Situation · Family and friends
“Why do I turn back into a teenager when I visit my parents”
What could be going on
Regression: Fits if old settings pull you back to earlier ways of coping.
Ego states: Parent, Adult, Child (Transactional Analysis): Check whether parents speak in Parent mode and you answer in Child mode.
Family roles (golden child, scapegoat, lost child, mascot): Could be the family expecting your old role, which you slip back into.
Differentiation of self (Bowen): Check whether you can keep your adult view while staying connected to them.
Triggers: Fits if specific tones or phrases set off reactions that belong to the past.
Questions to carry
- On the last visit, at which moment did I feel my younger self take over?
- Which old role in the family do I slip back into, and what does it protect?
Also said as
- I'm 35 and become a sulky kid at my mum's house
- regressing around family
- my parents push my buttons like no one else
- I act like a child when I go home for holidays
- I regress around my parents
- going home makes me act like I'm sixteen again