MLC is named such because it (the namesake) generally occurs "mid life"... this same type of crises can occur at any period in a person's life when they might normally go through a "controlled transition" ie. they KNOW they are having to deal with a change of life... and they work through it consciously...
it occurs more often in mid life because they often didn't do any or all of the "needed" work during prior transitions... something often triggers the crises... that trigger could be something as far back as two years prior to the stuff that becomes blatantly obvious to the spouse (or other loved ones and close friends)...
Does it end? Yes, I would say usually... although the person who comes out on the other side of the transition may not be the person we knew... transitions are about remaking ourselves... if prior transitions were not completed, these changes can be abrupt and vast... there are those who appear to be in perpetual MLC, although they could simply be people who've made it through and are simply just vastly different people who we still expect to be the "old" person so our cognitive dissonance cannot be resolved and we don't "like" them in their new form... (and they don't like us much, either... biker / ballerina type differences...)
There are milder MLCs it seems, and those people may have gone through prior transitions in a more functional or complete way...
Anyhow, just putting that out there. There are just some things that your W is doing that IS confusing... and that's a pretty good indicator of MLC... not the "do I want to leave, or stay and try"...
For example, my W knows my mom is an alcoholic... my dad a recovering alcoholic (about 7 years dry)... and my W hides a box of liquor chocolates along with D9's stuff... doesn't say anything about it to me... tells D9 that it's for "someone over there if they want like, Gramma or Grampa..."... ??? Of course yesterday was my b-day... so for all I know she might have meant them for me... but I've never liked those things and she USED to know that...
Not all the confusion is that obvious...
Again... IF your W is MLC... all you have is time... even if you are D... but you only have your life to live... detached from any thought of M or R... or thinking that anything you do at this time will help... but it is good stuff for the future... what you do now, like planting a bamboo... will yield noticeable results in the long term...
Of course yesterday was my b-day... so for all I know she might have meant them for me... but I've never liked those things and she USED to know that...