"midlife crises" is not about a numerical middle, but rather a change in lifestyle that comes about from children having grown up, passing your peak at your chosen specialization, change in health, or whatever. It's when you change your major goals and priorities.
Does it? I've always thought of a mid-life crisis as an attempt to recapture the thrills of youth, whether through a fast new car or a hot young fling or whatever. If you take him at his word, he's trying to do the opposite and move beyond the problems of his youth.
I thought the circumstances you describe are what leads to the typical midlife crisis. Not always, but people wake up and realize they're trapped in a life (kids, obligations, job) that sort of crept up on them, and feel like they need to let off some steam.
A lot of (perhaps including the article's authors) modern "mid-life crises" are more what I've heard of as "quarter life crises" - you finish school, get a job, you're in a rut where you don't have an obvious next step and you're starting at possible decades of the same, you get depressed. But now a lot of people are like 35 at that time so it almost overlaps with the 80's version of a midlife crisis. This happened to me, I accomplished roughly what I'd planned professionally at about 30 and then realized it wasn't what I wanted and had no idea what to do next.
A midlife crisis implies, imo, that you haven’t reached the things you wanted to and are running out of time. Not that you aren’t moving forward per se.
Basically "midlife crisis" is a way for people who are married with families to put down anyone having more fun or experiencing more freedom than them.
I speak only for myself, but the closest thing I've felt to a 'mid-life crisis' (I'm 48 now) is more of a realization that there are a number of life choices that I can no longer make because they simply aren't available to someone at my stage in life. If I dwell on them, I feel a bit sad. I suspect some people try to grab something that serves as a talisman of those lost opportunities and cling to it for a bit, and this is the manifestation of their mid-life crisis.
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