How to deal with the midlife crisis (Reissue)
Savvy Psychologist
Macmillan Holdings, LLC
4.6 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2026
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
113. This week, Savvy Psychologist Dr. Ellen Hendriksen channels her best Talking Heads and asks, on behalf of every middle-aged adult: "How did I get here?" Plus, Dr. Hendriksen explains why time seems to fly as we get older.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to Savvy Psychologist. I'm your interim host, Dr. Ellen Hendrickson, and I'm happy to say I'll be sneaking in a few more episodes before your new host arrives. |
| 0:10.7 | Today, I'm back with an oldie but a goody from the archives, because I often hear people talking about midlife, looking back at the first half of their life and wondering how they already got to this |
| 0:22.6 | point. And is it downhill from here? To answer that question, please enjoy this episode from |
| 0:29.0 | 2016, where I do my best to help you understand the mid-life crisis and why time seems to be |
| 0:35.3 | going so fast. And I'll see you next week with a brand new episode. |
| 0:44.0 | Hi, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of The Savvy Psychologist. |
| 0:49.0 | I'm Dr. Alan Hendrickson, and every week I will help you meet life's challenges with evidence-based research, |
| 0:55.6 | a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment. So this week, I'll channel my best talking heads, |
| 1:01.6 | and on behalf of every middle-aged adult, ask, how did I get here? Plus, why time seems to |
| 1:08.3 | fly as we get older. So the midlife crisis, while not an actual diagnosis, is enough of a cultural phenomenon |
| 1:16.4 | to instantly conjure up images of balding guys and impulsively purchased red sports cars, |
| 1:22.3 | or women of a certain age, getting nipped and tucked. |
| 1:26.3 | But while not everyone has a wine-soaked midlife crisis |
| 1:29.6 | accessorized within Ashley Madison account, there is certainly developmental evidence that middle |
| 1:35.3 | adulthood, defined as approximately ages 40 to 65, can be a difficult stage. So what is it about |
| 1:43.8 | midlife that is so challenging? Well, last week in our |
| 1:47.0 | episode about the quarter life crisis, we talked about Eric Erickson's psychosocial stages of development. |
| 1:53.6 | And guess what? There is a challenge for middle adulthood as well. It's the seventh of the eight |
| 1:59.0 | life stages, and it's called generativity versus stagnation. |
| 2:03.8 | And as the name implies, the challenge is to be productive, to give back through a career, to be |
| 2:09.6 | active in our community, raise good kids to send forth into the world, or otherwise care for |
| 2:15.1 | those around us. Anything that benefits others falls into the generativity |
... |
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