May 3, 2024

Athens News

News in English from Greece

The age of absolute happiness (video)


Scientific research proves that over the years a person becomes happier. Psychologists have determined the age of absolute happiness, but not everyone agrees with their conclusions.

Many sincerely yearn for a bygone youth, when everything was much better: “the trees were big,” the grass was greener, and optimism and energetic fun prevailed in emotions. But psychologists do not agree with this approach, tells BB.LV.

Numerous studies prove that with age a person becomes happier, and after 60 years he feels much more confident, wiser and more optimistic than younger people. It is at this age that we come to an ideal worldview.

Scientists do not yet know how to explain this seemingly anomaly. They agree that it is a combination of factors. According to statistics, for example, young people aged 18–25 have the highest rates of depression, while people over 50 have the lowest. Even though the pandemic has worsened data for all ages.

Another study conducted by psychiatrists in 2016, with a survey of more than one and a half thousand people of different ages, showed even more surprising results. When asked how they felt physically, mentally and mentally, people in their 20s and 30s were more likely to report unhappiness than those who were retired or approaching that age. Scientists believe that as people age, they become wiser and find it easier to not react to everyday stressors. Geriatric psychiatrist and director of the Center for Healthy Aging at the University of California, San Diego, Dilip Jeste says:

“There is a perception that old age is bad, it’s all doom and gloom, and older people tend to be depressed, grumpy and unhappy. But polls say otherwise.”

According to the authors of another study, at 60 years of age, not only wisdom, but also self-confidence peaks. Researchers believe that by this age a person develops a key factor in happiness—stability. He has already achieved everything he could, raised his children and now can simply enjoy life. Psychologists say:

“As you get older, ‘happiness’ means being content with what you have.”

The third factor is fewer negative emotional reactions. For older people, happiness is calm and peacefulness, not excitement about what the future holds. Their brains work in such a way that the activity of the amygdala, the area of ​​the brain associated with stress and emotional reactions, is reduced, and reactions to something bad are inhibited.

Although scientists make a reservation: a number of other studies highlight another peak age – about 20 years. On a graph, happiness over a lifetime can be represented as a U-shaped curve. That is, a person feels happy in his youth, then in middle age the sensations “fail”, and then intensify again.



Source link

Verified by MonsterInsights