Do you think we all return to how we were as children at some point in adulthood? Specifically, when depression hits the hardest for the first time (our first "bottom") and we truly see ourselves as being manic, avoidant, anxious or procrastinating.

Everyone has an inner child and it's important keep him/her happy, as described by Julia Cameron in "The Artist's Way." But I feel like after I was hit with the loss of my parents -- at 17 and again at 26 -- that I slowly began to regress into my childhood ways of being shy and withheld. I began blushing in my college classes, which I hadn't done since middle school. My personality also feels like it's dwindled. On a subconscious level, I think I'm looking for new mother/father figures in friends and mentors even though I'm in my late 20s.

Needless to say, I will soon be getting a physical from my doctor and I'm going to ask for a referral to grief/loss therapy.