Choice Blog

Ageing has its consolations

Can you feel the stress falling away? Are you getting more and more joy out of everyday life? Are you appreciating family and friends more than ever? Have you stopped getting so angry over things?

Then, likely as not, you're over 50, male, and you've reached the happiest phase of your life (if the views of 340,000 people in a major survey are to be believed).

The finding of the study, carried out in the USA, have surprised many scientists who believed that fear of chronic illness would dominate people's thoughts once they passed 50. In fact, people of that age started to turn away from negative aspects of life and focus on friends, family and the good things of life. 

The research showed that stress and anger were about half the levels that people had experienced in their twenties, and levels of worry among men was halved, although women reported greater stress and worry than men at all ages.

A conclusion was that as we  get older we have a greater ability to self-regulate our emotions, and the sense of well-being we experience as we move into our fifties is maintained until our late eighties.

So getting on a bit has its consolations...

Neil Patrick is a regular writer for Choice Magazine. His popular feature 'My month' takes a wry look at life in the Third Age

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