“…..some of the most common problems troubling people today, including identity concerns, attachment issues, and addiction….” This was part of an invitation to a webinar on Christian counseling. “Identity concerns”…when life was simpler and people had to go to work even before they finished high school and were on their own pretty quickly in life, identity issues weren’t so problematic. People had to figure out who they were and what they were going to do in order to survive relationally and economically. Erik Erikson’s human development schema said that the primary task of adolescence is to resolve one’s questions about identity. Now that adolescence lasts well into one’s 20’s or 30’s for many individuals (with prolonged education tracks, parental financial support propping them up, living at home until one’s 30’s, delayed marriage, etc.) unresolved identity issues have become a noticeable problem. When identity questions remain unresolved, one’s efforts to develop further psychologically become unproductive. The developmental task that is after identity is that of “intimacy”…..building quality emotional and spiritual connections with people.(another way to describe “attachment issues”)…It used to be that such skills were cultivated by mid to late 20’s by most people. Now they often don’t get resolved until one’s 40’s or 50’s, after several or even many failed relationships, if at all. And all that failure to achieve developmental task completion leads to……you guessed it, addiction! Or is it that early use of drugs….in the years when identity should be being explored and solidified…..derails the process so that those two adolescent and young adult tasks don’t get done because of the fascination with drugs. When the fascination and experimentation with drugs hits a deadend….one still has to do the psychological development tasks that have been delayed. That becomes the work one has to do in a long term residential recovery program. 9/16/15
