You can enjoy life both in youth and in old age. People who have reached middle age have the hardest time of all - they are recognized as the most unhappy. An international team of researchers from the USA and Great Britain has been studying “relative cheerfulness” for some time using the example of more than two million people from 80 countries. It turned out that the “happiness curve” can still be drawn, and for almost all people it will be in the shape of the letter U: at the beginning and end of life, people feel an unprecedented rise, and in the middle - a midlife crisis, which, alas, cannot be avoided . Thus, in Great Britain, the age when people feel most unhappy is 40-44 years old for both women and men. Scientists still cannot identify the reasons for this phenomenon: the indicator of relative well-being does not depend either on the presence of children or from wealth, nor from happiness in his personal life. According to one version, people strive to adapt to their strengths and weaknesses, and it is in the middle of life that there is a period when they most strongly suppress their aspirations for one reason or another. Another option is possible: as we know, cheerful people live longer than whiners, and according to the third assumption, people who see their peers die begin to value life more and try to take all possible pleasures from it. In general, as scientists note, for the average For a person in the modern world, the onset of a crisis and feelings of personal unhappiness come slowly, and not suddenly, in one year. Most people easily cope with a depressed mood once they reach the age of 50. But, according to one of the study's leaders, Andrew Oswald (professor at the University of Warwick): "... it is encouraging that at 70, if you are still physically healthy, on average you are as happy and mentally competent as a twenty-year-old." Two years earlier, American Researchers from Virginia have already proven that a positive perception of life directly depends on age, and the saying “Old age is not a joy” was invented by envious youths. In an online survey organized by sociologists, 542 people took part, divided approximately in half into two age groups - 21 - 40 years and 60 - 90 years. Respondents had to rate their mood on a ten-point scale, answering the only question of the questionnaire - “How happy are you?”. Having calculated the results, the researchers found that in the first group, representing young people, the average score was 6.65, while the “old people” were noted at the level of 7.32, that is, an order of magnitude higher. Scientists explained this phenomenon very clearly. In youth, happiness depends on circumstances: if something good happens, a person is happy, if someone spoils his life, he is unhappy. Old age is conducive to analyzing every event. Black and white stripes appear against the background of general life experience and are therefore much easier to bear.