Health & Science

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The mid-life crisis is real

Contrary to conventional wisdom, it’s not the teenage years or old age that are most likely to leave people depressed and dissatisfied. It’s middle age. After 30 years of collecting data from 2 million people across the globe, a team of international researchers has found that most people feel a significant dip in happiness and life satisfaction somewhere between 40 and 50, with some people lapsing into full-blown depression. The malaise that hits during these years was found in all kinds of populations from Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe, whether people were poor, rich, childless or not, married, divorced, or single. But 40-somethings can take heart. The midlife slump is temporary, and lifts by the mid-50s. In fact, the survey found that life satisfaction, if charted on a graph, has a “U’’ shape, with people very satisfied with their lives in their 20s and again late in life. “By the time you are 70, if you are physically fit, then on average you are as happy and mentally healthy as a 20-year-old,’’ study author Andrew Oswald tells Scientific American. “Realizing that such feelings are completely normal in midlife might even help individuals survive this phase.”

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