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The quarterlife crisis is a term applied to the period of life immediately following the major changes of adolescence, usually ranging from the ages of 21 - 29. The term is named by analogy with mid-life crisis. It is now recognised by many therapists and professionals in the mental health field. The phenomenon has been identified in Japan as 'freeter'. Abby Wilner coined the phrase in 1997 and co-authored the first book to identify this phenomenon: Quarterlife Crisis, the Unique Challenges of Life in your Twenties (Tarcher, 2001). Damian Barr wrote the first British book to identify the problem and offer solutions based on extensive peer research: Get It Together: A Guide to Surviving Your Quarterlife Crisis (Hodder, 2004). A number of other books have since been written.

Emotional Aspects
Characteristics of this crisis are:

• feeling "not good enough" because one can't find a job that is at his/her academic/intellectual level
• frustration with relationships, the working world, and finding a suitable job or career
• confusion of identity
• insecurity regarding the near future
• insecurity regarding present accomplishments
• re-evaluation of close interpersonal relationships
• disappointment with one's job
• nostalgia for university or college life
• tendency to hold stronger opinions
• boredom with social interactions
• financially-rooted stress
• loneliness
• desire to have children
• a sense that everyone is, somehow, doing better than you

These emotions and insecurities are not uncommon at this age, nor at any age in adult life. In the context of the quarter-life crisis, however, they occur shortly after a young person – usually an educated professional, in this context – enters the "real world". After entering adult life and coming to terms with its responsibilities, some individuals find themselves in a world of career stagnation and extreme insecurity. This can be after a first job or straight out of college/university.

As the emotional ups-and-downs of adolesence and college life subside, many in the quarter-life crisis experience a "graying" of emotion. While emotional interactions may be intense in a high school or college environment – where everyone is roughly the same age and hormones are highly active – these interactions become subtler and more private in adult life. Nobody wants to admit to feeling like a 'loser' (especially not twentysomething men). This secrecy intensifies the problem. Barr identifies this as the negative flip-side of consumerist culture positing the qlc generation as 'Thatcher's children'.

Furthermore, a contributing factor to this crisis may be the difficulty in adapting to a workplace environment. In college, professors' expectations are clearly given and students receive frequent feedback on their performance in their courses. You progress year-on-year in higher education. By contrast, in a workplace environment, a person may be, for some time, completely unaware of a boss's displeasure with his performance, or of his colleagues' dislike for his personality. You do not automatically make progress. Office politics require interpersonal skills that are largely unnecessary for success in an educational setting. Emerging adults eventually learn these social skills, but this process – sometimes compared to learning another language – is often highly stressful.