Midlife crisis used to be for old guys, but young people today have got their own version: "quarterlife crisis." It is hitting twenty- and thirtysomethings shortly after the enter the real world.
Author Damien Barr said that a "growing number of 25-year-olds are experiencing pressures previously felt by those in their mid-forties":
"Plenty of people are going to say the quarterlife crisis doesn't exist," he said. "The truth is that our 20s are not, as they were for our parents, 10 years of tie-dye fun and quality 'me' time. Being twentysomething now is scary – fighting millions of other graduates for your first job, struggling to raise a mortgage deposit and finding time to juggle all your relationships.
"We have the misfortune to be catapulted into a perilous property market. We're earning more and spending more than ever. We're getting into debt to finance our degrees, careers and accommodation."
He added: "The Depression Alliance estimates that a third of twentysomethings feel depressed.
"If, as we're constantly told, the world is our oyster, it's definitely a dodgy one. Unlike the midlife crisis, the quarterlife crisis is not widely recognised. There are no 'experts' to help us. We have no support apart from each other."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1op6foLq3M
THAT is the crisis. The feeling of impending doom as your loan deferment date comes closer, the applications go out but no one answers, and you are in your mid twenties working your butt off but still living at home.
I answered pretty much no to every question in that video but I still liked it if only because they're ripping off the guitar intro of the acoustic version of The Beatles' 'Revolution' from the White Album. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqEd5URvyEk
I dunno, maybe the corporate rat race and the sacrifices you had to make to be able to participate in it is making you depressed. Which could happen any time in your life. Sounds a lot more sensible than this so called hand-wavy "quarterlife crisis" fluff story.
If the current generation of 20-somethings didn't have such an expectation of entitlement, I think we would never have heard of this 'crisis'.
By the time I was 25, I was 6 years into my first career, still going to college (multiple degrees) and had been working a full time job since I was 15 yrs old. All my friends busted their tails to find work, sometimes whatever work there was. We all had lived on our own since age 18.
There have always been layoffs - the economy has been bad for decades - you learn to adapt.
Life takes work - just because you finally have to move out of your parents house isn't call for a crisis...
Bob, you are out of your mind if you think that I'm going to believe that the economy has been bad for decades. I lived through the 90s, it was a great economical time. Just because you seem to be living beyond the bad economy doesn't mean its not bad for other people.
My husband and I bought a house the year before we got married, I had lived on my own since 18, he moved out at 19. We both went to college and found jobs in the field we had chosen. Then we were both laid off at the same time. We busted our ass to find any job that came along, and took anything we could find. Mcdonalds, Walmart, seasonal work. I resent the fact that you think that we just arent working as hard as you and your friends or we wouldnt be in this situation. We are living off of 7.75 an hour and you know what? It sucks. Good for you for being 6 years into your career at 25, My husband was too until the company went bankrupt and was disolved.
And to the people saying that our generation has an entitlement problem...For gods sake, your generation raised us telling us every day "do good in school, and you can do anything you want to do" and now its our fault because we grew up and get depressed when we realize our parents lied to us? Thanks a lot.