They actually are, though. Thinking about death is completely normal and very healthy. https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1312614389648896001

I didn't have time when I first Tweeted this as I was in between clients but this is SO wrong. Existential therapy, which accepts and embraces our mortality, is one of the modalities I use most often. Making decisions knowing our time is limited leads to better decisions.

One of the results of the prefrontal cortex being fully developed around the age of 25 is that you lose that sense of exceptionalism in regards to death. You begin to make better choices after that happens.

Thought about it, went back and forth and decided, yes, I will go all the way off about this.

American culture in regards to aging and concept of age is a particularly toxic dumpster fire. We treat kids like they’re adults, only smaller, particularly POC children. For instance: Trayvon Martin vs. that Affluenza asshole.

Another way this shows up, PARTICULARLY in my office, repeatedly, is when a teenager, in white cultures more often the daughter, is treated as a peer by their mother. Your kid is not your friend.

It is ABUSE to tell your child details about the adult world over which they are powerless. It is ABUSE to be intoxicated in front of your kids or use drugs in front of them. It is ABUSE to tell your kid about your sex life or significant other dynamic.

On a larger scale, American culture is deeply in denial about aging. Anti-aging procedures are a billion dollar industry. 60 year olds often look mid 40s due to Botox, fillers, and surgery. Your body your choice but that’s not particularly mentally healthy. We age. It happens.

It is also truly weird to see a mid-40s mom raid her teen daughter’s closet. When I see that I often assume, experientially, that this is a person in deep denial about time and mortality and is really, really trying to resist it.

So we make kids little adults and we try as hard as we can to make everyone look no older than 45. It’s truly messed up. Societies which respect aging, don’t resist it, and openly talk about death are much better off well-being-wise than we are. /dismounts soapbox