Reality Check?!

Reality Check?

I'm 24, but for some reason i just feel like i'm still 14. I know things are so much better now than they were then, but for some reason i keep reverting back to behaviors i had 10 yrs ago. Given I'm responsible, able to hold a stabble job and in a commited relationship but i have to repeat to myself that i'm 24 NOT 14. WTF???!!! y am i stuck?

Regression, in psychoanalysis, is a defense mechanism leading to the reversion to an earlier stage of development in the face of unacceptable impulses. According to psychologist Sigmund Freud, a situation can provoke so much anxiety that the retreat is the person's way of dealing with it. The person may also ignore a previous situation that caused stress, in order to avoid an anxiety attack.

Regression is defined in the APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms as "a return to earlier, especially to infantile, patterns of thoughts or behavior, or stage of functioning."

Some people regress due to high stress and depression, while others tend to regress due to high amount of being bullied in the past.

_________ Excerpt above from first source below...excerpt below from second source below:


“ Human personality, in principle, develops according to steps predetermined in the growing person's readiness to be driven toward, to be aware of, and to interact with a widening social radius. ”
—Erik Erik

The Stages Pertaining to your Question are as follows:

Adolescence (11-18 Years)
Psychosocial Crisis: Identity vs. Role Confusion
The adolescent is newly concerned with how they appear to others. Ego identity is the accrued confidence that the inner sameness and continuity prepared in the past are matched by the sameness and continuity of one's meaning for others, as evidenced in the promise of a career. The inability to settle on a school or occupational identity is disturbing.

Main question asked: What is my goal in life?
An identity crisis generally happens at this stage because of the changes in an individual. Those changes reflect both physical and cognitive maturation.

Central Task: Peer group, cliques
Positive Outcome: A strong group identity, ready to plan for the future
Ego Quality: Loyalty
Definition: Ability to freely pledge and sustain loyalty to others
Developmental Task: Physical maturation, emotional development, membership in peer group, sexual relationships
Significant Relations: Peer groups

Early Adulthood (18-34 years)
Psychosocial Crisis: Intimacy vs. Isolation
Body and ego must be masters of organ modes and of the other nuclear conflicts in order to face the fear of ego loss in situations which call for self-abandon. The avoidance of these experiences leads to isolation and self-absorption. The counterpart of intimacy is distantiation, which is the readiness to isolate and destroy forces and people whose essence seems dangerous to one's own. Now true genitality can fully develop. The danger at this stage is isolation, which can lead to severe character problems.

Central Task: Caregiving
Positive Outcome: Form close relationships and share with others
Ego Quality: Love
Definition: Capacity for mutuality that transcends childhood dependency
Developmental Task: Stable relationships; Child bearing; Work etc.
Significant Relations: Marital partner, friends.
Erikson's listed criteria for "genital utopia" illustrate his insistence on the role of many modes and modalities in harmony:

mutuality of orgasm
with a loved partner
of opposite sex
with whom one is willing and able to share a trust, and
with whom one is willing and able to regulate the cycles of work, procreation, and recreation
so as to secure to the offspring all the stages of satisfactory development

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Hopefully this will help ... at least you should feel mature if you bother to read it or consult the sources below...you probably would not have when you were 14...thus maturation happens!