Having gone through a major stressful event could actually help people deal with typical daily stressors easily, a new study suggests.
TIME reports a study published in the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences says old people who had major stressful experiences such as retiring or losing a loved one appeared to have dealt with minor stressful episodes more lightly.
For the study, fellows from North Carolina State University interrogated 45 adults ages 60 to 96 on whether they have had major stressful events. The researchers then measured the participants' sense of well-being and vitality through asking questions like how old they felt, how old they wish they were and how old they thought they looked like.
"There's a lot of research on how old you feel," study author Jennifer Bellingtier, a Ph.D. candidate at North Carolina State University told TIME. "When you feel younger you have better mental health, tend to live longer, and have better well being."
Interesting results show that those who had gone through a major stressful incident in the past year were overall less depressed by minor daily stresses.
"We found they seemed to be less perturbed by everyday stress," Bellingtier said.
Meanwhile, men and women who had not experienced major stressors were very much likely to feel older during a stressful day.
All participants reported that they thought they looked like about a decade younger than their actual age. While those who have had major stressful episodes thought they looked 20 years younger on stressful days, those who didn't go through a major stressful time were more likely to say they looked like their current age.
According to Bellingtier, these findings may teach us a lesson on how bad days, no matter how traumatic they were, could actually help us deal with further problems.
"I think in some sense it means we can learn from our major life stressors and it can be beneficial to us," she said. "It's easy to get caught up in a lot of little daily things. It can be useful to know I've gotten through a lot more."
