Читать книгу Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Workplace - Gill Hasson - Страница 25

People joke about the male ‘mid-life crisis’ and of men they know who have left their partners for someone much younger than themselves, or bought themselves a motorbike or a sports car. For some men, middle age makes them acutely aware that part of their life is over; they may feel they don't compare so well with younger family members and colleagues. They may either attempt to regain their youth or sink into a depression.

Although, as with any life stage, there are positive aspects to middle age, men too struggle, just as women do, with changes and challenges in life; mental health statistics and suicide rates for men certainly reflect this. (And some individuals who have transitioned from male to female may still experience difficulties specific to their gender identity, or original birth identity.)

You spend the first 20 years of your life running, running, running. You reach a point where you question if you can keep running like this for another 20 years.

Paolo Gallo

Emotional responses:

 Depression and anxiety

 Negativity, pessimism, and hopelessness

 Irritability

 Sadness for life that has passed

 A sense of needing to cram more into life – time is running out

 Suicidal thoughts/feelings.

How you might behave:

 Becoming withdrawn from friends and family

 May want to leave everything – partner, job, family, country, without thinking through the consequences

 Disengagement from work

 Spending more time at work as a displaced behaviour/anxiously avoiding relationships

 Becoming more selfish and self-centred

 Becoming more erratic and unable to think clearly

 Increased alcohol or recreational drug intake

 Eating more/less.