UK Men aged 45-59 'most fed up with life' Study finds

Yeah tell me about it !
The study comes from the ONS (office for national statistics) which sampled 300,000 adults in the UK between 2012 - 2015 to give a measure of the nations happiness.

Those aged 45 to 59 reported the lowest levels of life satisfaction, with men on average less satisfied than women.
That age group also reported the highest levels of anxiety.

The researchers came up with this as a possible reason...

Researchers said one possible reason for the lower happiness and well-being scores among this age group might be the burden of having to care for children and elderly parents at the same time.
www.bbc.co.uk...

Personally I think it's more likely that age group has worked out what a crap hole this country has become and the chances of it becoming better are so remote as to be none existent .... or that may just be a fed up early 50s me.

a reply to: gortex

Possibly its because the particular generation in question expected more from the world both technologically and socioeconomically speaking by this day of age.

a reply to: gortex

I believe this correlates with the realization that one has spent a lifetime working and struggling for many things that didn't really matter.
Happiness then evaporates as you begin to notice that it's too late to do what you should have. JMO.

a reply to: gortex

What does the graph tell us ?

That you're at most unhappiest during your working years and most unhappiest when it finally dawns on you that you've wasted your life working to make somebody else rich

Really, our happiness quotient is 99% circumstantial (and 50% brain chemicals, but I stink at math) and in this case, in this world, circumstances are dictated by economics... so what does it say about economics?

As a man in America in that demographic, I can heartily concur... I can't wait (most days) until the dreary rat race is over.

They're the ones counting down till they get their pension as its amazing the jump from the 55->60's as most men of that age are still able to retire nice and early so suddenly they don't have to report to some idiot boss and can just spend all the time in the shed pottering around. But the drop around the 40's is probably the failure of relationships which normally does hit men harder as they're the ones leaving the house and paying large sums of cash to the ex and by the time they hit 60+ they no longer need to be paying for the kids as well meaning more money and even more happiness.

originally posted by: donktheclown
a reply to: gortex

I believe this correlates with the realization that one has spent a lifetime working and struggling for many things that didn't really matter.
Happiness then evaporates as you begin to notice that it's too late to do what you should have. JMO.

And then you get past all that and realize how much of a waste all the worrying in life actually was, hence why the pensioners or the retired folk seem to be the happiest.
My grandfather was exactly like this, he spent all his life working to much, blaming, and hating life, then he became a grand father, retired and realized he spent way to many years stressing over the dumbest things and did a complete 180, according to my mother.

I have made a lot of mistakes in my life but buying into corporate, get a good job, work your way up, BS; wasn't one of them.

I have made and lost fortunes playing the entrepreneurial game. Everyday I look forward the the excitement, risk and challenge this wonderful county of the US of A, free enterprise affords to those not afraid to get your hands dirty with spirit and guts.

No pension for me...I expect to die on the job with a smile on my face.

My sadness lies in the fact that there are so many opportunities out there but I can only pursue a limited few.

a reply to: Discotech bingo. It's the age you realise that you've been cheated of life

a reply to: gortex

My sympathies to the UK entrepreneurs bogged down with regulations and bureaucratic BS. Most of Europe really.

a reply to: gortex

I think its down to a number of different things simply because families have always cared for kids and their elderly if they can - what's suddenly different.

Work is probably one of the biggest problems especially for the average Brit in this age group. Everything has slowly been stacked against this stalwart group. Steadily the job market has been flooded by immigrants so wages have been driven down lower and instead of depending on annual increments and a good healthy job market we now have one that's got so many people to choose from, with little regard for experience, people coming in sometimes with fiddled qualifications which aren't checked plus talk of quotas for different ethnic groups - what future do you have except to be dropped. As the social welfare available for workers with mortgages has been cut back so much the road leads to loosing everything you have struggled to build and work hard for.

All workers in this country are supporting more and more parasites who refuse to work, make themselves unemployable or simply can't find a job where they live. Provided they haven't saved hard or sacrificed to buy their home, they continue to get given free housing and every benefit going that the gap between someone who has worked all their working life and suddenly looses their jobs will ultimately put them in a far worse position and more traumatic position than a layabout who has never worked but got their benefits sorted and ensconced in council housing - they won't suffer or loose their home.

I suspect with the technological advances corporations are bringing in this won't be the only group of workers soon to be under threat.

a reply to: olaru12

It isn't the entrepreneurs who are bogged down with regulations and rules it's the average bloke on the street , UK entrepreneurs do OK with tax breaks and other state help , we are a nation of shopkeepers.

a reply to: strongfp

You're absolutely right.

and did a complete 180, according to my mother.

I'm working on that 180 myself. I fear nothing - and that alone is life altering.

I've heard of the Beta revolt err uprising I've been informed they like to view it as an uprising.

Should we now expect a Geezer uprising?

I bet the US is the same. We all start out as full length pencils. By the time we hit middle age, we are ground down into a dull little stub.

a reply to: Shiloh7

Sure, blame the poor, the immigrants, the disadvantaged, the needy and the infirm.
Blame those consigned to the scrapheap, the malingers, the low paid and the scroungers.

I can see you've swallowed the propaganda.

Anyway, I fear I digress.

I think its a number of things.
As others have mentioned I think there's a realisation that everything one has strove for since leaving school and starting work has been a bit of a farce.
Working hard 'for the man' for all those years and now that the body is beginning to fail there's the reality that its been for relatively little.
Kids have flown the nest and your suddenly left with nothing much of real substance except a feeling of 'I could have' or 'I should have'.

So people get nostalgic for the days before they joined 'the rat race' - hence the resurgence of so many retro scenes.

I'm 50.
More or less retired a few years ago, simply because I could.
Sometimes it can be a bit of a struggle - always had a few bob in my pocket, still have I guess, but I can't be quite as extravagant as I used to be.
Generally I feel happier for it - more time to myself, less stress etc.

I see a lot of my friends of the same age group and some of them are really struggling.

Youthful dreams. Reality. Mid life crisis. Acceptance. Pooping the bed, but someone else cleans it up.

originally posted by: gortex


Personally I think it's more likely that age group has worked out what a crap hole this country has become and the chances of it becoming better are so remote as to be none existent ....

I agree, its funny that all these types of surveys never take into consideration any factor that might be labelled 'political/economc.' or some such similar name. Its like there is self censorship in the 'happiness with life' survey population.

I bet such factors would have never been omitted from similar surveys carried out behind the iron curtain in the 1970s-80s had they been carried out by any western survey organisation.