Life gets harder and harder as you get older, that is not a secret. Your responsibilities increase, you need to start taking care of yourself, money becomes a great worry, and overall, stress comes from everywhere to hit you at any time possible. But despite all this, most people know that this stage of life is inevitable and the only thing they can really do is keep on moving forward.
We all have different ways in which we cope with our tumultuous reality. People listen to music, do physical activity, pick up mindful habits, or even love to let their minds get absorbed by their favorite book whose plotline sounds so fantastic that it is enjoyable to imagine themselves living in that world instead of this one. And there is really nothing wrong with none of those, but the line between a healthy distraction and the creation of distorted reality is so slim, that there have been cases where people get so caught up in their fictional comfort stories in such a way that hinders them from facing their real lives and, in this case, mentally grow up as they should.
With all this being said, we have another Disney-based syndrome that fits with all this description.
What is Peter Pan´s syndrome?
Although this disorder hasn’t been recognized as such by the World Health Organization, many psychologists do use this title to refer to adults who mentally remained in their childhood and therefore have stopped their personal development in many areas of their lives (social, affective, professional, etc), making them unable to commit and sustain themselves just as adults are supposed to do.
This syndrome, first defined by the psychologist Dan Kiley in the early 80s, results from the fear of everything that has to do with growing up.
The ones who experience it don’t want to take up new responsibilities and find it very difficult to keep up with today’s fast-paced society where everything seems to be very overwhelming and difficult to deal with. Because of this, they turn their mind into a fictional reality where they still feel and behave like kids or teenagers.
Which are the symptoms of Peter Pan´s Syndrome?
Adults who suffer from this syndrome often feel the need to call everyone’s attention and support (emotional and economically speaking), they have no or very little emotional intelligence, are self-centered, dependent, don’t like to commit in any way, and also blame others for their own problems and failures.
Also, they can experience severe anxiety and depression because some of them are aware of the fact that they are no longer kids and should move on in life, but their fear is so strong that the frustration they get from that knowledge makes them feel sad, unconfident and dissatisfied with themselves. They just don’t want to be lonely or left alone because that means they need to be self-sufficient and they are not comfortable with that.
Who can suffer from Peter Pan´s syndrome?
This mental disorder is more frequent in men than women mostly because of social roles and the idea that men should be the ones who provide for their families, the need to fit into certain stereotypes regarding adulthood and success that most of the time may seem impossible to achieve. But the reality is that, with the world that we live in and the social situation we find ourselves in nowadays, the chances of developing this syndrome regardless of your gender, may have increased a little bit.
