Jennifereckles

Hi Bodacious - You could be going through both... Not easy. I found this great site, best describing midlife crises - http://personaltao.com/taoism-library/midlife-crisis/signs-of-a-midlife-transformation....
So.. the menopause is hell -physical, hormonal (insanity) and midlife is also scary... read on. The one could trigger the orther - evidently....
Symptoms of Mid Life Crisis
The following is a list of symptoms that illustrate how defining a mid life crisis is truly relative to the person experiencing the changes.
1. Looking into the mirror and you no longer recognize yourself.
2. Desiring to quit a good job.
3. Unexplained bouts of depression when doing tasks that used to make you happy.
4. Changing or investigating new religions, churches or new age philosophy.
5. Change of habits. Activities which used to bring pleasure now are boring. Unable to complete or concentrate on tasks which used to be easy.
6. It feels good to get hurt.
7. Wanting to run away from everything.
8. A desire to get into physical shape.
9. Irritability or unexpected anger.
10. Change in allergies.
11. Desire for physical -Free Flowing- movement (Running, Biking, Dance, Fast red sports cars, Sky diving, etc).
12. Exploring new musical tastes.
13. Sudden desire to learn how to play an instrument.
14. Sudden interest in drawing, painting, writing books or poetry.
15. Shifting sleep patterns (Typically to less).
16. Thinking about death, wondering about the nature of death.
17. Changes to the balance of vitamins you take. Or taking dietary supplements for the purposes of extending life.
18. Extreme changes to what you eat.
19. Excessively buying new clothes and taking more time to look good.
20. Hair changes. (Natural changes in thickness, luster, color or Assisted changes in dying hair suddenly or shaving your head bald)
21. A desire to surround yourself with different settings.
22. Hanging out with a different generation as their energy and ideas stimulate you.
23. Restarting things, which you dropped 20 years earlier.
24. Upset at where society is going. Experience a desire to change the world for the better.
25. Feeling trapped or tied down by fiscal responsibilities.
26. Leaving (Mentally or Physically) family or feeling trapped in current family relationships.
27. A desire to teach others or become a healer.
28. Desiring a simple life.
29. Excessively looking back to one’s childhood.
30. Playing again just to play!
31. Keep re-asking yourself: “Where am I going with my life?”
32. Getting fixated on new “wonder” solutions to problems.
33. Recently experiencing something extremely stressful. Stress can trigger a Midlife transformation. Some examples include: Changing Jobs, Divorce, Death of someone close, Chemical/Toxic exposure upon the body or experiencing a major illness.
34. Doing things that get you into trouble when it surprises everyone as being out of character.
35. Someone unexpectedly exclaims: “You are going through a midlife crisis!”
Where do we start...? certainly worth strong investigation.