I see this come up now and then, I don’t know what the consensus is as far as when we are the happeiest or the sadest. I really haven’t noticed any difference I feel like I have always been in about the same mood. I see quite a few people my age (67) and older start getting depressed about physical limitations.
Any thoughts on this?
I can only speak for myself but I think my experience is fairly common. I was a happy child but quite unhappy in junior high and early high school because the social dynamics, demands and my home life changed so quickly. I liked later high school and college and loved my mid to late 20’s. Early 30’s were the worst time of all. I was getting hit from all sides with all types of new demands like owning a fixer-upper house, having two kids and a wife that was hardly ever home and a series of jobs that I hated.
I am 43 now and everything seems much easier. People listen to me every where I go whether I know what I am talking about or not (I usually do because I have a lot of experience with things now), I am doing great financially, my kids won’t die if I need to run to the store and leave them alone for an hour or so and I am divorced and own my own place so I can do whatever I want and never get in trouble for it.
There is a common theme in there. It has everything to do with personal control and the rate of change. I can deal with almost anything if I believe I have a lot of control over the outcome. I can deal with change as well but it needs to come at a reasonable pace to be properly assimilated into my life and not cause chaos. As long as I have those, I can be very content in a wide variety of situations.
I am happier now than anytime in my life with maybe the exception of when I was a very small child. I don’t expect that to change much in the next few years but anything can happen. I have never given much thought about living to be very old because I always assumed that I would die young. It hasn’t happened yet and things are going more uphill than down so I am thankful for what I have now.
Well, not everywhere. 
There have been surveys and people in their 40s usually poll as the unhappiest; although I suspect age 13-14 is even worse for most people.
Happiest was any year I didn’t have responsibilities: 0-12 when I started to have chores. Then a few months in 2004 when I was unemployed. I’m only working now because I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to get another job before I could comfortably retire. I sort of hate the end of two week long vacations because there is a chemical change in my brain that lets me relax more and be physically happier around the 2 week mark, but then I have to go back to work. Before I even knew that I had Vitamin B and thyroid deficiencies which caused me to be prone to severe lethargy, when I was unemployed I was somehow able to be perky and eager on a telephone interview because I could bank up psychic energy despite my hidden illnesses because I didn’t have to work! Then I got the job and my energy plunged down again.
It is a U shaped curve. It starts declining in teenage years, keeps declining until you hit 50, then starts going up again.
However the difference is minor, about 10% difference between peak and valley.
Supposedly some reasons it goes up again after 50 is that
Personally I’ve noticed the opposite. I’m much more happy and satisfied in my 30s than I ever was in my 20s. In large part due to a lot of therapy, getting comfortable in my own skin, building a life I think is pretty decent, realizing the goals I had in my 20s weren’t all they were cracked up to be, etc.
Wha?? Stop trying to be fit and healthy?
You reach a point where you accept that health declining is inevitable. When you accept that something bad is going to happen with your health anyway, it isn’t as stressful.
In your 30s, 40s and even your 50s you can stave off health decline (to a degree) with good lifestyle. But the older you get the more you accept that things are going to go south no matter how much you work at it and you ideally make some peace with it.
Then again, as honeybadgerDC said in his OP, some people feel miserable faced with the new limitations.
there comes a point where lifting weights won’t make you live longer.
Uh, ok? What are you talking about? I made no such claim. Besides, I don’t think lifting weights ever extends life expectancy. Its a quality of life issue.
I started switching my activities around a few years ago away from physically demanding hobbies. As things get harder I tend to look for something less painful anyway.
I’m still waiting for the happy times.
Remember Jack Lallane?
When he was 60 he swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman’s Wharf, handcuffed, shackled and towing a 1,000-pound boat.
At the age of 70, he did another stunt where he was handcuffed and shackled. Fighting strong winds and currents, he towed 70 rowboats, one with several guests, from the Queen’s Way Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary a distance of 1 1/2 miles.
Dude left a beautiful 96 year old corpse.
Now you tell me!
I’m going the opposite way and plan on being a total pain in the ass by the time I’m 104. Couldn’t wait to get out of my parent’s house, the end of college was so close yet so far, and then - freedom! Eventually I got rid of a lot of my manners and that only made life better 
Life has it’s ups and downs … but generally speaking I’ve been getting happier as time rolls along. I’ve always been a happy person, so I can’t really think of any time where I’ve been unhappy for any length of time. I understand the OP’s complaint about the physical body not being as good as in our youth, but our minds are so much wiser … “Old age and treachery will always overcome youth and vigor” … so true, so true …
My mother and I had this discussion (she will turn 63 this year) and she said that she is happier than she has ever been for many of the same reasons.
When you are in your late teens, early 20s, the world is your oyster. You could become President of the United States, an astronaut, a Major League Baseball player, etc. Nothing is unattainable. You can drink all night, get two hours of sleep and be fresh as a daisy with two aspirin and a couple of coffee. You achieve erections not only at will, but at random.
When you get into your twenties, you realize that you will be none of those things, and that your lot in life is largely set without hurculean efforts on your part.
When you get into your thirties, you know you will never be President, a baseball player, etc. Mortgage bills, student loan bills, kids’ braces bills, bills, bills, bills. And the wife isn’t as attracted to you as she used to be.
You turn 40 and shit starts to hurt, your marriage has either ended, or even if you are happily married, it is no longer sex on the kitchen counters. Your kids are creating enormous financial havoc at a minimum. You are set in your station in life and it will not change. You wish you were 15 years old again.
At 50, you are used to all of this and you have accepted it. Hell, the President is way too busy, and you don’t like flying on a Delta, let alone the fucking space shuttle. You kids have completed school and whatever their issues, you can give them sage advice. You have probably learned to better manage your finances and may have paid off your home. You learn what things to let bother you and what is water off of a duck’s back.
At 60, you realize and fully accept that you are not young anymore and don’t give a shit. You will do what your body allows you to do when it allows and are happy with it. You can retire and get health insurance and social security benefits. From your financial decisions from 45-60, you can retire without living in a cardboard box. Maybe even travel to Europe or drive across country. You could never do any of that from ages 22-58.
I cannot speak for above 60s but that seems to be the understanding from mine and Mom’s conversation (without the erection stuff of course)
The only time in life you have no responsibility is before age 5.
Pre-school as far as a I remember: happy sometimes, often anxious.
Grade school: initially unhappy as new kid on the block, but later one the happiest times of my life, with my good friends as the older kids on the block.
Junior high: miserable: usual social problems plus again the new kid, mediocre student, dad’s drinking problem getting worse.
High school: star student and where I went to HS that gave reasonable social status at school, still home problems.
College: up and down, exciting at first, later boring and girl problems
Early post college: anxiety about facing real life
Mid 20’s through 30’s: marriage, career success, young kids: happiest overall time of my life so far.
40’s: kids’ teenage problems, financial security but career plateau, somewhat less happy
now (late 50’s): happy, physical decline starting to be a drag, however kids doing well and wife beat an often terminal diagnosis, single happiest event of my life.
Life is like a Soundgarden lyric:
*
I can’t get any lower
Still I feel I’m sinking*
Of course every life is different. I just thought that the study posted above is probably true for most people’s experiences. Obviously if a tragedy happens like losing a spouse or God forbid a child at a certain age, these things will put the happiness rating right in the crapper.
Likewise, if you have achieved lofty goals throughout your 20s and 30s, have a happy marriage, well adjusted kids, etc., then your happiness will climb throughout those years.
I think the study accurately captures the “average” life of an American in the 21st century: Big dreams, fail to meet them, get older and worry about dying, have financial/marital problems, become more financially secure, accept getting older, satisfied with your accomplishments, happiness returns.