Everyday activities make people a lot happier as they get older. Moreover, if you have a child, things are more complicated because you are responsible for his life. It’s known as the paradox of aging – so many things supposedly worsen with age, yet older people often have a better sense of overall well-being.
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Increased wisdom with age might be another explanation.
A team from the University of California, San Diego examined the physical and mental health of 1,546 adults randomly selected from San Diego County, with participants being aged between 21 to 100 years old.
“There’s lots of speculation about why older people are happier and having better moods even when their cognitive and physical health is in decline, but we still don’t have anything that fully explains what is going on”, psychologist Arthur Stone from the USC Dornsife Centre for Self-Report Science, who wasn’t part of the research, told the Los Angeles Times. Dr. Jeste suggests that these changes are due to their wisdom, as it is a trait that includes empathy, decisiveness, and self-knowledge, all of which lead to a fuller and happier life. The study being cross-sectional analyzed participants at one point of time. We need to understand mechanisms underlying better mental health in older age in spite of more physical ailments. And that trust can benefit their well-being. It is actually medically proved, and professor Jeste thinks that this also has to do with them finding a way of preserving their happiness.
But perhaps the study needs to broaden its spectrum of sampling, as it needs to survey people residing in nursing homes and places where public elderly care can be correctly linked to the participants’ responses to the survey.
According to Jeste, this unusual new level of stress and anxiety can be attributed to pressures that young adults are encountering for the first time in their lives such as choosing a life path, making careers, love lives and handling finances.
According to the senior author of the study, the research results published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology showed a “really striking” level of consistency.
Jeste expressed concern that the rates of psychological distress and mental illness in younger persons seem to be rising.
Older people become wiser.They had more time to know people and to travel.
So why are they so happy? Levels of depression and obesity also drop off after age 64. You want to build a career that would help you have the money you want. They also experience and retain fewer negative emotions and memories. In other words, seniors are more inclined to find joy in their day-to-day lives, while younger people seem to be happier taking breaks from their routine.
In contrast, older people are able to brush off life’s small stresses.
When you’re younger, you often look for extraordinary things to give you pleasure.
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Of course, this is just a snapshot of people in a specific place at a specific time.
