He has trouble relating to his kids, and wonders if his life has any meaning anymore. His wife of twenty years has just divorced him, and he can't seem to fight the bouts of depression that attack him, especially at night. There is a common name for this widespread problem. Bob is having a mid-life crisis. As we learned at the beginning of our course, the most common view among psychologists currently is the life-span development perspective. This is why I decided to work with a topic that would most likely not have been studied 40 years ago. What exactly causes this problem, how it affects the relationships a person has with others, and whether it only affects men are all issues to be discussed from a look at some articles in several accredited psychology magazines. .
The first article is "Mid-life Crisis: Helping Patients Cope With Stress, Anxiety, and Depression". The article presents a fictional case report of a person the psychologists call John who cannot seem to escape from the "sandwich" of problems associated with his adult children and the needs of his aging parents. It also recommends methods of treatment for health physicians to treat the depression associated with this syndrome. John's family life apparently has been complicated by several factors. His wife died at an early age, leaving him a widower for several years. His children are not successful. His new mother-in-law has been taking away his and his wife's intimate time by interrupting them with rants caused by her progressing Alzheimer's disease. To top it off, he has begun to seek the help of sleeping pills to help him get the rest at night he cannot seem to find. The article states that, "[E]ven when environmental stressors seem to explain a patient's depression, it is important to search for underlying medical conditions" (Samuels, 1997). Common medical conditions that would present themselves as depression or anxiety include thyroid disease, infection, cardiac disease, pulmonary pathology, sleep apnea, pancreatic cancer, anemia, and stroke.
In this story, "Touching bottom", by Kari Strutt, swimming was used as a unifying device. The phrase "touching bottom" usually has a positive connotation. When related to swimming, touching the bottom makes the swimmer feel like the surface isn't too far away. In the story, when the narrator touch...
A midlife crisis is described as a "process of intensive transition of the self including the reinterpretation of time perspective, reevaluation of life's values and goals, confrontation with death as a personal event in the future, and planning for the second half of life" (Anderson 1). ... One of the most unambiguous signs of a mid life crisis is the confrontation of death as a personal event in the future. ... Lester acts with the same spontaneity and recklessness typical of men entering a midlife transition. ... Lesters acceptance of his own mortality and physical condition is anothe...
During this point in time her life became disorganized which relates to the stage where Gail Sheeny explains " others have a severe and stressful crisis." ... In addition to that I believe that she is next door to "Midlife Transition" because Gail Sheeny states that in this stage grown-ups dream of "helping to make the world better". ...
"American Beauty" starts off from a video camera point of view showing a girl lying down on a bed, as the movie goes on you find out later that it's the main character's daughter Jane. She is talking about how her dad acts around her friends and how she is embarrassed of the way he looks at them. ...
Divorce and Crisis Intervention Marriage is a significant relationship that represents love, belonging, security, and commitment. ... The emotional impact of divorce is considered to be a crisis second only to death of a spouse (Berry 1). ... It is suggested that positive coping mechanisms such as divorce groups, prayer groups, books, inspirational tapes, and a balanced diet will assist in eliminating stressful encounters (Midlife Crisis 2002). ... Children of divorce spend the majority of their childhood in a family crisis environment. ...
"If a person is older than you by a day, then that person is wiser than you by a year- (an old Arabic saying). At different ages people think and conceive things differently. These things could be life in general, money, love, relationships or trust. A person could look young, but from the way tha...
Kurt Vonnegut's Inspiration. Kurt Vonnegut, Author of the short story collaboration Welcome to the Monkey House, expressed two messages inspired by his siblings. As stated in his preface "No pain" were the last words of his dying sister and in a letter from his brother after he had his first c...
Past I was born in 1989 and, at that time, my father was 32. My parents had only one child as a boy, so they always wanted to have a girl. Especially my dad was happy about he finally got a girl. When I was growing up as a toddler and in early childhood, my father was always busy. He had just change...
With the passing of my father, I have been fortunate to inherit his fortune. As I travel deeper into my 40's, I have finally realized that I am not getting any younger. I work for New Line Cinema as an executive producer and I have produced some of the biggest movies in the last twenty years. Each o...
