Why Midlife Friendship Breakups Hurt So Much & The Mental Load

About this episode

Nicole and Lauren discuss the emotional impact of midlife friendship breakups and the mental load women carry in their lives.

This week on 40ish: Nicole and Lauren find themselves nominated alongside fellow 40-something Romesh Ranganathan for a comedy award which, considering he’s an actual professional comedian and we mainly discuss pelvic floors, peri-menopause and Real Housewives, feels both surreal and deeply flattering. We were completely overwhelmed by your response to our conversation about friendship breakups and apparently being quietly phased out of a women’s friendship group in your 40s is basically the adult version of being picked last in PE, except now there are secret WhatsApp groups, girls’ trips to Thailand and emotionally devastating photos appearing on Instagram without you. Some of these listener stories are genuinely brutal. Plus, one listener's dilemma absolutely breaks our hearts. After years of carrying the mental load for her family; the cooking, cleaning, shopping, birthday planning, emotional labour and working full-time her birthday arrives with barely any acknowledgement. We talk about the quiet loneliness of feeling invisible in midlife, the resentment that builds when everyone takes you for granted, and why so many women end up feeling completely emotionally exhausted. If…

People in this episode

Hosts: Nicole, Lauren

Topics covered

• midlife friendship
• mental load
• emotional exhaustion
• women's issues
• perimenopause
• loneliness

Keywords

• midlife
• friendship breakups
• mental load
• emotional labor
• perimenopause
• loneliness
• women's friendships

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