By Jacques Gauthier and Luc Adrian, Aleteia - Middle age is a period of transition, the end of a second adolescence, a crisis of desire when one becomes aware of the finiteness of life. It can play out differently between spouses but, whether it be the man or the woman, the symptoms are unmistakeable: a feeling of loneliness, disillusionment about your limitations and those of your spouse, doubts, lack of self-confidence, depression, lack of pleasure doing the things you’ve always done, indifference to life, ambivalence, difficulty knowing what you want, boredom, an awareness of death, and a great need for introspection.