What is it about men (well, some anyway) that make them so obsessed with reality? I walked away from a lunch with two hoteliers this week that nearly caused me to slit my wrist.

They went on and on about the problems of the world. Oil spill in the US – Obama’s a goner. Thailand is a mess – and will continue to be for years. Watch Sri Lanka, that place is going to implode. Philippines – the new government is a lame duck. Malaysia – corruption will choke that country and beware the rising tide of fundamentalism.

I could go on but I am getting depressed again just regurgitating what they said.

Thank goodness I had just read an article that said that the older you get, the happier you become – apparently, our mental well-being improves with age even if physically, everything goes south.

According to this large Gallup poll, which covered more than 340,000 people in the US, ages 18 to 85, and asked various questions about age and sex, current events, personal finances, health and other matters, people got happier as they got older.

The results cheered me up no end.

Said an article in New York Times, "On the global measure, people start out at age 18 feeling pretty good about themselves, and then, apparently, life begins to throw curve balls. They feel worse and worse until they hit 50. At that point, there is a sharp reversal, and people keep getting happier as they age. By the time they are 85, they are even more satisfied with themselves than they were at 18.

"In measuring immediate well-being – yesterday’s emotional state – researchers found that stress declines from age 22 onward, reaching its lowest point at 85. Worry stays fairly steady until 50, then sharply drops off. Anger decreases steadily from 18 on, and sadness rises to a peak at 50, declines to 73, then rises slightly again to 85. Enjoyment and happiness have similar curves: they both decrease gradually until we hit 50, rise steadily for the next 25 years, and then decline very slightly at the end, but they never again reach the low point of our early 50s."

I decided to test out the survey results with a few friends.

One, who turned 68 this month, is about to step down from a fulltime, high-flying corporate life. He says he’s never felt happier in his life than now, even though he really doesn’t know what’s out there in the next stage of his life.

“I think as you grow older, you realise what’s irrelevant in life. When you’re younger, you’re driven largely by your ego,” he said.

Another who turned 50 this year isn’t so sure and says he could be convinced to be happier.

That same week, I called my dear friend, Petra, in Cardiff. She’s in her 80s and when I asked her how she was, she said, "Old, wrinkly and grumpy. But you know," sounding surprised, "I feel surprisingly happy."

And I hadn’t even brought up the survey with her because I know she’d pooh-pooh it as "bloody common sense."

So according to the poll, I am at the cusp of happiness. It’s good to know there’s nothing but happiness ahead until I reach my 80s (if I get there) after which I suspect I will become deliriously happy because I’d be too old to care.