to depression.
If you're 30 years old and feel less happy than you did when you were 20, science says you're not alone. If you're 40 years old and feel less happy than when you were 30, science says you're also not alone.
Depression was not as prevalent among adults 30 and older, and severe depression did not vary much by age group. But moderate depression had the most significant impact on adults aged 45 to 65 years.
As young adults look forward to their future, older adults tend to reflect and have negative feelings toward how their life has progressed. The author of the study also points to social media and technology as reasons why older adults are unhappy.
Surprising findings: The 2 ages when people are happiest
But, a few years ago researchers identified the two ages in an adult's life when you are likely to be at your happiest. Experts from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences found that happiness peaks at the ages of 23 and 69.
Aside from changes in the brain that impact inhibitory control and social cognition, it could simply be that as we get older, we care less about what others think. Compared to younger adults, older adults are less self-conscious, reporting fewer experiences of emotions such as shame, guilt, and embarrassment.
You're also more likely to develop depression if you are between ages 45 and 64, nonwhite, or divorced, and if you never graduated high school, can't work or are unemployed, and don't have health insurance.
Among older people, upbeat moods could mean greater life span. Happy people don't just enjoy life; they're likely to live longer, too. A new study has found that those in better moods were 35% less likely to die in the next 5 years when taking their life situations into account.
Taking risks: It's easier to take risks and try out new things when you are young but as you grow older, your responsibilities keep piling up and taking risks like changing careers or going on sabbaticals becomes impossible. So if you want to do it, now is the time.
Age, Life Cycle and Evaluations of Personal Life
Fully 71% of those under age 50 expect their lives to be better in 10 years than they are today, as do 46% of those ages 50-64. By contrast, only about a fifth of adults ages 75 and older (19%) expect their lives to be better in the future than they are today.
Exposure to light is a top cause of premature aging: Sun exposure causes many skin problems. Ultraviolet (UV) light and exposure to sunlight age your skin more quickly than it would age naturally. The result is called photoaging, and it's responsible for 90% of visible changes to your skin.
The researchers also found that perceived age was linked with an important molecular biomarker of ageing called telomeres. A telomere of shorter length is thought to signify faster ageing and has been linked to a number of diseases, such as cancer. People who looked young in the study had longer telomeres.
The Best And Hardest Ages
Forty percent of survey participants felt that five was the most fun age. This was thought to be down to improved communication skills and the development of a good sense of humour.
A new survey finds most Americans believe the “sweet spot” in life is right in the mid-30s. A poll of 2,000 people finds four in 10 would not go back to their 20s. Instead, the perfect age to be frozen in time at is 36 years-old.
People can become socially isolated for a variety of reasons, such as getting older or weaker, no longer being the hub of their family, leaving the workplace, the deaths of spouses and friends, or through disability or illness.
Overall, the scientists saw that people with major depressive disorder had a degree of methylation and epigenetic change that was indicative of an older age. More specifically, this means that those with depression were biologically older, by 8 months, than people without depression.
While most have good mental health, many older adults are at risk of developing mental disorders, neurological disorders or substance use problems as well as other health conditions such as diabetes, hearing loss, and osteoarthritis.
It's mainly found in those with low self-esteem, who have a poor outlook, or who feel overwhelmed by stress. Depression is also more common in people with anxiety or other mental health problems. Teens who have tried to self-harm by the age of 16 have a higher risk of having depression by the time they're young adults.
A new study finds the average American feels the most stressed at 36 years-old.
Summary: Physical declines begin sooner in life than typically detected, often when people are still in their 50s, according to a new study that focused on a large group of U.S. adults across a variety of age groups.