Society Debate: Of course yes!

Have you ever heard of adults who do impractical things like dumping their spouse, quitting their job or going for that hot sports car? Probably, they are in a midlife transition, a stage that very few, go through without turning into a crisis. “As people age, they do change, but how that change affects them depends on their personality. Some people go through a midlife transition pretty easily that it is not really noticed, while a big number has what is commonly called a midlife crisis.”—Weegy on Ask.Net. Swiss Psychiatrist Carl Jung, the first to identify midlife crisis calls the transition a “normal part of the maturing process. Most people will experience some form of emotional transition during that time of life. A transition that might cause them to take stock in where they are in life and make some needed adjustments to the way they live their life.” While some come through the midlife crisis smoothly, it’s complicated for others. Renowned Yale Psychologist Daniel Levinson says that midlife crisis starts at the age of 37 all the way to 60 years. Its not just a process, midlife crisis is a normal life changing event that bears positive or negative outcomes to the person undergoing it and the people around them. When the bells of midlife start ringing, maturing adults are reminded of what they never or, should have done in their past at a time when age was still in their favour. Ageing has always been an issue, but the trend comes to its extreme when people realize they are nearing their old age, retirement and certainly a boring life ahead of them. Midlife crisis is often awakened by major events in people’s lives, the likes of last born’s graduation or a ‘zero’ birth day announcement to the world that one is entering a new decade. These meant to be achievements instead bring adults to self evaluation and despise at times, an emotional crisis of what they have not achieved. Daniel Levinson confirms that every adult undergoes a midlife emotional crisis, however, it is their reactions that differ and make the difference. For example, men might gauge their worth by their job performance. They may want to look successful, for instance, even though their achievements don’t measure up as they had hoped. “Women often get validity through relationships,” Levinson says, and that’s true even if they’ve had a lifelong career. So at midlife, they are likely to evaluate their performance as a wife, mother, or both. Midlife crisis isn’t defined as mature adults messing themselves up, it’s rather a normal natural evaluation process that you, me and anyone approaching maturity will go through. Of course there are stereotypes of adults who go over board, to pursue anything that will bring them happiness. Midlife crisis extremism is usually influenced by registering failure in some parts of life. For instance, many men at this age are no longer sexually strong; they resort to chasing after thrice younger girls believing they might make a difference in their sex world. This explains the sugar dad and sugar mum business, to midlife crisis. Have you seen men clad in buggy teenage jeans hanging half way their buts or women around 40 dressing up in mini-skirts? Maybe they are going through midlife crisis. Midlife crisis is real and normal. It is one thing to become a year older and another thing to enter a new decade. Even Geography and History show major changes as the world embraces new decades. For instance, we only learn that the world was occupied by dinosaurs, but as decades went on, plants, trees and people came in. Likewise, man is not an island not to experience tremendous upsets or major changes as age comes in. Instead of denying midlife crisis yet it happens and has consequences, we should concentrate on ways of supporting our beloved ones through their midlife, without hurting them. After all it is just a period that graduates into someone accepting the fact of maturity in their life. lillianean@yahoo.com