Middle-aged people can go into crisis, in both men and women. In reality, women are more likely than men to experience a midlife crisis. Although both sexes may experience a crisis at this stage in their lives, there are differences in the way symptoms manifest. 

Why do people experience midlife crisis?

People who live their lives fulfilling their dreams and with a purpose are less likely to experience a crisis in adulthood. A man or woman who can meet his own needs while at the same time meeting the needs of his partner should he have one, is likely to find the transition to middle age easy. 

Those who pay little attention to what they want out of life and more to caring for others are more likely to experience a midlife crisis. If your partner works a lot, spends most of his free time with his family and does not pursue a life experience outside the family nucleus, he will have apparent greater peace of mind, since he may be more likely to have a mid-life crisis.

If a woman takes care of children, cleans, works, and puts all the needs of others before her own, she is also likely to experience a midlife crisis. If you don’t have outside interests, you don’t have a career, and you don’t have dreams to fulfill, the crisis is also likely to come to you.

There is also the man or woman who avoids conflict. These kind people need to keep a tight grip on their emotions. They bury negative feelings and put on a happy face for decades. One day they blow and all those toxins come out and it is usually the couple and the marriage that suffer the most damage when the conflict avoider can no longer avoid them. 

Common differences between a male and female midlife crisis

Men

Men go through a midlife crisis because they reach a certain age and realize that life is passing too fast. Commonly, men in midlife crisis have:

• • Fear of the changes that come with aging

• • Fear of getting sick

• • Fear of being less attractive

• • Fearful of not reaching the goals they have set for themselves

• • Fear of dying

• • Fear of not feeling sexual passion  again

• • Fearing that your marriage partner was a bad decision

• Fear of being responsible for a family because it could retain your freedom

Women

Women, on the other hand, are often caught up in midlife crisis because they reach a certain age and finally have the opportunity to do all the things in life that they left behind while caring for a family .

• Her children have grown up, and all of a sudden she has the opportunity to do all those things that she gave up as a mother.
• She and her partner have worked hard, they are now financially secure, and she sees this security as her chance to explore all those things that she put on the back burner for a long time.
• She goes through menopause , which means both biological and psychological changes. The psychological changes that some women experience at menopause can cause them to question how they have lived their lives and whether they should make changes to improve them.
• You experience the empty nest syndrome and are left without direction or feelings of worthlessness. Children leaving the home can often lead a woman into crisis and cause her to change course drastically. 
• If you married young and had children early, you may feel a burning need to regain your youth by going out to bars, changing the way you dress, and returning to maturity. 

The stages of the midlife crisis

Most men or women go through the same stages during a midlife crisis:

1. 1. Shock

1. 1. Denial

1. 1. Depression

1. 1. Anger

1. Acceptance

Some go through stages easily, others will go back and forth between stages. Anyone going through a midlife crisis is experiencing an internal change that will either have a positive or a negative outcome. Any crisis is an opportunity for growth. If your partner is a person who can look within and use changes in a healthy way, both of you will benefit from their experience.

On the other hand, if your partner is not someone who can do an internal investigation and use the changes he is experiencing, then this crisis will be full of potholes and both are likely to suffer the consequences.