Juggling Doubt and Uncertainty with the Midlife Crisis Doctor Dr. Julie Hannan

Juggling Doubt and Uncertainty with the Midlife Crisis Doctor Dr. Julie Hannan

Dr Julie Hannan is a Psychologist in private practice in the UK helping ‘midlifers’ aged 35-60 find their value, meaning, and purpose in life as they traverse the tricky terrain of their middle years.

When both her children left home within 4 months of each other, she found that her sense of purpose reduced, her love for her clinical work diminished and she experienced a midlife crisis with an overriding sense of feeling lost. 

If you are living according to values you chose at the ages of 10-21 and haven’t reevaluated them since you’re in your 40s and 50s, you will be living inconsistently to what you value now and can have a midlife identity crisis! An identity crisis can happen at any age, but it is particularly prevalent in midlife. It feels like the life we are currently living has a misfit, and it’s hard to pinpoint which part of your life has been impacted and doesnt feel like you anymore. What triggers this identity crisis is a “profound loss”. A profound loss can be a range of things — a death, a relationship breakdown, or something more subtle like something you’ve dedicated time, love, energy, and attention to, but is now no longer part of your identity (for example: losing interest in your work, or loss of status, or loss of a role, even loss of looks, or losing your libido, etc.) A midlife crisis is a crisis of identity — and research suggests that 1 in 10 midlifers experience it.

Searching for information to support and understand what she was going through was thin on the ground — either too highbrow without practical tips to help, or too lightweight and full of cliches, again without a clear path to recovery.

Julie has spent years working with midlifers helping them to live the second half of their life in a more authentic, connected way and regaining a new sense of purpose. She has taken her experience to TikTok where her posts help and guide other people through their midlife crisis towards a fulfilling second half of life. Julie is proud to be publishing her book later this year which is full of information and practical tips and advice to overcome a midlife crisis. She says, ‘This is the book I needed when my crisis hit!’.