What are the crises of adult life?

At the age of 30, 40 or 50, adult life is punctuated by storms and brighter times. The body changes, of course, but so do values, concerns and the conception of existence. Experts tell us about it.

The age of tumult

If your twenties are the decade of exploration, trial and error, your thirties are the decade of choices. And since today we’re young longer, the milestone of 30 is considered the entry into adulthood.In your early 30s, most of the time, you’re in a committed relationship, you’re starting to put down roots, you have a job that’s right for you, explains psychologist Sonia Nadeau, who sees women of all ages in consultation. At work, it’s the decade of performance. You want to make your mark and you don’t spare your time or your strength. You are full of energy. The thirties are one of the most intense decades,” says Gilles Pronovost, professor of sociology and researcher at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. You start a family, you buy your first house, you start accumulating debts.

The age of doubts

According to psychologist Daniel Levinson, between the ages of 40 and 45, we experience the mid-life transition. Like a second adolescent crisis, leading to a second adulthood: middle age, from 45 to 60. On the one hand, you reap what you sow. “You’ve had your children, you’ve invested in your career, your children are older, you have more freedom,” explains Sonia Nadeau. On the other hand, the first signs of age appear. You are increasingly called ‘madam’. You can’t understand how you could have injured a tendon while trying to beat your opponent at tennis. And if you resist wearing glasses, you have to get a magnifying glass to read the small print. But this is also the age of the first doubts; things you used to believe in suddenly seem less certain. Friends or family members experience health problems. You start to realize that you are not eternal.