In 1900 the life expectancy in the US was 49. In 2026 life expectancy is about 80. We have almost doubled about adult life expectancy.
I share with my clients the idea that we now get two adulthoods: the first being 20-50 and the second being 50-80. The first adulthood we are hormonally programed by Mother Nature to mate and procreate to fulfill our evolutionary, biological obligations to our species, and then the second adulthood we are left in existential conternation about what do to with our second adulthood.
This transition from the first to the second adulthood has sometimes be called a "midlife crisis" and/or the "empty nest syndrome."
Extending the human life expectancy has been biologically very successful, but psychologically and socially brings challenges.
