4 Important Facts About the Middle-aged Crisis (Midlife Crisis)

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Medical Video: Light a spark: navigating the mid-life malaise | Patricia Katz | TEDxSaskatoon

When we think of the 'middle-aged crisis' alias midlife crisisoften, the first thing that comes up is a picture of a middle-aged man or woman who suddenly makes unexpected decisions, such as quitting work, dressing up like a young child, buying a luxury sports car, or even flirting with a young woman.

But what really caused this crisis?

The midlife crisis is believed to be a fear of death

The idea of ​​a midlife crisis originated from Elliot Jacques who thought that in middle age, everyone would be haunted by fear of death. With the shadow of death approaching, according to Jacques, people began to feel dissatisfied with their achievements and worried about their ability to achieve the life goals they dreamed of.

To support the idea of ​​Jacques, a research team from the University of Melbourne showed that most people do not feel happy with their lives, especially in their early 40s. Self-satisfaction throughout an individual's life, according to them, follows a U-curve pattern that reaches its lowest point around the age of 40 and then begins to rise again afterwards. Researchers claim that dissatisfaction in middle age only comes from changes in the quality of life of each participant, rather than the results of comparing with other people.

Some researchers consider the midlife crisis to be a myth

However, the idea of ​​a midlife crisis was brought together by many critics. One of them from the 2009 University of Zurich psychologist research team stated that, although there are many people who feel upset in middle age, this is an ongoing process and arises at all stages and ages. In addition, there is a lot of diversity in how each person handles this stage of life.

Reporting from Medical Daily, a team of researchers from the University of Alberta in Canada revealed that the midlife crisis was just a myth, after ending a 25-year research period. The academic journal Developmental Psychology published a study in which researchers tracked 1,500 participants who were divided into two groups of study objects for more than 25 years.

The first group is the number of high school students from Edmonton with an average age of 18 years, until they are 43 years old, while the others are seniors at universities whose ages range from 23 to 37. During the period of study time, the researchers asked participants for various possible factors affect their level of happiness such as personal health, work, relationships and marriage.

The findings revealed the happiness level of the two groups increased when they turned 30. Overall, participants felt happier in their early 40s than at age 18 - even if the high school group began to experience a slight decline around the age of 43.

Not all who enter middle age will experience a crisis

Quote from The Atlantic, U curves tend to show more often in developed countries, where people live longer and can enjoy better health in old age. In many cases, the U curve only appears after the researcher adjusts a number of variables, such as income, marital status, work, and so on, so that the observation of this level of happiness is only controlled from the age aspect.

University of Alberta research reveals that life happiness does not follow the shape of the U curve as it has been believed, but continues to climb even past the middle age. The study looked at each of the same individuals from time to time, in order to get detailed observations about how they change as they age, said one researcher, Harvey Krahn. Furthermore, he said, a number of previous studies only observed participants' happiness levels only when they were being observed.

The upward description of happiness from this study is characterized by the difficulties experienced by people during the teenage and young adult phases, where work seeking employment and life stability are the main problems that are filled with uncertainty. As we get older, this problem tends to be resolved because in middle age, people are more established and stable, characterized by achieving certain milestones in life, such as getting better health, stable career, and marriage.

Apart from the above factors, happiness also depends on the mental attitude of the individual. According to one study, a group of adults with stable emotions will tend to be happier in retirement, compared to a group of individuals who close themselves and experience many fluctuations in fluctuations in the stage of young adults. This shows that personality characteristics in youth have lasting effects on well-being in the future.

It may have nothing to do with age

Midlife crisis is often defined by the perceptions of others rather than ourselves. Many stereotypes, such as the impulsivity of buying a new luxury sports car, may be more related to financial status that improves compared to validation to stay young. They, in the end, were able to get material that had only been dreamed of.

The concept of a midlife crisis sometimes serves as a mere reason for behavior that only occurs at the age of 40-50s. Career dissatisfaction? Married relationship problems? There are many possible reasons behind this - and although it seems easy to say that a midlife crisis is the cause, chances are that age has nothing to do with this.

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4 Important Facts About the Middle-aged Crisis (Midlife Crisis)
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