You hear so much about the infamous 'mid-life crisis'.....Well, I think that there is a far worse potential crisis that comes about 10 years after that...
This is coming from an 'aging baby boomer'...
It is a combination of things...or at least can be...mainly an ominous feeling that even your 'mid-life' is -- or has -- slipped away on you and you haven't accomplished anywhere close to all the things that you wanted to accomplish by this time period...For those of you in this age group who are still 'on top of your game' -- at the top of your 'power level' -- this probably won't apply to you...But for those of you who may have experienced a recent professional, economic, finanical, health, and/or relationship 'crash', or simply not attained the more 'lofty' status that you expected of yourself from this time period....well, this combined 'post-mid-life-existiential-and-ego crisis' can be -- harsh -- 'dis-evolving' into very high levels of self-criticism, self-berating, even self-hate...
Not the type of 'dialectical self-talk' that inspires a 'return to the higher levels of self-confidence needed for good performance in any job, career, or activity' which in turn sets up a 'Catch 22' of low levels of confidence leading to bad performance which in turn leads to even lower levels of self-confidence...and worse performance...
You can start with a 'sense of humor' to help break the 'self-destructive cycle'...
Being able to step outside of yourself and laugh at yourself, not berate and debase yourself for self-behavior that you find totally intolerable...is a good first step for turning things around...
I know of one CEO of a large company who was 'fired' or 'downsized' because of corporate losses, who still managed to hook up with a very good contract job at one of Canada's leading banks...But the contract was only for a year although I think he'd been offered an extension, and there was more stress brewing in his personal life, an affair, leaving his wife, trying to support two families at the same time, with two adult children from his marriage in expensive university programs...He economically and emotionally 'caved in' under all the stress, moved back home to his wife, and wasnt' home a month when he had a massive heart attack a week after Christmas and was dead...at 49.
Sometimes you just have to be able to 'step away from it all and look for that fresh new perspective that is going to turn you back in the right direction'... Your personal health should always come first because without your health you have nothing but a one way ticket heading for the morgue.
Laugh at your predicament if that is what you need to do...don't let anyone else hold the keys to your health...or lack thereof....Good personal judgment as to what makes you healthy and happy generally has to come from inside...
I still feel horrible about the man dying at 49 who I knew but who wasn't really a friend, as with my sister-in-law dying at 39 from 'crack abuse'...and wish that I could go back in time to offer some sort of friendship or meaningful statement that might have turned their lives around before it was too late...
In the end, once you have given an effort, you can't live someone else's life for them, as they can't live yours...
If you are 5, 10 or 15 medications a day, you are probably not on a good path...but what do I know...'your doctors knows best'... I can only choose for myself...
My 'health' credibility is not great. Herbs, if you are not careful and moderate, can create trouble too. I've been like an 'amateur biochemist' playing with different types of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbs in my own body...
Whether you are a doctor or an amateur layperson like myself, when you start to seriously 'play around' with the 'balance and the wisdom of the body', you are quite likely looking at increasing trouble...The more you do it, the more you risk dangerous potential side effects...
Deciphering 'causes' and 'side effects' can be an 'interpretive crapshoot'....Nietzsche's skeptical epistemology has some value here: 'There are no facts; just interpretations.' -- Nietzsche.
I would re-word this: There are facts but built from facts are a wide possible assortment of conflicting interpretations -- like how you see different politicians interpret the same statistics in completely different ways. And from these conflicting interpretations come an equally wide array of conflicting value judgments. All from the same 'facts'.
What 'caused' or 'causes' what? Your theory or ideology becomes critical -- the type of 'philosophy and/or ideology glasses' that you see the world through -- and your 'righteous-narcissistic bias' based on the particular type of 'ideology glasses' you wear -- Are you a Capitalist? A Conservative? A Socialist? A Liberal? -- will mean everything in terms of determining type of 'causal analysis' you lay on the scene before you.
Obviously, my 'philosophy-ideology glasses' I lay before you to interpret and judge for yourself.
Better that these philosophy-ideology glasses' are as transparent as possible rather than laying in the weeds, hidden from your awareness, ready to jump out and pull a fast one on you...
The worst part of Capitalism is the psychology of manipulation and exploitation.
This I call 'Narcissistic' as opposed to 'Ethical' Capitalism. The difference is important.
My 'Post-Mid-Life Existential Crisis' is based on a lot of internal, self-based anger. But it is also based on a lot of 'Anti-Narcissitic Political and Corporate Anger' as well.
I need to sort out the difference and pinpoint accountability and responsibility where it deserves to be. I am not out to blame others for my own mistakes and my own lack of self-marketing skills. But I AM out to put Political and Corporate Blame where it deserves to be.
Making this distinction properly -- again -- is important.
It is an imperative part of my ongoing philosophical and writing process here.
'DGB Philosophical Therapy' if you will.
-- dgb, Sept. 27th, 2010.
-- David Gordon Bain,
-- Dialectical Gap Bridging Negotiations...
-- Are Still in Progress...
