"Teenagers feel they are invulnarable"

[Dadamen]

Today on our psychology lesson in school our teacher and also a school psychologist said that all teenagers feel invulnerable. This made me worried because I feel vulnerable and am careful not to lead myself in dangerous situation. Is this autism thing, anxiety or maybe good thing beacuse it means I'm mature for my age?
By the way, she said she is a mother of a girl with anxiety disorder and a boy with ASD .

 

[Fino]

I believe this is concerned with risk assessment. A teenager will not think the statistics of a car crash apply to him. "Yes, lots of people die from snorting coke, but I won't." If you're better at risk assessment, then, yeah, I'd say it's a good thing. I'm terrible at it.

 

[Dadamen]

I believe this is concerned with risk assessment. A teenager will not think the statistics of a car crash apply to him. "Yes, lots of people die from snorting coke, but I won't." If you're better at risk assessment, then, yeah, I'd say it's a good thing. I'm terrible at it.

Well, I never take risky situations if I'm aware of risk, but I sometimes put myself in risky situations when I'm unaware of risk. Also, having a cancer made me more cautious. Other teens smoke and drink and every time I hear them talking about these things lung cancer and liver cancer come to my mind.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Take any test. If a multiple choice test answer includes the words "always" or "never",...it's probably a wrong answer,...move on.

Perhaps what might be said is that "many" or "a large percentage" of teenagers, statistically speaking, have a sense of invulnerability. That may be closer to the truth.

Personally, as a teenager, I cannot say I had some sense of "vulnerability", I never gave it a thought. Perhaps this is a more accurate interpretation,...the general lack of forethought before engaging in "risky behaviors". The life lessons behind so-called vulnerability and consequences were always in retrospect,...someone got hurt emotionally or physically,...or worse,...killed. Then you learned something,...albeit the hard way.

That said,...and this has not changed,...so-called "risky behavior" was always about my ability to control it. For example, I love to drive fast,...but I don't like being a passenger in a car that is going fast. I love the biggest, fastest roller coasters,...but I am not going to parachute out of a plane. I do not swim well, so I do not like being in boats, or white water rafting,...but I don't have a problem with SCUBA gear and exploring a reef.

 

[Wolfsage]

Yeah, school of hard knocks hits them pretty hard.

 

[Thinx]

Our rate of maturity is different from that of neurotypical people, and is uneven, I would say. There's levels on which I probably wasn't ever a teenager in the neurotypical sense of the word, I knew a lot yet also missed a lot, I was old for my age yet also young for my age.

And in a biological way, our brains actually do mature differently. So, overall, you are probably just a 'normal' Aspie. Research would probably say Aspie young people think they are vulnerable. Or, know they are.

And also as you say, our life experiences make a difference too. And now we've all lived through a pandemic also.

 

[MrSpock]

And now we've all lived through a pandemic also.

Not yet, we haven't.

And I'm guessing that a tendency to think before you leap is a sign of maturity, not too many people get to be old without learning that one.

 

[GrownupGirl]

The feelings of immortality are supposed to be because a teen's brain is not yet fully developed, and won't be until they are at least 25.

Which must mean I have never actually been a teenager. It was like I was partly still a child and partly an adult, so I only got along with adults and kids younger than me. I was either called mature and intelligent for my age or selfish and immature. So confusing.

 

[Monachopia]

As Fino said, it is down to risk assessment and awareness of one's mortality. Yes, as a teenager you know what risk is and usually you are aware that doing something is dangerous so you choose not to do it. But, in the context of the original statement, there are different processes involved.

As a teenager I considered the idea of death and harm differently. I understood perfectly what they were and how they could come about, BUT, I did not comprehend those concepts in the same way as I do now. There is a lot more understanding and background experience driving decisions, rather than "should" or "shouldn't do". The statement shouldn't be taken at its face value. The statement doesn't mean that all teenagers run into full traffic playing 'dodge the car' expecting to live forever. Not at all. Just that a young brain does not have the necessary experience to process all the outcomes of certain actions. In reverse, the overactive caution of picturing lung cancer at the mere mention of a cigarette is along a similar vein. On the balance of probabilities, a single cigarette won't do any harm to the average person, so over reaction to the notion is another example of the lack of life experience.

When you get to your 30's, you'll understand the statement better. You may be much more mature than your peers (like I was), but your thinking is not the same as it will be 15 years from now. I was always very risk averse, always too careful, but even my skewed thinking made me take some risks that I wouldn't dream of doing now. There is something to be said about hormones settling down and brain maturation.

 

[Progster]

all teenagers feel invulnerable.

This is an oversimplification/generalisation - more accurate would be to say that teenagers have a tendency to feel invulnerable (= more likely to take risks) in certain situations. Studies have been carried out where brains of both teenagers and adults were scanned while given stimuli, and it was found that the teenage brain reacts more strongly, meaning they are more likely to seek out those stimuli in the form of pleasure, thrills, new experiences. But that doesn't mean that teenagers cannot feel vulnerable, just like everybody else. We are all subject to situations or events beyond our control and are likely to feel insecurities at some level.

 

[Dadamen]

Our rate of maturity is different from that of neurotypical people, and is uneven, I would say. There's levels on which I probably wasn't ever a teenager in the neurotypical sense of the word, I knew a lot yet also missed a lot, I was old for my age yet also young for my age.

I agree with this, I also behave sometimes too old and sometimes too young. I don't know would I call not smoking and drikning young (because this isn't for kids) or old (because i'm responsable)

So, overall, you are probably just a 'normal' Aspie.

Yes

And also as you say, our life experiences make a difference too. And now we've all lived through a pandemic also.

I've had a cancer in 2017, so life expiriences may also have influence on my sense of vulnerability

Which must mean I have never actually been a teenager. It was like I was partly still a child and partly an adult, so I only got along with adults and kids younger than me. I was either called mature and intelligent for my age or selfish and immature. So confusing.

Looks like this is aspie adolescence. If three of us here have it. The only important thing that we miss are friends. These teenage gangs are problematic because never everyone falls in some gang and it's impossible to join them. So some teenagers will always not to have friends and aspies are much more likely to be these becuse of difference.

This is an oversimplification/generalisation

Yes, I agree.

 

[Wolfgangus Faldestolius]

I was a sensible youngster and then went backwards, I am now struggling to become young and balanced at heart again.

 

[SDRSpark]

I was pretty risk averse as a teen. In my early 20s, I was off the rails - I don't think that was immaturity, I think it was the inevitable mental illness that stemmed from a lifetime of trauma and growing up as an unrecognized autistic with no idea why the world didn't make sense (so more, and different, trauma). I did stuff that wasn't just "I would never do this now", it was "I shouldn't have been allowed out without a chaperone, but I managed to hide my disfunction enough to avoid getting 5150'd." Which isn't the same thing as just being "young and stupid" as they say.

I'm also pretty sure there's a difference between "feeling invincible" and "not recognizing danger". The former is "I know this is dangerous but it won't hurt ME" and the latter is "I just have no concept of the hazard inherent in this situation". I believe the latter is common among neurodivergent people. It's a lack of understanding that doesn't necessarily get better with age (although sometimes we learn that certain situations are dangerous...though we still might not understand how they're dangerous, just that they are and so avoid them).

Either way, any generalization that includes every single member of a group is wrong, without exception.

 

[Nervous Rex]

There are multiple ways to "feel invulnerable".

When it comes to social status, friends, and love, most teenagers likely feel very vulnerable.

When it comes to thinking through the consequences of an action, teenagers aren't as good as older people simply because they're not as experienced. The older you get, the more you've seen ways things can go wrong, and the more you're trained to think of what can go wrong before doing something. Teenagers may think of some stunt (let's say speeding down the freeway) and think it would be fun to try. Older people will immediately think "What about other traffic, cops, sharp turns, black ice, potholes, limited visibility?" Then, the old people see the teens doing it and think, "They ignored all those risks because they think they're invulnerable!" but the truth is, all those hazards likely never even entered the teens' minds because they're not fully trained or experienced in thinking through what can go wrong.

 

[SusanLR]

I remember those days. Only for me it was in my 20's insted of teens.
Late to develop doing what teenagers usually do.

I look back and see I did some pretty dumb things without thinking about the hazards.
All I knew was I felt good and wanted to have fun.
Everything from getting out at night with a boyfriend and street racing, to other unsafe
things with him/them. Road rage was a game.
Going to a few parties and letting him be the drunk driver.
I never participated in recreational drugs, except for a few dances with Mary Jane.
Somehow I knew what they could do to me and didn't find taking that risk appealing.

Now I wouldn't even want to do those things. The desire for risk taking went away.
I didn't feel invulnerable. I was fully aware of what could happen, but, it was warp speed
ahead anyway. It was like the risk was the thrill.
I really don't know where that type of mentality comes from.

 

[Dadamen]

I remember those days. Only for me it was in my 20's insted of teens.
Late to develop doing what teenagers usually do.

I look back and see I did some pretty dumb things without thinking about the hazards.
All I knew was I felt good and wanted to have fun.
Everything from getting out at night with a boyfriend and street racing, to other unsafe
things with him/them. Road rage was a game.
Going to a few parties and letting him be the drunk driver.
I never participated in recreational drugs, except for a few dances with Mary Jane.
Somehow I knew what they could do to me and didn't find taking that risk appealing.

Now I wouldn't even want to do those things. The desire for risk taking went away.
I didn't feel invulnerable. I was fully aware of what could happen, but, it was warp speed
ahead anyway. It was like the risk was the thrill.
I really don't know where that type of mentality comes from.

Out English teacher has a very similar story about not being a teenager in high school, but some "late adolescence" caught him with 25 years.

 

[Au Naturel]

Today on our psychology lesson in school our teacher and also a school psychologist said that all teenagers feel invulnerable. This made me worried because I feel vulnerable and am careful not to lead myself in dangerous situation. Is this autism thing, anxiety or maybe good thing beacuse it means I'm mature for my age?
By the way, she said she is a mother of a girl with anxiety disorder and a boy with ASD .

I think it is mostly an NT thing but even there, "many teenagers feel immortal" is a more accurate description.

The combination of hormones, lack of experience in the harder lessons of life, youthful exuberance, and naturally good health combine to cause many, but not all, teens to take much bigger risks. They overestimate their chances of success and underestimate the consequences of failure. Risky behavior is endemic to the group. But like most statements that assert or imply "all" instead of "most" or even "many," it is a false statement.

NTs make exaggerations because the literal truth doesn't have the same impact on an NT. If you allow for exceptions, then an NT person puts themself into the exception, no matter how unrealistic it is. So in order to communicate the importance of a problem they exaggerate beyond what it really is.

 

[Nervous Rex]

NTs make exaggerations because the literal truth doesn't have the same impact on an NT. If you allow for exceptions, then an NT person puts themself into the exception, no matter how unrealistic it is. So in order to communicate the importance of a problem they exaggerate beyond what it really is.

I never thought about that before, but that is so true!