When Men Go Through a Mid-Life Crisis…

21.05.2010 | By: A. B.

When men go through a mid-life crisis, professional help is often required.

A neurotic man is incapable of establishing a serious relationship with a woman and is therefore on the right track to experiencing the so-called male menopause. (PhotoXpress)

When men go through the fear of aging

It’s a known fact that men have problems with erection in their advanced age. However, this can’t be called the menopause, but a completely natural condition caused by their age. The male menopause, or if you like, the male climacteric, is something entirely different. It involves emotional problems of a man who’s afraid of his age, or who goes through the so-called mid-life crisis, meaning that he gets “tired” of self-confidence, fear of aging, fear of losing his status in the workplace and, of course, fear of losing his sex drive. As it usually involves a man who is still physically healthy and at the age when erection shouldn’t cause him any problems, we can say that he’s in the climacteric. Or more specifically, in an apparent climacteric that only involves mental disorders. The climacteric is the term denoting physical changes in women. The belief that only women are afraid of aging is wrong. Some men also have major problems with the condition and are afraid of loosing their erection. Their sex drive, their manhood. This is very typical of a neurotic personality, but that doesn’t mean it can’t also “attack” completely normal men.

Men go through the fear of losing their sex drive

Sex drive, or potency, is a man’s ability to perform in a sexual union with a woman. For that, he needs an erection, i.e. a rigid sex organ which, however, becomes slightly exhausted with age and doesn’t perform as well as in youth. Owing to the fear of impotence, many men suffer from psychogenic disorders that also lead to psychosomatic diseases. Such a man is no longer capable of clear thinking and also faces physical problems because of emotional ones. This, of course, creates additional stress for which he can’t find a solution. Or he’s convinced that his sex drive is lost and becomes depressed.

Men go through neurotic personality changes

If a man was a neurotic before the crisis period started, his problems are even more noticeable. Namely, a neurotic is a person whose personality, particularly at its core, also consists of neurotic traits, such as low self-confidence, insecurities, fear of performing tasks in life, low confidence in other people and, for instance, not being truly capable of enjoying life completely. Such a man is often in disagreement with himself and therefore becomes ambivalent, irritable, mentally unstable and depressed. This is clearly shown in a love relationship or a serious relationship, which later leads to a mid-life crisis and the aforementioned problems. It’s also an interesting fact that a neurotic man is afraid of both men and women and is therefore often incapable of establishing a long-term and serious relationship. This means he often changes women and finds life very superficial and is frightened of responsibility, which sooner or later creates problems for him also typical of men who have similar troubles as women in the menopause. In an extreme case of neurotic personality, a man can suffer from gynecophobia, meaning that he’s insecure in his relationship to women. The man is therefore frightened of a close relationship with a woman. He fears he’s too weak for the woman and she’ll control him emotionally so that he’ll lose his personality. The only solution is, off course, psychotherapy, i.e. professional help and a long-term treatment for his personality.

Let’s also mention that a mid-life crisis can’t be equated with the so-called male menopause, termed as andropause. This condition is caused by physiological and psychological factors. All men go through the mid-life crisis in one way or the other. Some very mildly, some roughly, but it's inevitable.