I turn 20 on Tuesday and I am actually feeling kind of depressed about it because I feel like I am getting old. Is this a normal feeling? I am literally scared to death of becoming an adult.<O:p

Its normal to have feelings like that any time you come to a milestone in life. Welcome to your first comming of age :)

Actually in the US you are legally an adult at 18, but really you are not really an adult till you are 21 thats when growth and brain development are complete. Age is confusing though because also in the US you have to be 25 to rent a car, 21 to legally drink and buy alcohol and gamble (except lottery tickets you have to be 18) But still thats not the point.

The point is I am not ready to enter life on my own yet. I still feel like a teenager and I really don't want to grow up.

It's that dizzying speed of time which can scare you sometimes.
But don't worry, you are not old at 20. I have known people who where not even old yet at 80. There is always so much more to see.

Age has nothing to do with numbers or whether or not your are legal age to drink. :)
ps (google "coming of age" its not quite what you think)

It's totally normal to feel that way. It's also normal to get the response from someone older than you, "You're still a baby" or "You aren't THAT old". Annoying to hear that, but it happens every time. Like the time you spent over the last so and so years isn't worth something b/c you aren't as old as they are.

The truth is, every milestone brings different feelings. The truth is, you want to look back on the years that bring you to each milestone and think, "I did the best with what I had at the time." The truth is, you are only as young as you feel.

At 21 I still felt young, but at 25 I realized that I had not gotten everything done I wanted to, so... I went back to school. Now at 30 I can look back with accomplishment. Even though many still consider me young, I feel different than I did when I was 16, 20, 21, 25.

It will keep changing. Just go with it. :)

It's kind of difficult to explain it exactly, but I really just feel "old". Like my childhood is over & it's time to be grown up. It also kinda feels like I'm running out of time in a way. Like my life is going by too fast. I'm just not ready to transition into a full adult yet. Does that make sense?

It's kind of difficult to explain it exactly, but I really just feel "old". Like my childhood is over & it's time to be grown up. It also kinda feels like I'm running out of time in a way. Like my life is going by too fast. I'm just not ready to transition into a full adult yet. Does that make sense?

Yes it does. Maybe we do suffer from many missed moments, making it look like life goes so fast. And I get moments when I feel like I'm ten years old and others when I feel I'm ten thousand.

How's that about making sense?

I felt old as soon as I was getting ready to graduate high school.

Unfortunately our present culture exalts youth and disregards all the wondrous events of later life and wisdom and knowledge in general leading to an over obsession with youth and everything youth culture related.

I'm turning 20 the following friday. It's no just that I feel old, I feel I am behind others, people that I know, and just the general population. Like sarek said, time just keeps passing by, and I haven't made a dent in it. I am kind of embarassed of the things I haven't accomplished- college, intimacy, more good friends,etc. I feel like everyone by now is comfortable and gotten through all the awkward things with college, and well society too, by now. People are kind of doing internships or close to that. I feel like a little kid still. I am and look too young for my age :/

Graduating from high school was tough for me too. I think I got depressed in the beginning of the year, because I realized I had no idea what i wanted to do with my future and the things I did want or figured I had by then didn't happen. I hadn't picked out any schools, I didn't feel my grades were good enough. When we had a "senior bbq" where every "click" went together and formed a name for themselves, with nick names, and we painted all over ourselves along with this huge rock. I realized I wasn't really a part of my click, and not of anyone elses really either. :/

I mostly remember never feeling old enough. I beleived that at my age (30.. then 40) I should have "figured things out" by now. - no longer an issue.
kwalk: I always liked one or 2 people from the different "clicks". I remember wandering around my senior party realizing I didn't have one!

Just like a child, growing up doesn't stop you from learning, creating, exploring, and loving :) I think maturity is a good thing, because you gain an understanding of the world that wasn't there as a youth. I feel a sense of security about myself that I never felt as a teenager, or even a woman in my 20's.

I know I am more forgiving of myself. I am able to learn from what's going around me. Again neither of the things I was able to do when I was younger.

I sense that you feel getting older means the end of something. It doesn't have to be that way at all.

Taking responsiblity of yourself is a scary thing. Yes, you might make some mistakes that will be painful. But you need to make those mistakes. Living like a child with no responsibilty might seem ideal, but I suspect it will empty very soon. It is through our obligations that we create a sense of ourselves.

I can relate! I hate the feeling of getting old. And every time I hit an age ending in a 0, I think about the coming of age very seriously and deeply and often get bummed about it. But yet, I still feel young.

I like your signature btw! :) I'm a band/orchestra geek myself.

Hey Bandie08! I didn't feel old until I hit the big 40 this year. OMG. But really, it's just a number. I feel like I'm in my twenty's in the heart. Stay young as you grow wise in years! Best to you! addr68 :):cool:

I'm starting to feel like I am 20, can you feel it yet?

I hated turning 20, and every year I hate getting older... one step closer to death. I don't dread or fear death, but I'm still trying to learn how to love life after just having escaped a mind control cult that fried my reward circuits with normal life, had to deal with a year of cannabis and other drugs to feel pleasure... and trying to learn to love life... getting old has its benefits, and its all relative. I wrote tons of things in my meditations of the time about turning 17 18 19 20... hated it.

The same thing happened to me. I'm 22 now and I feel ancient. I also feel like I missed out on a lot of things or was "behind" on things I felt like I should have accomplished or gone through at different stages and ages. Being homeschooled grades 7-8 in a small town didn't help either. I still feel old and like I'm behind in life.

Is it normal to feel young when you are 53? As I've aged I've noticed that aside from wrinkles and gray streaks, I don't feel that much different.

The biggest difference is learning time is a precious commodity, something I wish I learned when I was 20.

I am now more willing to take control of my life as I begin to truly understand time far is more valuable than money.

I don't know if it's normal, but I know I felt weird about turning 17, that's the first time things really hit me emotionally. That I was behind. That I could actually measure myself up to my peers and see I was not good enough. Different. Behind.
I struggled, but the feeling remained and the gap got a bit bigger every day.
No one else could see it and I didn't tell them because I felt ridiculous.

I got admitted with major depression at age 19 (three months after my birthday) and after that, everyone have been able to see my demise in cold numbers in terms of educations not completed and so on.

It's rough knowledge, but the only thing I get from focussing on it is that depression moves in on me, so I try not to.

I focus on the thought that now I have the knowledge that I was right all along, something was wrong, I saw the crack in me years and years before anyone else did, and know I know what the crack is - again before anyone else, even the smart professionals knew.

To end my rambling:
Don't worry about feeling older than you are. Try to find out why you do and in which areas it gives you an edge compared to your peers. Because it actually does. Try to give it a constructive spin. :)

now that I'm starting to see my age... I look at the good incentives and thoughts i'm having as an adult.

Like, i'm looking for my first apartment, and i'm surprised my parents even agreed with it, atleast my dad. I don't let my mom in on it or she'd be talking to me like all her opinions mattered more on having an appartment. Now i'm thinking of getting a puppy, so it's kind of like, a new chapter is starting, and thats another step up in independence! It also might push me to really take advantage of the time I have now to really get some kind of dent in, not let my mind "put things off"

I turn 20 next week. While it does seem kind of weird that I'm going to be that old (20 seems like a lot), I don't really feel "old old" or "grown up" yet. When I stop drinking juice boxes and getting upset that my foods touch on my plate, then I'll be a grown up :). Things like getting a job and my own apartment still seem like a long way off for me. But I like living in the dorm and going to school and not having to worry about paying bills, so I'm happy.

ya always got to experience the dorms before the appartment :)

They're always fun anyways, i'd be happy too.

and food touching eachother, that's hilarious! i just do that with forks and knives, for some reason.

I don't like foods to touch, gets rid of their pure taste.
When confronted dics (normies) say "It all goes to the same place anyways"
But, duh, we don't taste it there is always my reply to which they retort with silencce cause there is nothing they can say... haha.

Almost a week with no meds for me! jehjee

20 old? C'mon people, I just turned 29 and I can't wait to throw a huge party for the big 30!!

I know it doesn't seem like it now but life has a lot of surprises. Growing around a lot of fun loving women has made me appreciate all the stages a woman has to experience. Get the spiderwebs out of your mind and enjoy life. We have ADD remember, that can be a blessing if you know how to use it to your advantage.

Mom always says the 40s are the new 20s, and let me add that after a difficult youth, 2 divorces and raising 4 kids, 2 with ADHD, she managed to go back to school, remarried when she was 40, graduated at 42 and has been singing since she was 14 with no plans of stopping anytime soon. She's 48.