Feeling entirely the wrong age...?

I just had a recent birthday and I've been thinking about this alot lately.

Does anybody else ever feel entirely the wrong age?

Like most of the time I feel like I'm a thousand years old and the vetran of a hundred wars, and none of the "kids" my age have ANY idea of what life is about. I can't relate to the things they talk about, or worry about, it feels like dealing with a bunch of toddlers. That sounds kind of arrogant but I don't mean it that way, I don't feel like I'm better than them, just freaking OLDER. I feel like I've literally lived longer than I have.

And then other times it's the complete opposite. like i'm a seven year old playing house. Like I can't actually function as an adult. I don't cook, I've never kept a job longer than a year (usually like a month or two- I bounce around every time I get bored). I look at some other people my age, and they are married with kids and a house, and I've never renewed a lease, I can't even do my own taxes. I mean it's not like I ever had the kind of parents who taught me these things but that didn't prevent me from learning them, yet I havn't, and to be honest i'm not even interested in being that kind of responsible (although I know i should...catch 22?)

Has anyone else ever felt like this?

*** raises hand

Ive always related to and get along with people older than me and dont get my peers yet I often feel like a kid trying to function as an adult.

Yeah I get that. It was a loooot more pronounced when I was younger. Now that I'm working full time it's not as noticeable as I'm doing the same job as my coworkers, who are all sorts of different ages.

I never really fit in with my peer groups - I was usually in the mental mindset of the next age group up really. It was frustrating, because by the time my peers would get to the next level... I'd be on to the next one too. I'm not really sure what age group I skipped, but it was definitely a younger one as I only remember it being like this.

And yet at the same time, I feel like I'm stumbling around. I look and act like I've got everything together... but I don't. The things that tend to come easily to a lot of others as adults - cause a loooot of anxiety for me and I avoid them if I can.

I can totally relate. For the longest time as a kid, i spent most of my time with adults and couldn't relate to other kids. I think it had to do with being thrust into an adult role really early on. Now i want nothing to do with adulthood. I enjoy some of the freedoms, but overall i just wish someone else would take over so i could play...

^^^This makes so much sense. Its like most people my age have only been learning how to be an adult for like two years, and I've been on my own for almost ten (and even before that, I don't even remember not feeling like it was my job to feed/take care of myself and my brother) And like.....the mental weight of big, adult choices and worries when you're in your single digits.

Exactly this too. Its like I keep thinking that at some point it will even out, but it just doesnt. :/

Aparently I also act like this, not just feel like it. It was ironic, just last night (after I posted) a friend of mine and I were talking (about somthing COMPLETLY unrelated) and she just comes out and says, "Its so weird, half the time you're like this college-educated super-adult thats WAY smarter than me, and the other half of the time you're this little kid I need to babysit."

I always feel that way. Either much older or much younger. and always spiraling like a monkey in a hurricane.

I relate, perhaps, by another means...........I have DID with mostly kid alters. They make being my biological age nearly impossible sometimes. Especially around certain people, strangely. Just today, I was spending time with my younger sister and felt as if I was the younger one. She's just so much more mature and put-together than I am...........she's more responsible than I ever care to be. Also, times in college I found myself feeling less mature than some (even older) classmates. Or at adult-centered activities. I will often feel out-of-place and overwhelmed, needing to take a break. My kid alters will constantly be comparing me with those around me, telling me I don't belong.....anyway, yeah, I relate.
Toe

YES! I had actually been considering making my own thread about this lately. I'm 20 almost 21 years old. Most of the time my "mental age" as I'll call it is around 20. Sometimes a couple years younger especially if I'm in a bit of a mischievous mood that day and sometimes I'll feel significantly older, especially if I'm in a more mellow, even slightly depressed mood.

I would pretty much always feel older than my peers, too. Mainly once I hit about 12-13+...in many ways I never really got to be a kid, so it seemed ridiculous to me when I saw others acting like children/teens. The point I'm at currently is feeling like everyone else my age is mentally stuck in high school. I'm sure that's true for a significant portion of them, it's definitely not true of all of them.

Then, there are times when I'll feel younger. It can be any age really, but the predominant age that "takes over" sometimes is what I would guess to be around 7. Ages 7-8 were probably some of the roughest for me, and had some of the main memories that still haunt me today. When I'm thinking about, remembering, or completely feeling like I'm back in a memory from that age or younger I'll tend to regress to that age. I'd like to point out that it's not nearly to the point of D.I.D. or anything like that...it's just a really really strong feeling that I'm sure affects my behavior a bit too.

I've felt around 7 quite alot lately, probably because the holidays tend to be a really crappy time for me. Who knows...

Yes - many times I feel about 30 years older than my true age and at other times, I feel 30 years younger. I am working on integrating my inner child more fully with my adult self.

Great Q, yelobird!

I have felt this way for as long as I can remember. Even when I was in 1st grade, I never felt like I fit in with other children. I never liked being referred to as a child or kid, I felt like a 20 year old!

Yet, when I was in my 20's and 30's, I struggled with my reality quite a bit. I always got along with people who are 30+ years older much better than with my "peers".

Until I had my own children, I couldn't relate to children at all though. Now, I can appreciate babies, toddlers and pre-school age children. Still not much understanding or appreciation of teens, but my oldest will soon be entering that phase (she's 11).

I can relate the most with elderly people actually. While many of my elderly family members were abusive towards me, I guess that my family was in the extremes....as most elderly people that I've met love children. And I have known a lot of elderly people!