Early Adolescent Years

As we move on from our childhood years, which are often referred to as our formative years, we enter our early adolescent years. The Tyber Lustig Foundation acknowledges that many of us act like adolescences well into our late 20s or even early 30s, but for the sake of this content we will address adolescent behavior chronologically.

For the sake of this topic of discussion, we are going to assume a person has escaped the childhood years with as little emotional scar tissue as possible. They have made it through elementary school and have a reasonable mental foundation to enter middle school. As a note to parents, your declining level of control now begins to decelerate even more drastically.

As an adolescent, we start to become more aware of our social environment and begin reacting accordingly. Our thoughts increasingly begin to impact our happiness. It is almost as if we begin to look for things to become self-conscience about. We start comparing ourselves to others. Many of us become very susceptible to peer group pressure. The overwhelming desire to just fit in and measure up starts dominating our behavior. Sadly, many of these concerns stay with us even as we grow older. If there was only one primary cause of unhappiness it could very well be letting what other people say or think about us negatively affect our own life.

It is during these years we start to realize people are different in a variety of ways. Some are taller or more athletically gifted, or better singers, or dress nicer, or whatever. We then start to compare ourselves to others in an attempt to figure out where we fit in. We often question normality and overthink the issue of not feeling normal. This too often continues for many years throughout adulthood. The Tyber Lustig Foundation is adamant about not becoming your own worst enemy in the pursuit of living a happy life. Much of our content seeks to help people better cope with this harmful behavior.