Upside Stories Library
Stay curious
Explore our evidence-based insights on life’s big questions, transitions, and challenges for people across midlife and beyond, and those facing these themes ahead of schedule.
Starting Over: Dating, Intimacy, and New Relationships in Later Life
Desire does not retire. Drawing on 13 recent studies, this article explores dating, intimacy and new relationships after midlife, from grief, family reactions and caring roles to dating apps and scams, and when it may help to talk to a clinical psychologist.
Long-Term Relationships Under Pressure: What Midlife Does to Couples
Parenthood, empty nests, retirement, caring and changes in intimacy can all reshape a long-term relationship. Here is what recent research says about midlife and couples, and what may help.
Men, Midlife, and Mental Health: Why Men Often Struggle in Silence and What Helps
Many men carry stress, low mood and grief quietly. Here is what recent Australian research says about why, and what helps from midlife onwards.
When Your Body Changes: Chronic Illness, Identity, and Mental Health After 50
When your body changes, your sense of self can change with it. Here is what research says about chronic illness, identity and mental health, and where to start.
Retirement and the Loss of Professional Identity
Nobody tells you that the hardest part of retirement might not be the finances, the routine, or the free time. It might be the moment you realise you don't quite know who you are without your work. For people whose professional life was central to their sense of self, such as their competence, their status, their daily purpose and social world, leaving retirement feeling less like freedom and more like loss. This article explores that experience honestly, and what the research says helps.
AI Companions for Older People: What the Research Says, and What We Should Be Asking
Can an AI companion help with loneliness? For some older people living alone, emerging research suggests it can. However, the best use appears to be as a bridge back to people, rather than a replacement for human company.
Perfectionism and Burnout in High-Functioning Midlife Adults
High-functioning people are often the last to seek help, and the last anyone thinks needs it. But behind the productivity, the competence, and the decades of delivering, something else is frequently present: a relentless internal pressure that never quite quiets, a self-criticism that achievement never satisfies, and a tiredness that goes deeper than sleep will fix. This article is for the people who are doing well by every external measure, and who are quietly exhausted by the cost of it.
Grey Divorce: The Psychology of Separation in Midlife and Later Life
More people are separating later in life than ever before, and it's changing family relationships in ways many people don't expect. This article explains why grey divorce is on the rise and what the research shows about its effect on ties with adult children and friends.
Posttraumatic Stress Resurfacing Later in Life
Many people manage the effects of trauma successfully for decades, such as holding down jobs, raising families, building lives, only to find that something shifts in midlife or later. A retirement. A bereavement. A health diagnosis. A quieter life that leaves more room for what was once kept at bay. The return of old wounds in later life is more common than most people realise, less understood than it should be, and more treatable than many assume. This article explores why trauma resurfaces in the second half of life, and what helps.
Anxiety That Won't Quit: Understanding Generalised Anxiety Disorder in Midlife and Later Life
"I've always been a worrier." It is one of the most common things people say in a first session, usually said lightly, and almost always as though it settles the matter. Sometimes it describes a temperament. Often it describes a treatable condition that has been carried, unnamed, for decades. This article explains what generalised anxiety disorder actually is, why it is so often missed after midlife, what tends to drive it in these decades, and what the research says helps.