Tips to Combat the 'Birthday Blues' as the Next Milestone Age Nears

Milestone birthdays often prompt people to re-evaluate the sense of meaning in their life.

- Jolanta Burke

Birthdays are typically seen as joyful events, filled with celebration, laughter, and gifts. Yet, it's not uncommon, particularly if you are approaching a milestone age, to feel sad on your birthday.

Birthdays can trigger painful emotions for anyone who may feel neglected, lonely, or disappointed about how their lives turned out to be. They are also reminders of aging and mortality, and may bring feelings of grief for lost time or fear about the future.

Milestone birthdays, such as turning 30 or 40, are even associated with particularly high instances of suicide, according to research from Japan. More people also die of stroke and a heart attack around their birthdays than on other days.

All of these negative feelings, whether extreme depression or just feeling a bit disappointed, make up what's sometimes known as the "birthday blues".

One important factor influencing whether you will get the birthday blues is how satisfied you are with your life. Life satisfaction is the degree to which you feel your life aligns with your expectations, and whether you have met, exceeded, or fallen short of your life goals.

If you're approaching a big birthday, you may feel susceptible to the comparison trap of social media, or feel self-conscious about where you are in life. Birthdays are an often unwelcome benchmark by which to measure how well we are doing at any given age.

Another important factor is whether you have a clear sense of meaning in your life. A clear sense of meaning is associated with greater well-being, while ongoing search for meaning is associated with mental health challenges.