正文翻譯
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問題：Why do we become unhappy as we grow older?

為什么隨著年齡的增長我們會變得不快樂？

評論翻譯
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答復(fù)：
Chier Hu, former Museum Docent at Shanghai (2017-2019)
upxed Jul 23
Do we become unhappy as we grow older?
Let's take a look at this picture: The ordinate is "Psychological Well-being" to describe how happy people are in life.
We are all getting more unhappy from the birth to the age of 50. Once you have passed the bottom of the fifties, your happiness level will gradually increase, that is, "the older, the happier."
The happiness from teens to twenties is a cliff-like decline.
Before middle age, our happiness has been falling, and it is becoming less easy to be happy.
Why? I have several explanations for this phenomenon:
Neuroscience: "Reason" kills our happiness.
The most obvious factors between the teens and the twenties are "The End of Adolescence" and "The General End of Brain Development." When a person is in puberty, the levels of various hormones in the body change drastically. For a child, it will make his personality sensitive and reaction strong.
Our brains do not stop developing until the age of 25. Before puberty, the white matter volume of the human brain reaches its peak and then falls. In the whole puberty period and a time after that, the gray matter (cell body) volume of the human brain increases substantially linearly, which shows that the connection strength of various regions of the human brain is significantly increased. This will have some impact on people's cognition - people's immature mood during adolescence will gradually diminish, become mature and controlled, which makes us change from "an emotional person" to "a rational person." In terms of Active Level of the Amygdala, at this age, the more people grow, the lower their activation level:
In terms of emotional control, the vmPFC (Ventromedial prefrontal cortex) function in the human brain is getting stronger and stronger:
There is a set of "rational control mechanisms" in the human brain. In the before and early stages of adolescence, this mechanism is not yet mature, and it was not yet taking over our psychological feeling. During this period, people are a "balloon full of emotions," and a little stimulation will make it explode. During this period, the happiness and pain that people feel are extraordinarily extreme and heartfelt. The mood swings of the day were intense. It was easier for us to experience extreme pleasure such as ecstasy.
As we grew up and experienced too much joy and pain, the Rational Control Mechanism of the Human Brain gradually took over our emotions. Our rationality has steadily taken the lead in the perception. Therefore, our happiness and pain are controlled or restricted; In the face of joy and sorrow, we will think more, and thus temperate, calm, and tenacious. — The more you understand, the more pain you are. The more you know, the more you tear.
PS:
A China proverb says, “精神病人思維廣(The psychotic's mind is more open )，弱智兒童歡樂多(The mentally handicapped child has more joy) ”. We regard those who keep simplicity and innocence as "fools." When they meet a little thing, they grin on their face. Their income is so low that they can't afford anything, but they are buoyant as cheerful as a lark all day.
As our self-consciousness becomes more independent and clearer, we become more aware of our own abilities and become more aware of how powerless we are. The bigger the world you see, the more other things you know, the more things you subconsciously want and the more you want to control. But your consciousness clearly warns you: "You have limited ability, you can't do it, you can't get it." Paradoxically, your subconscious will seduce you: "These are yours, they should be under your control."
Associating with the truth means that you must "discard carefree and simple happiness." You are no longer a child who cajole by candy, but an adult who does not turn a hair or bat an eyelid in front of the decoy. The more they know, the lower their happiness. We will never feel like palpitating and excitement again.
The price of growth is loss of innocence and collagen. You are tranquil outside, but when at home, your eyebrows knit in a frown. Your worry about personal gains and losses, but you have to pretend to stay calm in front of people
Threshold: numbness vs sensitive
As we become less happy, we also become less painful. Yes, both thresholds are raised at the same time. As we grow, the threshold of happiness and pain will gradually increase. Things that used to make us happy may not be felt now, and it takes more stimulation to feel it.
As shown in my picture, as our mind matures, our mood will be more stable, less fluctuating, closer to 0.
Fresh vs. Fed up
Everything from childhood is your first time: the first time you visit dinosaur fossils, the first time you learned to ride a bicycle, the first time you saw cherry blossoms, the first time you fell in love, the first time you made love…When you were young, everything you did was in contacting new things, so everything was enjoyable.
After growing up, you feel that you are losing happiness because "you are doing the same thing repeatedly." You are doing screw work day after day, and the long repetition makes you lose your sense of freshness, and the repetition becomes a colossal upset.
You have repeatedly been working for a whole day, looking forward to a little environmental change from off-work to treat yourself well. But you have lived the same life for decades, and your time has no breadth. No matter what you play, you feel uninteresting and tedious, because they are no longer fresh, and you lose happiness forever.
You can now see at a glance how you would live before you were 60 years old —You have bought a house with a loan, repayments are stretched over 30 years, and pay 2000 per month... Your wife is just pregnant. You really don't know if you can still support a baby with these leftover salaries. Every morning you open your eyes is "Debt Repayment."
If you like to eat meat and think that eating meat is happy, then in the absence of other's supervision, you will eat it indiscriminately. Eating meat is enjoyment when you are hungry; then, it is "indifferent"; in the end, you are tired of eating, and eating meat becomes uncomfortable.
By the same token, the satisfaction and happiness brought to us by touching New Lovers is hard to exceed three months: We are close to each other, chat idly, breakthrough ambiguity, being together sweetly, stirring together like chewing gum, life quickly loses sweetness, becomes stiff and dry... Finally, we are tired of falling in love.
Most of the joy of life is like this: When you are happy at first, you will repeatedly seek this kind of happiness; then you will feel nothing, and finally, get bored. With the increase of age, the ineffective stimulation that you are seeking becomes more, and you can feel less novelty and excitement.
Neuroscience: Prettified memory / sextive Memory
A lot of happiness is apparent more shine and sparkling only in your memories. Your subconscious mind will embellishes it. When we are not happy, we dig out the old happiness from the memories to recollect the aftertaste. Our brain will automatically beautify the past - it automatically shields those unhappy things and dilutes some of the unpleasant parts.
The painful memories of our minds may have been removed:
Endless test, courses and examination paper;
Campus tyrant bullying you;
Pressure from teachers and parents;
Contest and unsettled friendship between classmates;
Your father has domestic violence against your mother after being drunk;
You live in a single-parent family, and you have all kinds of inferiority;
Evolutionary Psychology: We Need Pain
People's need for pain is far more than they need for happiness, but people will naturally escape the pain, fear of painful additional panic factors, and feel that the conditions of existence are threatened (and this is often not the case today), not the pain itself.
to sum up
This U-shaped curve of happiness represents "the change in our perception of the world" - from the simplicity of childhood to the complexity of adulthood, to the return of the red dust, this mental journey cannot be reversed:
At 5, we are naive and innocent;
At 10, we are ignorant and muddled;
At 20, we are confused and perplexed;
At 30, we are cynical;
At 40, we are disillusioned with the mortal world;
At 50, we see through the vanity of life and the emptiness of the material world;
At 60, we discard the vexation of worldly affairs;
At 70, we recover our simplicity and return to our original nature.
…

Chier Hu, 上海前博物館講解員（2017-2019）
隨著年齡的增長，我們會變得不快樂嗎？
讓我們來看看這張照片：坐標(biāo)是“心理健康”，用來描述人們在生活中的幸福感。
從出生到50歲，我們都越來越不快樂。一旦過了50歲的低谷，你的幸福感就會逐漸提高，也就是說，“越老越幸?！?。

?

從十幾歲到二十幾歲的幸福是一種懸崖般的衰退。
中年以前，我們的幸福感一直在下降，變得越來越不容易幸福。
為什么？我對這種現(xiàn)象有幾種解釋：
神經(jīng)科學(xué)：“理性”扼殺幸福。
青少年和20多歲之間最明顯的因素是“青春期的結(jié)束”和“大腦發(fā)育基本結(jié)束”。當(dāng)一個人進入青春期時，體內(nèi)各種激素的水平會急劇變化。對一個孩子來說，這會使他的個性敏感，反應(yīng)強烈。

?

我們的大腦直到25歲才停止發(fā)育。青春期前，人腦白質(zhì)體積達(dá)到峰值，然后下降。在整個青春期及其后一段時間內(nèi)，人腦灰質(zhì)（細(xì)胞體）體積呈顯著線性增加，說明人腦各區(qū)域的連接強度明顯增強。這會對人們的認(rèn)知產(chǎn)生一定的影響——人們在青春期的不成熟情緒會逐漸減弱，變得成熟和可控，使我們從“感性的人”變成“理性的人”。就杏仁核的活動水平而言，在這個年齡段，人越長大，其活動水平就越低：

?

在情緒控制方面，人腦中的vmpfc（腹內(nèi)側(cè)前額葉皮層）功能越來越強：

?

人腦中有一套“理性控制機制”。在青春期的前期和早期，這種機制還不成熟，還沒有接管我們的心理感受。在這期間，人是一個“充滿情緒的氣球”，稍有刺激就會使它爆炸。在這段時間里，人們感受到的幸福和痛苦是異常極端和真摯的。一天的情緒波動很劇烈。我們更容易體驗到極度的快樂，如狂喜。
隨著我們長大，經(jīng)歷了太多的歡樂和痛苦，人腦的理性控制機制逐漸接管了我們的情緒。我們的理性在認(rèn)識上穩(wěn)步領(lǐng)先。因此，我們的快樂和痛苦是可以控制或限制的；在快樂和悲傷面前，我們會想得更多，因此會變得節(jié)制、冷靜和堅韌。-你越了解，你就越痛苦。你知道的越多，你的眼淚就越多。

PS:
1、中國有句諺語說：“精神病人思維廣，弱智兒童歡樂多。（精神病患者的思想更開放，智障兒童的快樂更多）”我們認(rèn)為那些保持單純和天真的人像“傻瓜”一樣。當(dāng)他們遇到一件小事時，他們會咧著嘴笑。雖然他們的收入很低，買不起任何東西，但是他們整天興高采烈。
2、隨著我們的自我意識變得越來越獨立和清晰，我們越來越意識到自己的能力有限，越來越意識到自己是多么的無力。你看到的世界越大，你知道的其他事情越多，你下意識想要的事情越多，你想控制的事情越多。但你的意識清楚地警告你：“你的能力有限，你做不到，你得不到。”矛盾的是，你的潛意識會誘惑你：“這些是你的，它們應(yīng)該在你的控制之下?！?br/>3、與真理相聯(lián)系意味著你必須“拋棄無憂無慮和簡單的快樂”，你不再是一個靠糖果哄騙的孩子，而是一個在誘餌面前面不改色、眼皮都不眨一下的成年人。他們知道的越多，他們的幸福感就越低。我們再也不會感到心悸和興奮了。
4、成長的代價是失去純真和膠原蛋白。你在外面很平靜，但在家的時候，你的眉毛皺成一團。你擔(dān)心個人的得失，但你必須在別人面前假裝冷靜。

閾值：麻木與敏感
當(dāng)我們變得不快樂時，我們也變得不那么痛苦。是的，兩個門檻同時提高。隨著我們的成長，快樂和痛苦的門檻將逐漸提高。以前讓我們快樂的事情現(xiàn)在可能感覺不到了，感覺起來需要更多的刺激。
如圖所示，隨著心智的成熟，我們的情緒會更穩(wěn)定，波動更小，接近0。

?

新鮮與厭倦
童年的一切都是你第一次：第一次看恐龍化石，第一次學(xué)會騎自行車，第一次看到櫻花，第一次墜入愛河，第一次不可描述……當(dāng)你年輕的時候，你所做的一切都是在接觸新的一切都很愉快。
長大后，你會覺得自己因為“重復(fù)做同樣的事情”而失去了幸福感，日復(fù)一日地做著繁重的工作，長時間的重復(fù)會讓你失去新鮮感，重復(fù)就會變成巨大的煩惱。

進化心理學(xué)：我們需要痛苦
人們對痛苦的需求遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)大于對幸福的需求，但人們自然會逃避痛苦。人們害怕的是痛苦附加的其他恐慌因素，并感到生存條件受到威脅（而今天的情況往往不是這樣），而不是痛苦本身。

?

總結(jié)
這種幸福的U形曲線代表著“我們對世界的感知發(fā)生了變化”——從童年的單純到成年的復(fù)雜，再到紅塵的回歸，這種精神旅程是無法逆轉(zhuǎn)的：
5歲時，我們天真無邪；
十歲時，我們無知而糊涂；
20歲時，我們感到困惑和困惑；
30歲時，我們憤世嫉俗；
40歲時，我們對凡人世界的幻想破滅了；
50歲時，我們看透了生活的虛榮和物質(zhì)世界的空虛；
60歲時，我們拋棄世俗的煩惱；
到了70歲，我們恢復(fù)了單純，回到了原來的本性。
…

Aman Shaw, Associate Analyst at Deloitte Consulting (2018-present)
Answered Apr 16, 2018
Because when we were a kid we had some dreams. We wanted to be something we were good at. We thought this world to be a better place.
But when we became adults we saw the reality. We saw that there is a rat race going on. Accomplishing our dream was no more an option. Engineering, Medical, CA were tried and tested methods.
As we became adults we saw how hard our parents worked to get us good education so that when we stand on our own legs we don't have to face what they faced.
As we became adults we realised that this is a world of 7 billion people and no matter what we say we have limited jobs. So not to miss on the very first opportunity we get, we prepare hard and harder! In this process of preparing we lose contact with our near and dear once and atleast we become what what the world wanted us to become and our dreams died.
So we become unhappy as we grow older.

Jess H. Brewer, Be alive now. You may be dead later.
Answered Apr 17, 2018
Speak for yourself.
There are certainly some “down sides” to age, like constant pain or loss of function or the death of friends and family, but there’s still plenty to do, and by the time you’re old you have more resources to do it with.

Jess H. Brewer, 現(xiàn)在還活著。可能晚些時候就死了。
對你自己說：
衰老有一些“負(fù)面因素”，比如持續(xù)的疼痛、器官功能喪失或親朋好友的死亡，但仍然有很多事情要做，等你老了，你有更多的資源去做這些。