The subjective experience of wellbeing and happiness has long been lauded as U-shaped, with the bottom of the barrel occurring in midlife – defined as ages 40-65. Some researchers have moved away from this idea, as the decline in happiness of younger generations has been significantly noted, causing a rift in the perception of happiness and wellbeing levels and the curve altering.
The idea of happiness falls across a range of wellbeing metrics, including financial, life satisfaction and self-worth, offset by worry, stress, depression and sadness. Interpreting wellbeing data, however, varies from generation to generation and person to person. While one person may struggle in their 40s with their wellbeing, due to the varying factors of what can be considered societal expectations, another person may find their midlife period to be fear-free and exciting.
As psychologist Niamh Delmar says, “health issues arise, family adjustments, loss and other factors can aggravate mental health in midlife”. She equally notes that this time in life “can provide opportunities for positive changes and facilitate more freedom and increased confidence”.
Nevertheless, as midlife is a period of change, it is also one of challenge.
“Lonely is the word that springs to mind when I ask myself how I feel about my own mental health,” says 43-year-old Caitlin, who feels she has a balance on her wellbeing. “I have to because, with having ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), your mental health can influence your ADHD symptoms and vice versa. So, much like my physical health, management of my mental health is a daily thing.”
Caitlin’s ADHD diagnosis came through a London-based psychiatrist, whom she sourced privately. She now has the support of her GP. However, she is conscious that their assistance is limited.
“They initially told me they didn’t know enough to help me and sent me off to find help privately,” she says, knowing she needs further psychiatric assessment and support. “I went back with the official diagnosis, and we took steps based on that. My GP reached out to the HSE and was told that I couldn’t get help because there is no available service. Not having professional support for ADHD has definitely had a negative impact on my mental health.”
“For mental health in general, Ireland has an all-or-nothing approach,” says Caitlin. “You have to reach a point where you are a threat to yourself or to someone else to gain any kind of real help. Should we not be helping people before they get down to the breakdown stage?”
Michael Gibson (48) has spoken to a lot of older people through his Lemonade Kart Instagram page, where he shares his own struggles with mental health in an effort to encourage others to talk too. He says mental health was not ever talked about or probably even understood within the older age groups of midlife and after.
“I don’t think it was something that was on the radar,” says Gibson, who adds that there are some subtopics within mental health that are okay to talk about and others that are considered to be off the table. Many people are prone to suffer in silence.
“Mental health and the notion of talking publicly about it is only something very recent, although I still think a huge stigma surrounds opening up about the challenges we face on a daily basis.
“My generation has grown up with a lot more going on around them that could impact on our mental health. I was growing up during the Celtic Tiger era, where house prices were on the increase and banks seemed to be giving away free money. The struggles were different to what our older generations faced.”
Caitlin also feels talking about mental health is still stigmatised in society.
“I accept that it’s spoken about more in the media and there are more celebs and the like sharing their experience, but I don’t believe that there is a general acceptance that mental health is part of life for everyone,” she says.
“People simply don’t understand enough about mental health. Physical health and fitness have been part of the educational cycle for years, be that in schools, workplaces, community groups. We all get it: we need to do x, y and z to be physically healthy. On top of that, society is encouraged to be body positive and not to fat-shame and such. Where’s the mental health equivalent?”
[ How schools can be crucial in nurturing children’s mental healthOpens in new window ]
Gibson believes himself to be in a unique position where he is very aware of his mental health and as such has always sought to educate himself or look for support at an early stage of any episode. “I think there are support services out there for people, but they are well hidden and the services are already under pressure,” he says.
“One of the biggest drivers of poor mental health is comparison,” adds Gibson, who feels that support for mental health still remains critically low. “I feel that there can be a pressure to keep up with those who surround us. This societal pressure can cause people to make financial commitments that they not be able to keep up with. So I would be of the belief that finances and money is the one common issue that we face as generations that could adversely affect our mental health.”
One of the reasons he set up The Lemonade Kart was to start a conversation. “If I talked about something that was bothering me, maybe that would make it easier for the next person to have a similar conversation,” he says of his rationale.
“There is not enough support to the younger generation as they are coming through. More supports should be available in schools to help students with the pressure they can now experience while in school: pressures to get good grades, social media pressures and more recently pressures surrounding sexuality and gender identification.”
Generational health
- Part 1: Youth mental health and stigma
- Part 2: Mental health and young adults
- Part 3: Nurturing children’s mental health
