Why the millennial midlife crisis may be the most depressing of all
“If you’re a millennial and you’re going through your midlife crisis, this post is for you.”
So begins a viral TikTok video posted last month by comedian Mike Mancusi. Many millennials are now in their forties, with the youngest about to turn 30, putting the generation at the beginning of the unofficial age bracket when midlife crises traditionally hit.
But Mancusi argues that the millennial version is a singular experience.
For past generations, a midlife crisis followed a familiar blueprint: graduate college, climb the career ladder, get married, have kids, then—somewhere between roughly 40 and 60—confront mortality and blow it all up for a red sports car or a younger trophy partner.
That is not the case for millennials, many of whom missed those milestones due to economic and social upheaval during their formative years. In fact, according to a 2024 study from mental health platform Thriving Center of Psychology, 81% of millennials polled said they couldn’t “afford” to have a midlife crisis.
“Can you imagine having a midlife crisis while owning your home, easily paying all your bills, and saving for retirement?” one user commented on Mancusi’s post. “Like what?”
Mancusi suggests there’s another reason at play.
“Other generations’ midlife crisis has been built off of looking forward,” he says in the clip. “Ours has been built off of looking back.”
Where midlife crises were once triggered by a sense of fading youth, millennials are reckoning with something else entirely. “We look back and go, ‘Wait a minute, I was told to do all these things. I did them, and still I’m not happy,’” Mancusi explains. “And that is a way different crisis.”
The stability that previous generations found stifling rarely exists in the same way today. The social contract between employees and employers has fractured. Millennials who followed the prescribed path and climbed the ladder are now realizing that the stability and success they were promised is largely a pipe dream.
A majority of U.S. workers (60%) don’t have a “quality job” that provides basic financial well-being, safety, and autonomy, among other things, according to Gallup research. These days, 71% of millennial employees are not engaged or are actively disengaged at work, according to a separate Gallup report, and about 66% of millennials report moderate or high levels of burnout, according to a recent Aflac report.
“The problem for millennials is we listened,” one commenter wrote.
As another put it: “Our crisis isn’t mid-life, it’s existential.”
Mancusi’s recommendation for anyone who fears a midlife or existential crisis coming on: “You have to find something else to do,” he says. “I don’t know what you’re into, but you need to find that thing and build it into every single day, because that is what’s going to allow you to move forward in a way that you feel in control of and that you feel passionate about.”
In other words, instead of a sports car, get a hobby.