DEVELOPMENTAL CRISIS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD: A ...

married with two children and was a high-ranking executive at a major bank, Ben was
a part-time academic, PhD student and was married, and George was single, gay, and
a full-time social worker.
Guy’s executive role for a bank meant that he worked fourteen hours a day, six
days a week. He had a wife and two children whom he rarely saw. He referred to it
as life in “the pressure cooker.” (p.4). He would frequently leave the house at six in
the morning, and not get back until midnight. He describes how he was “so locked in
to” (p.10) this life, that he could not conceive of an alternative. He says: “I was
taking headache tablets the whole time because I was under constant pressure. I was
going a million miles an hour straight into a brick wall.” (p.5)
Neil was an executive at an electrical engineering firm who had been working
in the same organisation since he left school. He married his long term girlfriend only
to find that the relationship degraded until it revolved around constant arguing. He
spent many weekends of the year abroad, worked extremely long hours, and was
committed to his work, while his wife was neglected. He struggled on for many years
in this manner, unable to break the routine, and describes his life as “stuck in a
rut”(p.8).
After coming out as gay at age 27, George developed a lifestyle that he reflects
on as “very self-destructive” (p.2). He developed the habit of using drugs,
particularly ecstasy and cocaine, to help him relate with other men. He was going out
clubbing and taking drugs almost every night, and suggests he was spending six
hundred pounds a week on ecstasy, cocaine and clubbing. His life is a constant rush:
“My life had been a rush for the last two years with the amphetamines and the drugs,
and I was out clubbing six out of seven nights a week, so I was just high all the time.”
(p.4)
Ben was abroad with his wife for eight years, teaching at universities in
Canada and Singapore. During this time they have two children. They decide to
return to England so that Ben can finish his PhD, but this puts strain on marriage and
job, and he has problems providing financially for his children and wife. Ben takes a
part-time job at a polytechnic, and puts his energies into completing his PhD. Ben felt
he was neglecting his wife to complete his PhD, and was becoming increasingly
stressed.
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