At 16 you felt your first heartache, at 30 you lost a great job and at 50 you may have gone through a divorce – there are certainly several moments in our lives when we felt or still feel rough. But it is not so much about individual experiences as it is about the general state of mind, with which satisfaction is studied Economics professor David J. Blanchflower from Dartmouth College I was hired.
The low point was reached at the age of 49 – worldwide
For his study, David Blanchflower interviewed people from 132 countries. Regardless of relationship status, employment, and education, the happiness curve declines at a certain age.
according to Study by the National Bureau of Economics Rock bottom is published in the late 40s and people are particularly unhappy. In industrialized nations, age is 47.2 years, and in developing countries one reaches the lowest emotional level at 48.2 years.
What could be the reason?
People and goals in life evolve over time. When you’re 20, you want something different in life than when you’re 40 or 50 and beyond. In the 1940s, you often wondered: Do you want to continue as before? Is there anything else in life besides work? How and where do I want to live when I’m not working? On the one hand you want to plan for security because you want to be financially secure, on the other hand you want to experience something again, feel young, have a sense of life and not just everyday life with all its smaller and bigger worries. One also speaks of midlife crises.
In women, there’s also the fact that menopause often occurs at the end of forty — in addition to questions about life goals, there are also physical complaints ranging from hot flashes to restlessness, irritability, and, in the worst cases, depression. And then at the latest, the issue of having children will be off the table: Couples who have always wanted children can fall into an emotional rut once again when they have them practically in black and white.
This behavior is especially painful in relationships >>
The good news
The low point is also a time of reversal, which means that things are going up again. Personal satisfaction is important, and career advancement takes a backseat. Once you set your (new) life goals for yourself, you can look forward. Like everything in life, it’s a phase. There are also low points in life – we think that luck is always on our side, but life is actually a roller coaster ride. Crises can always be an opportunity – you can come out of them stronger and give your life a new turn.
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