Signs To Look For If You Think You're Having a Midlife Crisis
By Amy Capetta, Olivia Muenter
of Redbook
|
Reaching middle age usually means a few major life adjustments — retirement, a newly empty nest, or health changes. Sometimes, it means all of the above, or a slew of different changes entirely. It can also mean becoming more familiar with the signs of a midlife crisis, either in yourself or your peers.
Though the term midlife crisis is fairly common, it’s actually only existed since the mid-1960s, according to Psychology Today. Coined by psychologist Elliot Jacques,"midlife crisis"was originally used to describe the period of life where adults tend to“reckon with their mortality,” as the same Psychology Today article explains. In other words, the phenomenon can be a little more complicated than how it's often portrayed — it’s more than just someone purchasing a fancy car or picking up an unexpected hobby. As Baltimore-based therapist and co-founder of WithTherapy.com Dr. Heather Z. Lyons tells Woman’s Day, a midlife crisis, in essence, is a struggle with one’s own finiteness.