The midlife crisis, a time of self-doubt and turmoil familiar to many in their 40s and 50s, is often viewed as a phenomenon of Western culture. But new research suggests that people all over the world are miserable in middle age.
Those are the surprising findings from a worldwide study of two million people from 80 countries. The researchers, economists Andrew Oswald from the University of Warwick in England and David Blanchflower from Dartmouth College in the United States, found that happiness levels followed a U-shaped curve, with happiness higher towards the start and end of our lives. Across cultures, they found, depression and unhappiness typically strike people in midlife.
The findings are important because other studies have suggested that psychological well-being stays relatively flat and consistent as people age, the researchers said. The latest report, to be published in Social Science & Medicine, analyzed information from several sources. Data was collected from 500,000 randomly sampled Americans and West Europeans from large surveys. The authors also analyzed data on the mental health levels of 16,000 Europeans, the depression and anxiety levels among a large sample of British citizens, and data from “The World Values Survey,” which provides samples of people in 80 countries.
The researchers found that for both British men and women, the probability of depression peaks around 44 years of age. In the United States, unhappiness peaks at around age 40 for women and 50 for men. They found the same U-shape in happiness levels and life satisfaction by age for people living in 72 countries. (The full list of countries can be found here.)
The authors noted that signs of midlife depression are found in all kinds of people and not just those affected by divorce or changes in jobs or income.
“Some people suffer more than others, but in our data the average effect is large,” said Dr. Oswald, in a University of Warwick news release. “It happens to men and women, to single and married people, to rich and poor, and to those with and without children. Nobody knows why we see this consistency.”
Despair in midlife comes on slowly, but the good news is that it doesn’t last.
“It looks from the data like something happens deep inside humans,” Dr. Oswald said. “Only in their 50s do most people emerge from the low period. But encouragingly, by the time you are 70, if you are still physically fit, then on average you are as happy and mentally healthy as a 20-year-old. Perhaps realizing that such feelings are completely normal in midlife might even help individuals survive this phase better.”
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I find this to be completely plausible. My ex is Japanese and we were together when he went through his mid-life crisis.
However, the Japanese have rituals to help men get through those years and then you are to move on (i.e., get over yourself and stop whining). I believe the rituals begin at age 39 and last for three years. During those times, your best friend gives you a small wooden plaque annually (with money packets tied to them). At the end of the third year, you gather friends and burn the plaques - sin pesos.
I thought this was a wonderful idea and changed my life so my crisis would be smoother, because I knew it was coming. It was a success for me.
— bearworm.comYep, that is when it happened to me. But I thought it was because I retired from a 20 year military career and went wild. Porsche, sailboat and finally a new wife. And now that I am 71 and still fit and yes, as mentally healthy and happy as a 20 year old—maybe even more so.
— RichThis is a very strange fact for me as I feel I have finally found some real happiness in life (not related to finding a spouse or being promoted)…I have also just turned 45. I can see that I more often think about my own mortality, but it doesn’t cause depression. What are the circumstances that cause the low period in midlife? Are there any running themes, or is it just a genetic change in the brain’s chemistry at that age? Very interesting article as it runs counter to what I am experiencing upon becoming Middle Aged. BUT, I am only entering the door, maybe there’s more around the corner!
— L ParkerAlthough this study controlled for gender, income, marital status, etc., it reminds me of a study done by a Rutgers University professor that found people reported the happiest times in their adult lives were before having children and after the children were grown. That study’s findings would synch with this study’s findings with regards to age….
— SharonI wonder if clinical depression changes things? I’ve been depressed all my adult life. The low point for me was in my 30’s, when I finally sought help. By 40 I was so much better I met my love and married, and am still happily married 15 years later. For me, life just keeps getting better. I have had 3 depressive episodes in that time, and they are not fun, but overall, things just get better, because I cope so much better, and I appreciate so much.
— CarolThese results appear to excluded the teenage and young adult years that have far greater incidence of depression. As a psychology major, I know that depression peaks in these coming-of-age years, so I’m confused when the article says depression peaks around 40 for women and 50 for men.
— CDRCertain studies even say that people get happier as one ages (if only marginally, as a person’s general happiness stays relatively stable over time).
to #6:
— TMLwhile the study does not include teenage years, it does start at age 20. Apparently most people are pretty happy in their 20s, at least according to these data. I would imagine that this type of study would mostly find patterns in normal life-related unhappiness rather than actual mental illness (clinical depression, bipolar disorder, etc) — as #5 pointed out, initial onset of clinical mood disorders is usually in the teens, 20s or 30s. Then if people get treated for it, midlife would often represent a huge improvement in happiness.
Bearworm.com
“… the Japanese have rituals to help men get through those years and then you are to move on (i.e., get over yourself and stop whining)…”
That’s a hell of an attitude to have about your husband’s mental angiush!!!
No wonder he had a “mid life crisis”!!!
As for the ritual itself “…your best friend gives you a small wooden plaque annually (with money packets tied to them). At the end of the third year, you gather friends and burn the plaques - sin pesos.” it sounds pretty damned silly to me!
How the hell does burning pieces of finished millwork make a man get over the sense that his whole life somehow went off the tracks, and he’s trapped in a career and marriage that are suffocating him???
— Gregory A ButlerI want to defend bearworm to No. 8. I think that the fact that the Japanese accept that men will have difficulty at this time and that they publicly acknowledge it probably goes a long way towards diminishing some of the “mental anguish.” In our culture men are encouraged to suffer in silence, or to behave recklessly–both things that probably are not so good for them. The “crisis” happens in both cultures. In one culture, people acknowledge and respect the problems it causes.
I know it may sound silly to some people in the US, but the idea of burning things to either send them to ancestors or to simply release them from your life is a really common practice around the world. (Even my parents, both raised in the US, burned their mortgage when it was paid off–I think this is actually quite common among New England families, sometimes the ashes are even put into the newel post in the house’s staircase.)
So…I applaud this study for its contribution to cross-cultural ideas of ‘normal psychology,’ but I hope it will encourage us to value diverse responses to these psychological events.
— ClareI can see why people get depressed. Once I hit 45, no one wanted to date me except optimistic septagenarians who type in all caps. I go to parties and my friends complain about their health. I can sympathise, but I don’t think a detailed description of a colonoscopy is polite dinner conversation. I look at Obama and Rice and those people and wonder, “What have *I* done with my life? Nothing!” Menopause is shocking in that women suffer lack of libido and lubrication as well as sudden weight loss - they lose 200 pounds of useless fat when he walks out the door looking for a girlfriend half his age. Then, those men have to face the fact that the girls half his age have their pick of boys half their age. Only when folks hit 60, do they get a clue. Then, they start sending hopeful flirty email in all caps to people in their late 40s….
From TPP — You need a blog of your own. Very funny.
— G.H.WaiteThe study found the same results for people with or without children. This would seem to directly contradict the conclusions (but not the data) of the Rutgers study Sharon mentioned. Maybe it’s not the kids!
— ElizaGeeze, people, what’s the big deal? In your forties and fifties you mourn the loss of your fertility, your virility, your beauty, and your physical strength. Your reproductive years are over. Even men, who don’t experience the complete end of fertility, often experience a loss of virility that in some cases amounts to impotence, as well as a loss in the viability of their sperm. All this and baldness, too.
Somehow, people get through the mourning and come out the other side. That’s the really interesting question. Why are people in old age happy despite physical, intellectual, social, economic, and political losses?
— kalebergI am 55 years old, my husband 51. I was never per se ‘depressed’ but when I was in my late forties, early fifties I reviewed our accomplishments.They were many but we had not necessarily reached our ultimate ‘dream’. I think we all set goals early on in life and many times they do not turn out as anticipated. My husband had to go from contract to contract ,difficult for saving and planning. I was not able to retire when I turned fifty and lead the ‘elegant lifestyle’. But at 55 I come to the conclusion that as long as we are healthy, happy, we can appreciate each day, make the best of it and have new rewarding experiences.One’s general attitude torwards life is very important.
— CathyCathy.
Poster #10 G.H.Waite, too funny! You made me laugh much more than those Daily Show writers blogging about the SOTUS. Thank you.
— HI think the midlife years are when people start assessing where they are relative to where they hoped they’d get in life and start to become disillusioned. Maybe you thought you’d someday live a certain lifestyle, accomplish a certain goal, or leave a mark in some way, and you realize around 45 that your life is still pretty much the same as it has always been and is unlikely to change by much. On top of that, the more insightful bunch realize the thing holding them back is themselves, not some outside force. So no longer is there even the hope of tweaking things in one’s environment to try to make a change. Sort of “wherever you go, there you are.” (The less insightful bunch get sportscars and chase 20-somethings, thinking that will bring the sense of unlimited possibility they now lack in their lives.)
Reminds me of the Pink Floyd song called “Time”: “…10 years have come and gone; nobody told you when to run; you missed the starting gun.”
Around midlife it feels like that, sometimes in combination with recognizing we are the inescable source of our imprisonment within an unremarkable life. It takes until 70 to realize that life doesn’t have to be remarkable to be fulfilling and that the difference between serenity and suffering is entirely made by having the wisdom to recognize that.
— DuttonWow, Dutton (poster 15), you rock.
I think you’ve summed it up without a research grant in the the final paragraph. Perfect!
Very Buddhist.
— ElizabethHaving just turned 54, it appears to me that the major reason septuagenarians are happier is that they have outlived so many of their peers. I already am starting to feel that way as my friends and acquaintances fall away with nothing but estranged children and dwindling Google hits to show for their time on Earth. Maybe a long life is a sort of consolation prize when you have failed to achieve immortality.
— David AI like what Dutton had to say only with a positive spin. Once we realize that we may not have achieved what we wanted, we can choose something different.
At 45 I realize that life is what we make it. Every day we choose. We choose to get out of bed, who we speak to, whether we will view things positively or negatively.
There is still time to explore a different path. I still believe that we all have innate gifts and thre are things that we are meant to be doing on this earth. I know it sounds corny, but how else can we free ourselves to explore something different?
— Merle RBoy, I hope it peaks at 50. That means only 39 more days of this crud to go!
— ChrisIt’s OK to be depressed sometimes. It’s OK to be melancholic. To be reflective. To look at other’s misfortunes and rethink priorities. to worry over, as someone said, baldness, sexual prowess and blah. It’s a natural part of growing up, and we don’t need shrinks to help us get out of this. there’s nothing to get out of. get a grip. get a life. and stop looking for happiness like it’s some supermarket product in short supply.
— Suresh manianI am in my late 40s, and my solution to my mid-life slump is to keep myself feeling physically fit. It does wonders for your mental well-being, and keeps you feeling younger than your actual age. So rather than regain my youth by going out and purchasing a sports car, etc., I get on my bicycle instead. And what if i feel so down in the dumps that I don’t want to get on my bike in the first place? Well then I sign up for a bicycle vacation in the future sometime, and this thus provides me with a long term goal which will not only be fun, but will get me fit in the process. Last year I went on a bike tour in the California wine country organized by Sojourn Bicycle Tours (www.GoSojourn.com), and it was a hoot, and I met some really lovely people. Give it a try.
— smiles007“If you spend your entire life searching for keys — the key to happiness, the key to success, the key to health, the key to love — you may become startled and somewhat humbled at the end of your time on this planet to realize that no keys were to be found because there never were any locks.”
(i did not write this, and, unfortunately, i do not know who did. every time i read it, though, i feel like the universe has tapped me on the shoulder, saying “look here.”)
— Troy YoginiHas anyone seen the “Seven-Up” series of movies? I was struck by how the people start out as extremely individual, when they’re kids, then seemed to get less individual but more conventional as they got older, until finally in the latest movie (at age 49) it seems to me they’re starting to diverge again, to become more different from each other and more like themselves, and also more accepting of themselves, more satisfied with their lives. It seems that the years of early adulthood are more about striving on the treadmills of life: raising your family, trying to get established in your career, getting and keeping your life on track. But by midlife, some of those stresses have eased (the kids are older; it’s clearer where you’re going in your life, whether you feel successful or not) and you’re more able to accept, maybe even savor, where you are.
Carolyn Heilbrun wrote that 50 was her favorite age. I agree!
— Emily NoonI think for me, late 30s through 40s was when my responsibilities were greatest and I had a series of issues with my marriage falling apart, job changes, a big health crisis. Now that I am in my later 50s, I can kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel so to speak. I don’t have as many money worries since my kids are almost through college. Going through those job changes gave me more skills and strengths so that now if I need to find another way to support myself, I feel like I can do it. So I am relaxing into a different stage. I am not sure I was depressed in that earlier stage but under more stress, certainly… and now it just seems more peaceful.
— CMen get most of the mid-life crisis news, maybe because they’re more extreme (or predictable) in their responses, so I was surprised as a woman to go thru this experience. It was jump-started by the sudden loss of a job I loved and my oldest son leaving for college, and was marked by a sense of deep confusion. It led to a period of dramatic experimentation in fitness activities. After 30 years of not exercising, I’ve climbed mountains, rock climbed, done ultrahikes, triathlons, marathons, weight-lifting competitions and more. My husband was as shocked as I was by this development, but it’s been a blast. I couldn’t be more grateful, and some of the best friends of my life have surfaced because of these activities.
One of my mid-life takeaways is that women in particular are too quick to hide/be ashamed of their age. I tell everyone I’m 51 and enjoy their shock that I’m doing what I’m doing. So much better than plastic surgery and the other external manipulations that our society encourages.
— Laura