Mid Life Crisis

Development according to Ifurnal et al (2021) is a cumulative and lifelong process. The truth
is, we know little about development in midlife. As a consequence, many misconceptions exist about
the nature of midlife, the developmental milestones, and challenges faced by middle-aged people.
The purpose to meet the unprecedented challenges and opportunities in the future is to re-
conceptualize midlife as a key period of life, with a concerted effort to focus on the diversity of
midlife experiences.
What is midlife? Clearly, there has been a huge missunderstanding about midlife, it is
actually in the age 40 to 60, plus/minus 10 years, people, on average, believed it begins at age 44
and ends at age 59 according to Lachman et al (2015). Then why, teenage nowadays felt like they
have been in this state of life we called “midlife crisis”? Or maybe in fact, it is really happening early?
What is actually made they think that they are in crisis? Hold up…

Veteran Gen (1925-1946)

Baby Boom Gen (1946-1960)
X Gen (1960-1980)
Y Gen (1980-1995)
Z Gen (1995-2010)
Alfa Gen (2010+)
Timeline of generations. Source: author’s construction (on the basis of Zemke et al., 2000)

According to the table above, the age 44 is in the X generation, But I as a “Gen Z” feel like
I've entered a crisis phase. Midlife crisis in X generation and mostly Y generation are happen because
they build connections online, they don’t likely to be socially active in real life. They often build
connections to someone they haven’t even met so they likely to feel early loneliness. While Z
generation are easily become anxious and disappointed. We (yes, “we”) sit at home waiting for
somebody to pay attention to us and to give a feedback that was often told by their parents (Tari,
2011). X generation can work together with Y generation for common goals, but Z generation wants
to achieve success alone (The Forum, 2016). Maybe that’s why we feel so much burden and
pressure because we want it all by ourselves, otherwise we failed. Sounds greedy enough right? But
at least we’re so competitive…
Now shall we described it down what types of crisis usually occur in the midlife phase?
According to Elliott Jaques (1965), a huge different in facing the midlife is that our life style and
productivity are change. We are facing our own limitations and ever-increasing salience of mortality.
Crisis in the midlife phase is the empty nest phenomenon. We find it hard to adjust when the
cultural, social, or personal norms are suddently different with our so-called-teenage life (Mitchell,
2006). One thing that comes to my mind is that we cannot forget how deeply people’s opinion about
us which make us take back all the decisions because we don’t think it’s good enough ‘according’ to
people. I mean who give a f? but, nevermind.
We also faced with juggling multiple responsibilities that may lead to overload and stress
when trying to handle it all. Antidepressant use and seeing a mental-health professional is highest in
the middle-aged compared to earlier or later in adulthood according to Blanchflower & Oswald
(2016). Consequently, we become more aware in order to survive by the sudden change and the
loneliness we faced.
This behaviour leads to more competitiveness which then affect the labor market’s volatile.
Labor market volatility had adverse effects on mental, physical, and cognitive health, and also affect
family relationships. I think we need flexibility in workplace because we’ll be more loose which can
promote health, well-being, and workplace performance for middle-aged adults.
Okay, so what do you mean by “affect family relationships”? Well, Family composition in
midlife according to Fry (2017) is that one third of middle-aged adults are unpartnered and one fifth
oh them don’t have children. I think it’s because we find it really hard to find someone who actually
clicked with us because we have faced big amount of competition which make it hard to believe
someone, which we called “trust issue”.
Those are some aspects that Iin my opinion greatly influence the occurrence of early midlife
crisis, from my poin of view as an “Gen Z”. There are many other aspects that I can’t explain because
of limited knowledge and experience of mind. But hopefully this written is enough elaborate your
curiosity. Thank you for reading!

Daftar Isi
Infurna, F.J., Gerstorf, D., & Lachman, M.E. 2021. Midlife in the 2020s: Opportunities and Challenges.
Am Psychol. 2020 ; 75(4): 470–485. doi:10.1037/amp0000591.
Lachman ME (2015). Mind the gap in the middle: A call to study midlife. RHD, 12, 327–334.
Zemke, R., Raines, C., & Filipczak, B. (2000). Generations at Work: Managing the Clash of Veterans,
Boomers, Xers, and Nexters in Your Workplace. New York: American Management
Association
Tari, A. (2011). Z generáció. Budapest: Tericum Kiadó Kft.
The Forum Generation Z report - A study into the next generation of workers (2016). Retrieved May
16, 2016, from www.forum.com.
Jaques E. (1965). Death and the midlife crisis. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 46, 502–514.
[PubMed: 5866085]
Mitchell BA (2006). The boomerang age Transitions to adulthood in families. New Jersey: Aldine.
Blanchflower DG, Oswald AJ (2016). Antidepressants and age: A new form of evidence for U-shaped
well-being through life. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 127, 46–58.
Fry R. (2017). The share of Americans living without a partner has increased, especially among young
adults. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center Retrieved from http://pewrsr.ch/2kG037Q