Common Struggles with Young Adulthood

 

Being a young adult can often times feel overwhelming, as there are typically a lot of different conflicting emotions going on at the same time, as well as a lot of new skills being put into practice.  There can be excitement for the new found freedom, or continued sense of freedom and choice they have in their lives.  There can be anxiety around what they “should” do with their life, feeling confused as to what they themselves want, apart from what others might want for them.  There can be anxiety around finances, as well as career: both aspects that are new life skills and can be daunting to manage.  There can also be some sadness or depression, when life is very different at this point from where it was before: friendships may be changing, self confidence may be low, and navigating issues at school, work or with family or friends can be difficult as the young adult is still trying to figure out who they are and how they want to navigate these different issues.  

 

Young adulthood is the stepping stone into adulthood, where we’re more independent than we were as an adolescent, and we know a bit more about ourselves, and sometimes it can feel like the more we learn, the less we know.  As a result, things can feel a bit overwhelming at times.  It’s not like there’s this easy “on/off” switch once we become a young adult, and we suddenly know what we are doing and who we are.  (wouldn’t that be great if that were the case!)  With all of that said, the period of young adulthood (about ages 18 or 19 until late 20’s or early 30’s) is so important, because it allows us the time to answer those questions, to figure out who we are separate from our families and cultures, what we want for ourselves, meanwhile learning a variety of life skills.

 

Typically, any left over issues from childhood and adolescence may start to catch up to us during this period of time.  Our brain is continuing to develop during these years, and as such, our self awareness can increase and we may start to notice a variety of things.  We may notice that we’re not moving in a direction we want to move in, or not feeling how we want to feel, or not handling our emotions in a way that what we want, or not communicating in a way that’s effective, or we’re not attracting the relationships that make us feel good, or maybe we start to notice different patterns that keep happening that we want to change.  

 

All of this can be extremely difficult to navigate on your own!  It is quite common and natural for us to “take on” others opinions, shoulds, or even ways of thinking and behaving, to the point where we don’t even realize we are operating from someone else’s framework.  It typically will take us feeling enough suffering or having enough consequence in our lives in order to seek help and see the need to do something different, no matter what life stage we are in.  Therapy can be quite helpful in assisting individuals in figuring out who they are and what they want for themselves, apart from the dynamics they’ve unconsciously adopted from others.