Why is Adolescence often such a Troublesome Period?
One of the reasons involves an interesting paradox. As teenagers mature intellectually (a positive development), they rather suddenly become aware that those whom they have trusted for so long–parents, teachers, their government–can make big mistakes. Adults can lie, may contradict themselves, and can reveal their own inadequacies. The pedestal comes tumbling down because adolescents understand they will shortly be on their own, and they suddenly realize they cannot be sure of the advice (which they reinterpret as “cannot trust”) of those whom they have been turning to. They feel betrayed, angry and scared. Feeling scared is the worse, so they mask this to themselves and others with overconfidence and varying degrees of impulsively. “Let’s get a cool tattoo or have our tongues pierced.” This is their way of representing themselves as different from the older generation and identifying with their peer group instead. Also it is being fascinated with the power of their increased abstrac
