"What these parents don't realize is that today's failure to launch is not always behavioral in nature. It can be due to cognitive constipation (bear with me on the Gastrointestinal metaphor; I am trying to make a point). Yes, that's right. It is those nasty doses of overthinking-the behind-the-scenes fuel-that crank up the hidden anxiety burning in your adult child's brain."
"Failure to launch was once blamed on entitlement or a lack of motivation. Today, the real culprit is overthinking. It is fueled by seemingly endless options and constant comparisons (thank you, social media!). Overthinking appears in various ways. It can look like endless planning ("My resume is not good enough-after 100 versions") or "I still have to get myself ready to apply for that program." Or, it can appear as a retreat into hobbies, video games, music, or graphic novels."
Overthinking fuels hidden anxiety and often causes adult children to fail to launch. Endless options and social comparisons drive a quest for impossible certainty that leads to analysis paralysis. Manifestations include endless planning, repeated resume edits, prolonged preparation, or retreating into hobbies, video games, music, and graphic novels. The perceived risk of a single wrong step appears catastrophic and keeps them in a safe zone of inaction. Parents should acknowledge an adult's anxiety without reinforcing it. Parents should support small, concrete steps toward meaningful work while the adult's mind remains noisy, reducing cognitive blockage.
Read at Psychology Today
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]