My friend, “Helen”, acts incredibly immature (well, to me) for her age.
She thinks it’s cute to sing that “My Little Pony” song (and other kiddie show/commercial jingles/tunes, etc.) in the halls between classes and she bursts into class, waving her arms around and singing “La, la, la, la!”. She also goes up to anybody she knows and says, “Jesus loves you, [insert name here]!” in the most kiddie-ish voice possible. And she laughs really loudly (and for really long) at anything that seems remotely funny to her. When she’s upset over anything, she seems to go into this “Life sucks” mode. If you mention anything that seems to be bothering you personally, she’ll say stuff like, “YOU think YOU have it bad? What about ME?” If you disagree with her about anything, then she’ll argue until you agree with her. She also thinks she’s really cool for knowing certain kids who drink, do drugs, are sexually active, suicidal, are clinically depressed, have ADD and the like. She tells everybody (and I mean, everybody) about those friends that she has.
Uh…is it just me or does anybody find this incredibly immature? Or am I adopting that “holier-than-thou” attitude?
No, that seems pretty immature to me. Of course, she’s 16 and there’s a whole range of mania associated with that age that could be chalked up to immaturity.
IANAT (therapist), but it sounds to me like bi-polar disorder with manic depression. I don’t have it myself, but that’s symptomatic of people I know who do have it.
Oh come on, she is probably just a goofy 16 year old. I coach debate and can ramble off an endless list of kids that are like this.
For example, I have a perfectly capable, perfectly intelligent, perfectly sane friend (17 yo) who loves to watch Blues Clues and the Wiggles. When the Wiggles came to town she went to their show (right along side the 5 year olds). Heck, I bought her some Wiggles bed sheets. Do I think it is a lil’ silly? Of course, but hey- it makes her happy and doesn’t hurt anyone.
They’ll grow up. We all do. For now: let her have her fun.
She apparently lives on the extreme opposites of the psychological spectrum – insanely happy on one end and deeply depressed on the other. There’s no middle ground, and that’s a problem.
Bipolar disorder generally doesn’t strike until people are in their late teens through early twenties. There is such a thing as adolescent and even child Bipolar Disorder but they are more rare don’t follow the classic model.
The teletubbies was one of our favorite show in the Senior Den in high school. We also liked to play freeze tag and fruit basket turnover in gym class.
-Lil
Sounds like typical drama queenism, to me. Even in the best bunch of kids, there’s always a few of those around. It’s nothing to worry about, she’ll either grow out of it, or she won’t. All part of growing up and figuring out who she is for herself.
Everyone matures at different rates. If you just can’t stand being around her, move along to people who share more of your interests. One day, she may share your interests, too, so try not to snub her. Just… gently disentangle yourself from her for now.
