Coping with Midlife Crisis and the Truth About Male Menopause

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• Commonality: There is no exact number of people suffering from a midlife crisis, and estimates of how it spreads vary considerably.

Many treatment experts say that people who are still able to walk after their injuries are rushing into their offices, but a survey on the subject found that only 10% of American men experience midlife pain severe enough for them to call it a crisis.

Risk factors: work stress, family troubles, any kind of major change, lack of physical exercise, spiritual emptiness, fear of death.

• Affected age group: Different experts have different definitions of middle age, but it is generally considered to be between 35 and 55 years old.

• Gender differences: Middle-aged men do not experience the significant hormonal changes that middle-aged women undergo, but most men experience a more difficult period due to emotional issues.

• Seek help from your family: For health problems, consult a family doctor; for mental problems, consult a specialist; for spiritual comfort, consult a pastor, monk, gurus, or friend.

Career considerations

For men, the most difficult thing in middle age is dealing with disappointment in their career.

In his book "The Male Self," Dr. Wilard Gelling states that when men with the same level of education as us commit suicide (men are eight times more likely to do so than women), the majority of the time it is due to social stigma stemming from career failure.

"Reconstructing life goals" is one of the top priorities for middle-aged people, says PhD Gilbert Burim.

He is a social psychologist who oversees the Successful Midlife Research Network at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in Vero, Florida.

In his book, *How We Deal with Success and Failure in Life*, Dr. Brim recommends a three-part approach to re-evaluating one's career for anyone who has ever felt disappointed by the progress of their work.

Dr. Brim said that many of us set deadlines arbitrarily for ourselves and then become frustrated when we don’t achieve our goals within the allotted time.

The simplest solution to this problem is to postpone it.

"You can say to yourself, 'Okay, I didn't get rich this year, but I'll definitely succeed next year,'" Dr. Brim said.

Lower your expectations. This is another quick way to eliminate self-pressure.

Dr. Brim suggests setting your goal on earning $100,000 instead of $10 million, and buying a suitable seaside cottage instead of your dream 12-room Victorian house.

One of the signs of maturity in middle age is accepting imperfections.

If all other methods fail, Dr. Brim says, then give up on an impossible goal.

Accepting reality remains important for a successful transition into middle age.

Our goal is inner peace, not winning the game you've created for yourself.

Dr. Burim added that there are more people than you might imagine who are still dissatisfied even after achieving their goals.

For example, similar approaches are equally effective.

In this situation, the first solution is to find a new, more demanding goal to achieve; the second solution is to completely shift to a new pursuit.

"Linus Pauling is a shining example in this regard," said Dr. Burim. "After winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, he became a leader of world peace."

Fun Facts

Male menopause

The debate about whether so-called male menopause exists is said to be quite heated.

The content states that the decrease in testosterone in middle-aged men roughly corresponds to the decrease in menstrual flow in women at the same middle age.

Some have suggested that this hormone is associated with decreased overall energy levels, muscle strength, and libido.

Unsurprisingly, a wide variety of hormone replacement therapies have been introduced to the market, some of which claim to have rejuvenating effects on men.

These treatments are highly contradictory and have not been proven.

Dr. Lawrence Levine, director of the men's sexual health program at Rosch-Price-Betterlin-St. Luke Medical Center in Chicago, said that testosterone replacement therapy carries the risk of exacerbating both benign and malignant prostate hyperplasia.

There are also many questions surrounding the claim that healthy men need to increase their testosterone levels first.

"The cause is almost always discovered when testosterone levels are low," said Williams Hazard, MD, chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Wick Forest University's Bergman Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Serram, North Carolina.

He added that during a person's lifetime, when they are not sick, the decrease in testosterone levels is so slow that it is "almost undetectable."

Is the claim about male menopause accurate? According to Dr. Hazard and others, it's unclear.

Men experiencing mood swings and loss of libido should blame their own psychology, not their testosterone.

Mobile evil

Eliminate nausea

Most astronauts have forgotten the thrill of defying Earth's gravity while sitting in a rocket-powered spaceship; the only gravity they feel is the force of their mouthparts-an urgent need to dispel the intense nausea they experienced while traversing space.

Motion nausea makes about two-thirds of astronauts feel as if their space breakfast is about to fly out.

In fact, very few astronauts bring motion sickness bags onto the spacecraft for this reason alone.

"This motion sickness bag is a little different from the ones used on airplanes. If you vomit in it, you can tie the bag closed."

"Your crew members are very grateful for this," said Erin Horry, a NASA spokesman from the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Although the nausea experienced while traveling in space is physiologically different from the nausea you feel on Earth, it shows that we are prone to feeling nauseous whether we are on a road trip or exploring the limits of the universe.

"We weren't born on a sled, and most people weren't born on a ship either."

We were born on stable land.

"When we are placed in a dynamic environment, we need to make adjustments," said Christopher Senstrom, MD, chief of the Department of Otolaryngology, Neuro-otolaryngology, and Otolaryngology at the New York Eye & Ear Medical Center in New York City.

The disgusting truth about moving

Dr. Linstrom says there are two types of people: those who can make adjustments and those who cannot.

Only a very small number of people claim they have not experienced the discomfort associated with motion sickness, including dizziness, nausea, vomiting, cold sweats, and the urge to urinate, which is likely because they have not been exposed to the same amount and quality of stimuli.

Despite the prevalence of mobile nausea, many aspects of it remain a mystery.

Doctors don’t know why some people (especially women) suffer from nausea for longer and more intensely than others, or why some people are naturally less prone to nausea while others’ tendency to nausea disappears with age.

Movement nausea occurs when your body fails to adapt properly to an unfamiliar movement environment.

"People suffer from motion sickness due to a disorder, usually an inner ear disorder," said Dr. Linstrom.

Your inner ear contains a sensitive network of fluid-filled tubes and sacs called the vestibular system.

This system tracks your body's movements, helps you maintain balance, and tells your brain where your head is or where it should be.

Generally speaking, your inner ear is more sensitive to movement than your brain, which is why many people feel nauseous when reading in a car.

Focusing your attention on a fixed page, rather than a slowly moving horizon, stirs up an argument between your inner ear and your eyes.

They both sent conflicting information into their brains.

If you're still listening to traffic noise, feeling the bumps in the road, and still smelling gasoline, this mix of signals can make you feel particularly nauseous.