Many people ask the question, “When do you become an adult mentally?” But there is no specific answer because the answer can vary based on how you have experienced life thus far.
Different people mentally become adults based on their life experiences or trauma.
Different experiences, like the environment you grew up in or the people who you surround yourself with, are what determine your mental growth, especially when it comes to adulthood. If you grew up in an extremely saturated environment and grew up to be stuck up and extremely spoiled due to your surroundings, your mental adulthood may be stunted. But if you experienced any trauma like verbal abuse, physical abuse or losing a loved one, your maturity can be triggered very early on before you reach the recognized legal adult age of 18. The reason that this may happen is because certain experiences force your brain to adjust in order to endure the things that you may be experiencing. According to the article, “The Effects of Trauma from Growing Up Too Fast,” “What is frequently called growing up too fast or being mature beyond your years is simply neglect and abuse. Many children grow up in an environment where they are neglected and abused in such ways that they become little adults who, not only can take care of themselves better or are wiser than others, but also take care of their parents, siblings, or other family members.”
Despite these facts, some do believe that the age of mental and legal maturity is 18. People believe this to be true because this is the age where you earn the utmost freedom in your life and are able to determine things for yourself without your parents’ assistance. But, this is simply not true because true adult mental maturity is the level of psychological functioning one can attain. And some may be forced to attain this at an age earlier or later than 18.
In order to change this, we can start to grow better as people in order to be more loving and nurturing parents. The reason that this is one of the main things that need to change is because neglectful or abusive parents are one of the top causes for early brain development. People can also learn to spoil children to the point of a happy life, but not to the point where the child becomes too reliant on their parents and becomes incompetent.
Overall, people can develop into adulthood at any age due to the environment they grew up in. Dealing with abuse of any kind or growing up in an oversaturated environment can impact this.
