(& if u cn rd ths, a hi pyng jb awts u)


(I couldn’t resist moving into the old language of the matchbook cover stenography schools. I’d suspect that those ads no longer make a whole lot of sense. Maybe now they hawk classes for Twitter and texting  addicts?)

USA Today reports that the amount of stress begins to drop faster once you are past the age of 50. I’m a bit skeptical of the result. I am certainly past 50 but still feel the same stresses. The only real difference is that I can no longer stay up for days at a time to worry about it. (The original story is here.)

There are several points to the story that have a ring of plausibility to them. One is that the level of stress falls with age, but falls fastest once the age of 50 is passed. The other is that women feel more stressed than men. But, …

My qualm with the study and screaming headline “Daily Stress and Worry Plummet After age 50” is that the study was done in 2008, before the long term impact of the economic downturn impacted people with its full weight. I suspect that the stress level has risen a bit for those in their late 50s seeing their retirement look less and less plausible. I also wonder if the seeming lower stress levels were the result of lower stress or of a better ability to cope with stress as we get older.

What do you think?