Middle-aged people, what advice would you give a young person to avoid going through mid-life crisis later in life?

Don't spend your 20s and 30s becoming someone else's idea of successful and then wonder at 45 why nothing feels like yours

Build a life that actually feels like yours—keep growing, take risks you believe in, and don’t postpone living for “someday.”

Everything you want to do and everything you want to be is just on the other side of embarrassment. Don't be afraid to be bad at something, we all start somewhere.

Don’t get stuck only on work and money, try new things, grow hobbies and relationships, then by forty you won’t be asking yourself who you even are

Every decision you make can have life altering consequences later on. Watch your diet, exercise, money and mental health and constantly keep tabs on them all and generally speaking you should avoid most of the common pitfalls.

Really dwell on your mortality, and that death is coming and make peace with how quick that is happening.  20 turns to 40 turns to 60 so fast it’s insane.  

There is no midlife crisis, if your whole life is a crisis.

You need to be able to get things done

The things people associate with a mid life crisis are often just things those people have always wanted but can finally afford. Otherwise, live in the moment, don’t stress about things you can’t influence or control, keep learning, have goals, keep romance alive with your partner. Try.

Find your tribe. Don’t waste time with people who bring drama to your life or don’t fulfil you. Life is short and you won’t have enough time with those you love, so don’t waste time with anyone less. Life requires balance. Keep a healthy mind and a healthy body.

People have mid life crises because they aren't happy with some things about the life they have built. Spend some time working out what you want out of life, and then work towards getting it. What you prioritise and invest time in is going to decide what sort of life you have when you are middle aged. A good life takes time to design and build. In my twenties I massively prioritised career and work, and then in my thirties I found I was single, lonely, and unhealthy, so I changed my life. Now I haven't reached the career heights I might have, but I have an awesome wife and family and I live in a great place, and I don't want to change so much about things.

Priotitize your fitness and finances. Develop the habit of exercising and eating well so that you remain healthy and attractive in your later years.

Don’t be in a hurry to get married, have kids or a career. Enjoy yourself. Live alone, travel, try new things.

Save money, and as much as possible, even if it hurts,... save money

Get on with it now. Whatever it is. Have a listen to Time by Pink Floyd, it explains nicely.

1: try stuff. Your 20s are the time in your life when you have the fewest adult responsibilities, and the most energy to enjoy it. You'll probably not have a lot of money, but that just means you should take advantage of all kinds of c****/free stuff to do. When you're older and have kids/a career/bills, free time is a lot more precious. 2: There's a lot of cumulative health stuff that's no big deal when you're 20 that will catch up to you later and can ruin your quality of life. Take care of your teeth, wear sunscreen, learn how to eat healthy, and don't f*** up your knees. 

Don’t have kids too early

Avoid shame, guilt and regret by learning to forgive yourself.

Save money but don't forget to live. One day at a time.

Mid-life crisis is a rite of passage in life. You cant evade it. How you handle it is what matters

Most people don't regret the things they did, they regret the things they didn't do. If you want to travel then travel, if you want a cool car then get a cool car, if you want to learn an instrument or a new language then do it. Find an exercise activity you enjoy and do it to help stay in shape because its a lot harder to get back in shape later. Stay in contact with people you care about, don't let those relationships slip away.

Don’t ever lose touch with your inner child. Find joy in the little things and do the things that feel “whimsical” to you. We become so jaded as we get older and we forget how to do those things.

1. Stretch 2. Stretch 3. No, honestly, stretch

You'll probably end up going through a mid-life crisis no matter what you do because a mid-life crisis is about questioning the choices you made that brought you to where you are today. However, if you want to avoid getting yourself completely screwed over in your mid-life years, you should: a) Either never get a credit card, or always pay off the balance the same day you spend on your credit card. b) Don't do drugs. c) Take school seriously, get good grades, and pursue post-secondary education that will result in good employment, whether that's a trade or a degree. Don't pursue post-secondary education that isn't going to result in a career unless you have the money and can just take courses for fun. (Alternately, if you go to university: your major is for your career, your minor is for your hobby.)

Go out meet ppl, even if you dont like it.

No one really knows what they're doing. Life can be mapped out perfectly and still feel wrong. I don't have advice but the most powerful emotion I have felt is that there comes a time when the things you thought you could achieve become impossible. The feeling of there being no more time to do that is quite destructive. An example for me. I bought a flat in London when my kids were one. It's fine, nothing to complain about. But I started to think how nice it'd be to be somewhere quieter and a garden for them to run around it. Something I could probably achieve in 5 years. But in 5 years they'll be 11. I've already missed the chance for them to be toddlers in the garden. The ship has sailed. There's no redos. Like I said, nothing is bad exactly, I just had this expectation that never materialised

You really don’t want to be dating in midlife. The pool is much larger when you’re younger. Don’t spend your 20s and 30s fooling around too much. I took some amazing partners for granted and let them go.

Get rid of anyone in your life that is stressing you out, making you doubt yourself, or keeping you up at night wondering why they said or did something to hurt you.

die young

Even if it's just $25/month, invest. So many people, at their mid-life point, come to the realization that they'll never be able to afford to retire. Compound interest is a powerful thing.

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Don’t stress the small stuff, focus on what actually matters.

Plan your finances early

Travel, party, study/ make a living , have a passion like job, sport or music, talk to family/friends or even strangers as often as you can or compliment them, socialize. These things will get less and less as older you get, so build a base you can build on, don’t waste time sitting at home or infront the tv..

Actual friends want the best for you. If you have to question if this is true about any of your friends, then they aren’t your friend.

Don't let people tell you it's a midlife "crisis", it's a midlife evaluation

Don’t build a life that only looks good from the outside. Build one that actually feels good when you’re alone with your thoughts. Take care of your health early, not when it starts slipping. Stay close to people who make you feel seen, not just successful. Don’t chase things just because everyone else is, figure out what genuinely matters to you. And most importantly, don’t postpone living. Mid-life crises often come from realizing you spent years being who you were “supposed” to be, instead of who you really are.

Have an existential crisis when you’re younger and get it over with.

Live with abandon while you’re young. Seriously. Get all the crazy out of your system and you won’t be that sad old person acting out all the things you should have done when you were in your 20s. Because it is just not the same

Take time to find the right job, partner, friends and home (location). Don’t just accept what’s right in front of you, there’s an entire world out there and you can get everything you want if you put in the effort.

Take care of your teeth

Start taking action now to actively work to improve your mental health. The more you are able to understand the limiting beliefs that were imposed on you by your parents and the education system, the more likely you are to make course corrections along the way before you decide to blow up your life with the babysitter or get a toupee

Keep at least one friendship that has nothing to do with work or your partner's social circle. People let those connections fade in their 30s because life gets busy, and then at 45 they realize every person in their life is either a coworker or someone they met through their spouse. Having even one friend who knew you before all of that keeps you grounded.

Experience life while you can. Travel. Make mistakes. Try to fill your life with as many experiences as you can. Don't fall into the trap of working your whole 20's in anticipation of a big trip in your 30's. Your 30's will see the big shifts - friends have kids, full time jobs, responsibilities. You will likely have similar obligations by that point. You get one major opportunity in your life to be young, wild and free. Take that chance and you'll remember it fondly forever. Let it slip past and you'll fear losing your youth and no longer having those opportunities. Que mid life crisis.

Don't spend every waking hour wringing your hands over who is the sitting President.. Control the Controllables.

There is nothing you can do to prevent a phase of life crises because it is less about what you do in life more about your own phase development in life. Just don't try to stop having a crisis. Crisis is a way to process changes and experiences for you to grow and move on to your next phase of development and life. Just face it and let it do its work, you will deal much better and come out way better from it. If you try to stop it, you are interrupting your real overcoming of it and self development. You may do all things correct and perfectly but life still will always be about experience changes and phases, unless you can stop time (not mature).

Take care of your body consistently. Get to a healthy body weight and maintain it. Lift weights regularly even if it’s 15-20 min. I found that’s an amount of time I have zero excuse in making each day to lift some dumbbells. Get regular cardio to get your heart pumping. Even if it’s just walking. Get solid sleep every night. Brush 2x and floss every day. Watch some YouTube videos so you know how to do those properly. I found I was using my electric toothbrush wrong and not flossing right at some point cause no one really teaches you. If you build those things into daily/weekly habits you’ll most likely age gracefully physically with less health problems down the road. You only have one body to use your entire life. Might as well take care of it so it can last as long as it can. Same with retirement funds. Get into the early habit of consistently putting away a bit each month/year. Eventually work towards maxing them out when possible. It’ll compound over time and leave you in a much better place come retirement.

This might seem like a bit of a disjointed list, but I think there's really a bunch of stuff you need to do to be happy with where you land later in life. - Find a hobby or hobbies that you can get really stuck into (something that'll challenge you, and is unrelated to your job). Ideally, something that requires you to socialise and interact with other people - Learn a second language, if you don't have one already - Get into the habit of exercising and looking after yourself, and stick to this religiously. Finding some kind of exercise that you actually enjoy will help massively with this - Learn how to leave work at work, and never give it a more important place in your life than it deserves - Steer clear of drugs and be disciplined about alcohol consumption (kick it entirely if that's too hard. It's not really worth it) - Live actively, make decisions, and don't just drift along through life - Maintain the friendships you want to keep, and know that sometimes it's okay to let people go

If you continue to drink alcohol like you are on Spring Break, 20-30 years from now, you might have a major addiction. It’s all fun until you can’t stop, and your face looks like a swollen block, and your athleticism diminishes, and you can’t handle everyday stressors. Alcohol is poison, switch to Cannibas.

If you constantly pivot and change things up every few years and try new things you're less likely to have that midlife crisis.

Don’t tie your happiness to just one thing career, relationship, or image. Build multiple sources of meaning so you’re never starting from zero when life shifts.

Be adventurous. Do things outside of your comfort zone.

Cultivate great friendships, share and talk about moods, feelings, and thoughts. Go on trips. Midlife crisis are about the concept of somehow missing out. So don’t miss out. And I’ll say it again, go on trips and travel.

It's all just a matter of dealing with mortality. It's not something few people really get away from, it's just people deal with it differently. Having a crisis is not a bad thing. It is just a thing that happens. It's thinking you're on the right trail, then realizing you're lost at the moment when you don't know how far you'll have to backtrack in order to find your way again. Everything you do now might feel "right", and you may not realize you were completely wrong until 10+ years in the future. A lot of people think they are on track until they are overwhelmingly not. The point of a crisis is to find resolution in who you are. It is clean-up work. Some people don't do any self work - they avoid dealing with it for so long, there's a buildup of garbage that eventually collapses under its own weight and it becomes an unavoidable mess that's usually much messier to deal with now than it was back when it was manageable. Working on yourself is not something you do once, succeed at, then retire. There are always new assignments. Life comes at you in cycles. You don't know how many opportunities you will get in life. You rarely find out which opportunity was the last. The number is different for each person. The challenges are not equally distributed among us. Be curious, be cautious, be humble, be brave. Question, explore, take informed risks without gambling, accept and own up to your mistakes, try to widen your knowledge instead of trying to verify your claims, don't step down to insecurity but challenge it with new questions, face fear.

I don't think anyone avoids mid-life crisis. One part is for many people that they don't like their choice of job, or choose something that others expected of them.  But the other part of mid-life crisis is you clearly begin to understand that you will leave this place and everyone you love. And there is no escaping that fact.  Also it's more or less proven that mid-life crisis hits everyone across the globe. No matter the social status or gender. 

Life goes really fast. Don’t waste it.

Have fun exploring different interests and people in your 20’s. Travel. Take care of your body-eat nutritious foods and exercise because you love yourself, not to look a certain way. Learn to really love yourself and accept yourself. Get some therapy and deal with your childhood shit. This is the stuff I see people my age struggling with.

Go for your dream job early. Specialise in that thing. Don't waste your years earning money doing some BS.

toss out your "goals" and replace them with something not based on money or power. Most mid-life crises come from reaching what is supposed to be a landmark age and not be at the goal you set for yourself at 18. Roll with the punches and continually redefine your own idea of success.

Be intentional with your choices instead of just following what everyone else expects.

Don't confuse contentment with boredom. Don't confuse drama with excitement or happiness. Many people have a mid-life crisis because they have finally gotten their life to a comfortable place, and it's such an alien environment after 30+ years of drama that they can't handle it. So they blow it all up because they don't know what else to do.

I am in my 20s and i am glad i saw this post.

It's better to give your passion your all and fail than it is to try and hedge your bets. It's better to know for sure that you couldn't make it work than to be able to have the regret of thinking that if you'd only tried a little harder lingering in your head.

Don't treat milestones as a checklist. Constantly reassess your happiness, and make decisions NOW for the long term. That may mean ending a romantic relationship with a high-school sweetheart, or changing careers. Too many people stop trying, or just "hope" things will get better. You aren't expected to get everything 100% right the first time. Leaving an unhappy situation may seem stressful, but it's always worth it in the end as long as you prioritize being happy.

Don’t get married too soon, make sure you know yourself and what you want and that your partner fits your plans

Stretch 🙂

Don’t build your whole life around what you think you’re “supposed” to do. A lot of people wake up later realizing they followed a script they never actually chose. Career, relationships, lifestyle, all of it. Check in with yourself every so often and make sure you actually like the life you’re building, not just that it looks right from the outside.

Dont get married

Learn simple investing. Index fund, 401ks, etc. Pay more now and let compound interest take off. You’ll have more money later if you pay at 20 then start at 40

Just accept that it is going to happen and don't stress about it. Having fun or enjoying new things when you are middle aged is not necessarily a bad thing

You will not get a price for living the life that's expected of you. Your price is getting ignored, if anything. You'll just be sad and bitter when you're older if it's not what you really want.

Don't worry, you won't be able to afford a midlife crisis. Buying a flashy car and doing things you wanted to do when you were young always had more to do with achieving economic independence than getting old. Millennials aren't really having midlife crises because we can't afford 'em. And for Zoomers, it's going to be even worse. 

Don’t get married

Gonna be honest. My midlife crisis was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Turned me from a pushover into a raging self confidence machine. I lost 60 lbs. Smoked a ton of pot. Bought a 2nd house because I could and am turning it into an airbnb. Did some therapy and am doing SOOOO Much better.

Therapy. I swear the only reason my parents are coasting through later life was an active & proactive interest in their mental health & their relationship. Also friends, never rely on just a partner, and hobbies separate from your spouse 🩷

I spent my 20s living abroad. Having a fantastic time. Travelling, drinking way too much, playing sports, hiking, amazing trips, amazing food. FANTASTIC memories. Now I am in my 30s and I wish I had put more effort in to my work. Take time to enjoy your life, but ensure you have a stable and advancing career! Also, make the gym a strict part of your life multiple times a week. Focus on core and ensuring your body is as pliable etc as possible. Man my knees and back are fucked, which really sucks when playing with my kids on the ground for hours!

Don’t get married to someone you meet when you’re young.

Choose a career path that's meaningful to you in some way and go for it. Because if you don't choose one, life will choose one for you and the chances are you will end up stuck in jobs you don't even remotely enjoy. Oh and yoga. Your future joints are screaming at you to take up yoga today. 

As a young adult, I spent way too much time worried about being the person I thought I should be instead of being the person I genuinely was. It wasn't until midlife (my 40s) that I finally realized how stupid that was. In other words, the more true to yourself you are as a young adult, the less jarring midlife will be. That's my theory, anyway.

Explore who you really are and why you experience life the way you do, go to therapy early on and work through your issues so that they don't blow up in your face decades later.

Stau true to yourself.

If I will die at 69 does that mean I'm middle aged at 35 ? Of so I've avoided my mid life crisis Not really an answer I'm just wondering 

Midlife crisis can mean different things in conversation. There is the review of life people will often make and that can be positive. When you suddenly realize you do not have infinite years ahead it is good to take stock. But there is also a true mental health dysfunction known as "midlife crisis depression". Having lived through my ex-spouse's I would call it a "midlife crisis psychosis". I don't know what can prevent that. I would imagine taking care of your mental health all through life could help and don't turn to self-medicating with marijuana or alcohol.

Stay curious, be kind and have the healthiest relationships you can. Don't obsess about what you can't control, affect what you can.

Don’t build your life around other people’s expectations you’ll wake up lost.

Just be focused, whatever you want to do , do it now later only regret left

It may not be avoidable, however, you can lessen its impact by continuously looking for ways to improve your life and to add to it. When the 20s and some 30s are about partying it up with friends, but overtime friends go different paths and you don't have the physical ability to party like that any more, having other things to lean on can make you not feel like all the good times are gone.

Take care of yourself first, work on yourself , don’t rush, invest, take care of your family . Seems like you are on the right path already

You may be underestimating the power of surrounding yourself with good friends, family, and pursuing a life that excites you. Wealth and someone else's idea of success don't matter all that much. It's okay to have goals for the future, but look for the real pleasure in the journey

I’d say try to learn how as much of the physical world around you actually works.

Develop yourself as an individual. So many people throw their identity into their work or children that they have no sense of themselves. Then they wake up at 40 and realize they have nothing about themselves that's interesting or uniquely theirs. Cultivate your own identity. Indulge in hobbies and have your own interests.

I don't think there's anything one can do to prevent it

Take care of yourself first, work on yourself , don’t rush, invest, take care of your family

Take care of yourself first, work on yourself , don’t rush, invest, take care of your family

Get yourself psychotherapy before you reach that age

Make mistakes, you will regret not taking the risks that lead to them

I dont think you avoid a mid life crisis. Its a reflection on mortality and how fast life is. The best advice is live well, do things you want to do while you can. In some respects it can make middle age feel even worse as you know some of that awesome stuff is behind you

Be nice.

stay curious always

Go broke on a stupid hobby now.

You are way more capable than you know, and many many people are less capable than you think.

Im a 42 year old dad, getting a divorce.    I bought a sports car and and a spotify membership and started listenibg to current music,  lost 90 pounds and upgraded my wardrobe.   Mid-life crisis, no doubt.   My friends and coworkers think ive lost my mind.   But, at 40+ you dgaf as much what others think.  Im going full mid-life crisis.  Embrace the mid-life crisis and have fun!  Its not so bad

Care less about things. Realize that all people are also as primarily self-interested as we all are and you will be less hurt or surprised by it when they fail you for their own self-interests. I have helped 3 family members die slowly as their primary care giver. First my mother with cancer. Then her mother with Alzheimer's, and now my father with some sort of dementia he still tries to hide or deny. Doing this shows you what I first mentioned on a daily basis.

Don't get married too young. Live on your own for awhile. Travel. Have fun. If getting married and settling down does not sound like what you want, don't give into peer pressure and parental pressure. Live life on your terms.

Be your true, authentic self. Screw what anyone else thinks. If people don’t like it, that’s on them. Also, time flies by so fast. It feels like I was in my early 20s 5 years ago, but in reality, I’ll be 41 in a little over a month.

Why avoid a mid life crisis?  For 1: it lets you know when the half life is For 2: you can understand what problems you have For 3: you get to experience how ypu would approach a crisis Have fun in your red miata!

Gym is not a competition or a race, it's a marathon. I know so many guys that injured themselves from it going too hard too fast and their bodies have never recovered. The guy next to you might be able to lift much more easily. But everyone starts from somewhere, even if others start near the top. Don't be afraid to go super light to get the form right and feel the right muscles used in the exercise.

Find a good therapist and actively work on yourself. Take up meditation. A healthy mind will get you through a lot.

Invest money wisely and don't gamble on the stock market. Nowadays, youngsters fall for the stock market gamification. Learn corporations don't have your best interest in mind.

Stay poor

nothing, they ain't gonna listen, lol

Build boring systems early: sleep schedule, automatic savings, and regular health checks. Crisis hits harder when your basics are unstable.

Don’t let the sunk cost fallacy get you, if you hate your career path or don’t feel fulfilled in your relationship, do something about it. Leave, change, grow.

Contribute to your 401k as soon as you are able. Max it out. Your future self will thank you.

stretch with deep breaths in the morning, eat well and stay hydrated, take care of your teeth, and for the love of god stay away from hard drugs.

Don't sacrifice yourself for other people especially when it comes to a job.

Read the Big Leap by Gay Hendricks. Learning to listen to your "yeses" and "nos" was life changing. Edit: To say that the audiobook is even better, Hendricks is a wonderful storyteller.

Make time for travel and experiences. Prepare for the future but don’t let worry and fear overtake your willingness to take risks or to pass up opportunities.

Don’t get married and/or have a kid right away. If you don’t get to live your life before doing these things, you’ll just want to do them later and you may feel like you missed out.

Stay true to yourself and adapt when things do go as planned. Life is a wild ride and some things are just out of our control. Listen to your heart when important decisions need to be made and don't expect that everything that you loved as a young person will be fulfilling 10 or 20 years later. Some will but some stuff you just outgrow

Don’t build your entire life around one thing job, relationship, or identity because when that shifts, you feel lost. Build a life with multiple sources of meaning so you’re never starting from zero.

You already know what you want your life to look like but you’re not listening to yourself.

spent my 20s chasing a career I picked at 17 because a guidance counselor said I "seemed like an accountant." I'm 43 now and just started painting. start the weird stuff NOW while your knees still work.

45 here: Debt is a trap. Pay it off every chance you get, or better yet, never take it on. You will be finically much more secure later in life even if you aren't monetarily driven. Also, if there is any vice I would say all young people should avoid, it's gambling. Not for any moral reasons but mostly for everything I said above.

Be authentic, deal with your trauma.

Die young

Don't avoid your midlife crisis, manage it and temper it with common sense. I'm about to hit 40 and I told my wife I am having my midlife crisis. She asked what I needed, simple a manual drive JDM import car to have something fun to drive, work on and make mine as a forever car. So now we are saving to get a import, a station wagon with room for the dogs but also sporty and cool in my opinion, and costs under 25k all said and done. The thing I found that helps the most is making a step by step process, it's okay to let it take time and sort through your feelings about it, while using the objective so ease your stress, as it gets closer inch by inch. That's me though, it's important to also remember your partner is going through this too and include them into your thoughts and feelings while you unpack this stuff.

Start stretching now. Trust me.

stop chasing a fantasy version of yourself!

Have a nervous breakdown in your 20's. This is kinda a joke but also 100% accurate. People that have a break when young, typically avoid having a mid life crisis. I don't remember where or what study I read that showed that, but I am also living evidence of it.

Surround yourself with healthy people. Build good daily habits and create realistic daily goals 

Stop treating your hobbies like they need to eventually become profitable side hustles. I burned myself out in my thirties turning everything I enjoyed into a productive project. You need to keep doing things purely for fun, even if you're terrible at them, because losing the ability to just play is what leads to that mid-life emptiness.

Find a quality therapist and start working through insecurities, childhood trauma, and literally any other issues that hold you back. I can’t recommend this enough.

Nip people pleasing in the bud.

You do you. All the time. The people that fit in the mold of your life will fall into place. If they don’t, then they don’t belong. Stop worrying about that thing that happened years ago. No one is thinking about it except you and if someone is still hung up on it, they are a loser. Who needs people stuck 10-20 years in the past. If they are stuck there, they weren’t along with you for the ride. Learn basic skills. Be diverse. Don’t stop trying to improve yourself. If you are a man, learn how to sew, clean, iron, do dishes. If you are a lady, learn how to use tools, learn how a car works. Don’t be dependent on anyone else. There are YouTube videos to help you learn. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. You are going to make a million of them, but those are just practice for when something really counts. Talk to people. Build relationships. Absolutely no one is an island, and you will need people at some point and for some thing. Expanding on that, when it comes to people close to you, be reliable. Don’t get used and abused, but when you say you’ll do something, be honest and earnest and do it. Be financially responsible. Just because you can BUY something doesn’t mean you can AFFORD it. Oh you make $1500? Have a $1000 car payment? What about when you need $800 new tires but the rent is due and you need to eat? Being frugal will get you farther than you think. Turn your devices off and unplug every once in a while. The internet is not a real place, and whatever happens online 99% of the time doesn’t reflect what is happening anywhere around you. The doom and gloom machine in your pocket is tailor made to tell you exactly what you want with algorithms, and doesn’t necessarily reflect reality. Nearly all “news” is just rewired and reworded whataboutism. Thanks to AI, don’t believe it unless you see it or hear it first hand. Even from your best friend in the whole world. Too many people are being removed from reality by the liars and storyweavers of the world and it’s getting harder and harder to spot fakes. This is what “they” want. It gets harder for us to question their shitty lives and behaviors if it can be dismissed as “AI slop”. This is all by design. These things may or may not seem pertinent, but they will help soften the realization that we are indeed aging. My body and time in this earth is middle aged, but my mind still thinks I’m a young healthy, spry 20 something.

Invest in yourself. Take up a hobby and invest in it. I firmly believe the mid-life crisis thing comes from making your job your entire identity.

Women need to start studying up on perimenopause by the time they reach their mid-thirties, to know what to look out for. Many older women only talk about hot flashes and that's it. Hormone imbalance can make middle age brutal, especially for those caring for both children and parents while working full-time.