Emotional Maturity

I read once that if someone experiences a great trauma or starts using drugs & alcohol at a young age, they stop growing emotionally at that age. I don’t remember where I read that, and it may be total BS, but I thought it was interesting.

I was thinking about that when I was reading The Catcher in the Rye, I guess because Holden’s younger brother died when Holden was young. It seemed to me that Holden wasn’t as emotionally mature in a lot of ways as most 16 year olds are.

Trying to think back on my own life, I think this theory is possible. I had crap go on when I was really young & I started drinking somewhere around 12. Am I emotionally 12 years old? Hmmm...it’s possible, I suppose. I’m extraordinarily sensitive, my feelings are hurt pretty easily, and I don’t handle confrontation well. Sometimes I act like I’m 12, I like to play around, and I’m pretty goofy.

I don’t know that all of that necessarily means that I stopped growing emotionally; I’m sure that you have to grow some to handle adult life. I just think that the idea is interesting. I know that I carry around a lot of the same junk I did when I was 12, and I think I handle it better now…but that comes with time, and I think that in its self means that you have to mature.

I do feel like I’ve come a long way since my days of self medicating. So, the theory may be a bunch of crap, but its something to think about.