Things for me have been improving from mid 20s onward. Each year better than the last imo.
I come from a pretty privileged background, both parents were medical professionals, and I’m a white male. I think my parents did a good job of raising my siblings and I, and our grandparents were very involved and we saw extended family a lot. For me childhood was good but i feel like it was a different mix of freedoms more so than a lack of freedom like you say.
I feel like a lot of people like their early 20s more, but it sort of sucked for me. Underemployed, but much of the issues I had with my college and early 20s was due to the collision of guard rails dropping away and undiagnosed adhd. Things have been improving ever since my wife and I started enmeshing our lives more, dividing tasks based on strengths.
I’m in my late 30s now, and my body feels better than in my early 20s, as I had stopped working out during that time. Also ended up getting diagnosed for adhd in my mid 40s and just this year had vyvanse prescribed which has proved a huge help. The funny thing about it is that I didn’t notice it working. What I did notice was when I forgot to take it. I had grown used to less chaos in my thoughts, so that made it clear it was working after all