Scientists have named the signs of a midlife crisis: check yourself

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Around the midlife crisis age has many stereotypes. For example, it is believed that men are more prone to it, and because of this they do rash actions. Scientists have collected enough data to dispel such misconceptions. Some doubt that this crisis even exists.

Time for key questions

Not yet an old man, a successful bank employee and father of two grown children, suddenly becomes irritable, starts wearing bright clothes and brightly colored ties. With all his savings, he buys an expensive car, leaves his wife and flies to the Maldives with a new passion twice his age. That's about how many imagine a midlife crisis. But is it true?

Canadian-born psychotherapist Elliot Jacques, in a 1965 article about geniuses, used the term “midlife crisis” to describe the period of life when a person first becomes aware of the end of existence. In creative people, this can result in the creation of masterpieces, as, for example, in the case of Dante.

The concept of mid-life crisis became known to the general public thanks to the book “Transition” by journalist Gail Shyla, published in 1976 in the USA. According to Susan Schmidt of the University of Cambridge, the midlife crisis was actually invented by feminists. It is about the stage in the life of a housewife after forty years, when the last child graduates from school and goes to college. “What to fill life with now? Why did I leave my studies? Why did I dedicate myself to my family? Why didn't anyone tell me I could get a job?” These questions drive the woman crazy, she turns to a psychoanalyst for help.

Why do primates have a midlife crisis

The reality of a midlife crisis is substantiated by the so-called happiness curve, the graph of which has a U-shaped shape and reflects the dependence of the subjective feeling of well-being on age. This scheme was put into circulation by British scientists in 2008, having analyzed data on almost half a million citizens of the United States and Western European countries.

According to the experts' conclusions, American men feel the least safe until the age of 53, European men – until 46. The results are similar for women: 38 and 46 years, respectively. The peak of depression and anxiety in Great Britain is at the age of 46. Approximately the same “happiness curve” is observed in 72 developed countries.

Even in great apes, the feeling of happiness with age is described by the same U-shaped curve, as shown in 2012 by scientists from Great Britain, the United States and Japan. They assumed that the middle-age crisis corresponding to the minimum schedule cannot be explained by the presence of young children, and since this phenomenon is observed in representatives of both sexes, the causes are not in menopause or social discrimination. And what if it arose in our ancestors for evolutionary reasons.

To answer this question, researchers surveyed those who take care of monkeys in zoos and scientific centers. It was interesting how a person assesses the mood of a pet. A total of 508 chimpanzees and orangutans were collected, finding that they too are experiencing a midlife crisis.

An optimistic view of life

Many scientists find the concept of mid-life crisis rather realistic. Experts explain psychological problems in this period of life by the fact that people for the first time begin to think about their lives, evaluate the results achieved, comparing them with the standards formed in their youth. Reassessment of the life path is accompanied by depression and anxiety. Overcoming the crisis leads to further development or stagnation.

There is an alternative point of view, according to which in the middle of life a person, on the contrary, is at the peak of social and professional success. Another approach explains it with personality traits. In pronounced neurotics, a crisis can occur at any transitional stage – due to a deterioration in physical well-being, a decrease in the speed of reactions, problems with memory and mastering sciences, the appearance of wrinkles, gray hair, financial difficulties due to the death of loved ones.

Meanwhile, a multi-year study by the National Institute on Aging, “Middle Age in the United States” (MIDUS), cast doubt on the existence of a U-shaped “happiness curve.” Surveys of thousands of Americans at different stages of life have shown that the majority of those who have reached middle age are quite satisfied with life and stability, and even feel uplifted.

Scientists from the University of Arkansas (USA) believe that many people do not go through mid-life crisis. This is facilitated by certain personal qualities that help soften the blows of fate: focus on growth, the presence of goals, the ability to cope with the unknown and reject emotions, spirituality, humor, flexibility of life philosophy.