We’ve talked a bit this month about “aging gracefully.” On the face of the topic, it’s easy to narrowcast the conversation toward older audiences, where it might be appropriate to discuss strategies for continuing to age gracefully once you’re already there. However, there are some natural road blocks and challenges that will inherently arise on the way to older age, one of the most well–known, but less discussed is the dreaded “midlife crisis.”
What is a Midlife Crisis?
A midlife crisis tends to occur in the lives of adults age 45-64 stemming from a massively wide-ranging and complex set of variables. During this stage, uncomfortable changes can span almost any area of life including marital and social relationships, isolation, moves, finances, debt, health, regret, and mortality. You might experience feelings of depression, anger, remorse, anxiety, and feel that you need to make drastic changes to your lifestyle.
This post is all about the silver lining, so let’s start with possibly the most obvious, but usually disregarded fact: you are not alone. The midlife crisis is not only well documented throughout time, but made the butt of tongue-in-cheek jokes around the office, to fake commercials on Saturday Night Live. The midlife crisis is common, and though your circumstances are unique – your “rut” isn’t. But don’t turn your back on it. There’s a tendency to ignore or mismanage midlife stress, which can lead to a midlife crisis.
Tips for Handling a Midlife Crisis
If this is the case, here are a few resources from subject matter experts via TedX to help lend perspective and lead you into the clear.