When things get too difficult and a person feels vulnerable, defense mechanisms kick in as a way of self-preservation. Regression is a return to childlike behavior as a way to avoid adult-like reality and responsibility.
People sometimes revert to childlike behavior to cope with trauma, stress, severe illness, or mental health disorders. Age regression can be unconscious (involuntary) or conscious (voluntary) behavior.
Many possible reasons point to why you might be holding onto immature behaviors, including being rewarded for being immature, being surrounded by other not-so-mature people, having an abusive upbringing, or not having mature role models while growing up, says clinical psychologist John E.
Impulsive behavior.
They speak out of turn or touch things that they shouldn't touch. They say things without thinking about how they'll affect other people. Over time, people learn not to do those things. Emotionally immature adults haven't learned to curb their impulses.
Immature personality disorder (IPD) was a type of personality disorder diagnosis. It is characterized by lack of emotional development, low tolerance of stress and anxiety, inability to accept personal responsibility, and reliance on age-inappropriate defense mechanisms.
Yet despite being so common, few people have even heard of it. As a caretaker to a person who suffers from Dependent Personality Disorder (DPD), you can find yourself with an ever growing sense of anger and injustice when a capable adult acts like a helpless child.
Emotional immaturity can be the result of insecure attachments during early life experiences, trauma, untreated addiction or mental health problems, and/or lack of deeper introspection or work on oneself. It can manifest as self-centeredness, narcissism, and poor management of conflict.
Emotional immaturity is a person's inability to express or cope with emotions that are serious in nature. People who are emotionally immature may also overreact to situations or have trouble controlling their emotions.
Emotionally immature people may lack emotional sensitivity, behave in a self-preoccupied manner, and may cause you to question your reality. You may find communication difficult to even impossible. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge and recognize the signs so you can deal with them accordingly.
Impulsivity: High intelligence is closely associated with Impulsive behavior which appears childish to some. Children tend to be impulsive and go after things they desire. If you see this in adults, you might consider the adult to be childish.
Often, parents, guardians, and other adults still treat teens like kids because they can't see how you've matured. One sign of maturity is being honest with your family members, both about big and small things. Partly, that means that you are upfront about things.
Definition of Childlike
They are innocent, sweet, simple and pure. They are quite honest. They are full of energy, excitement and enthusiasm. They are curious to learn new things.
Paraphilic infantilism, also known as autonepiophilia, psychosexual infantilism and adult baby syndrome, is a sexual fetish that involves role-playing a regression to an infant-like state. Behaviors may include drinking from a bottle or wearing diapers (diaper fetishism).
Peter Pan Syndrome is a popular psychology term to describe people who find it difficult to grow up. They often have challenges managing adult responsibilities and maintaining adult relationships. Having difficulty with adult responsibilities can affect many people.
Simply put, emotional immaturity manifests itself as impulsive behaviour. Insecure attachments, trauma, untreated addiction or mental health issues, as well as a lack of deeper introspection or self-work, can all contribute to this behaviour.
Emotionally immature parenting is seen in intergenerational trauma conditioned and maintained from one generation to the next. Many times, parents with dysregulated emotions may be experiencing their own unhealed attachment trauma.
A person with BPD may appear to be emotionally immature because they often expect others to put their needs first. They're frequently emotionally dependent on others and may appear to be trying to manipulate others to give them their way by inappropriate emotional reactions or acting out.
That's because kids with ADHD are less mature than their peers. That's what ADHD is: an immaturity of the brain's infrastructure. That immaturity impacts a child's executive functions , including attention and self-control. If a child is much younger than others in his grade, he may appear even more immature.
Overall, it can be said that ADHD children were found to be more emotionally immature and poorly adjusted on almost all the dimensions studied.
ASPD causes people to act without thinking how they're affecting others. Someone with ASPD may break rules or laws. They often show no remorse and take no responsibility. Psychotherapy and certain medications may help people with ASPD.
Bipolar disorder can arrest a person's emotional maturity and produce behavior that appears very childish and reckless. Please remember, however, that while someone who has bipolar may act like a child, there is an adult underneath.
Of the ten personality disorders described in the DSM-5, the four in Cluster B: Antisocial, Borderline, Narcissistic and Histrionic, have been the ones considered to be the most difficult to treat.