The psychologist: This is how you get through the quarter-life crisis
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Loading... - Helena Foster
- 09 Sep 2022
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The expert breaks down the 25-year-old crisis and gives you 7 tricks to get through it.
You've probably heard of the midlife crisis. But a similar crisis, which makes you question just about everything, can appear much earlier in life.
Maybe you're 18 years old and worrying about what's going to happen after college, 23 years old and regretting your choice halfway through university or 27 years old, living alone and inundated with pictures of weddings and babies. In your head are spinning thoughts like "have I made the right decision?", "will I die alone?" or "is this all there was?".
We've all been there.
The 25-year crisis, also called the quarter-life crisis, affects young adults and is more about where you are in life than how old you are. Therefore, you can get it regardless of whether you are 19 or 30 years old, explains Suzan Mobarke Hall, who is a registered psychologist at Mindler.
- The crisis often happens at a time when you are thinking about a direction forward, and it can happen at any time between your late teens and a little over 30. You think that everyone else has a set plan and that you are the only one who doesn't have one. But that is usually not true.
What is a 25-year crisis?
A 25-year crisis means that you feel locked in your life situation. Suzan Mobarke Hall likens it to the feeling of being stuck at a dead end.
- It can be about anything, but my experience is that it is often about the choice of education or professional orientation. Sometimes also choice of friends or partner, or a concern about not having found love. You feel dissatisfied or you feel that everyone around you seems so sure of their choices, while you yourself are unsure.
Precisely uncertainty and comparing oneself with others is something that is strongly marked by the crisis. You ask yourself "who am I and what do I want", without finding the answers, explains Suzan Mobarke Hall.
It is also common to compare how you thought life would turn out with how it actually turned out.
- If you imagined as a 12-year-old that you would be married, have children, a house and a steady career at 25. But then you are 25 and may not even have completed your education. Then a clash can arise that creates stress and confusion that it didn't turn out as planned. I think a lot of people can relate to that.
Just like the midlife crisis, the 25 year crisis is about stress, but rather about the stress of creating a life. Read More…
