Do you ever feel both older and younger than you are?

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I am in my 20s, but sometimes I behave more like an older person than my peers who just want to drink and party all the time. I love sitting around in my soft dressing gown in the evening and taking hot baths with candles. I love reading the Guardian newspaper and its supplements each Saturday, I love going to museums on my own on the weekend, I feel more comfortable around people older than me.

Yet in other ways I'm more like someone younger than me. I LOVE going on swings in the park, especially rope swings (if I can find one adults can use) I love stroking and playing with cats in the street, I love funfairs and have a childlike grin on my face the whole time and the urge to run around excitedly...

Anyone else feel both older and younger than their age?

You are not alone...

I feel like small kid emotionally but like old man intellectually... Some people call me 'big baby'.

I'm in a similar situation. I'm not sure exactly how old I feel emotionally, but certainly much younger than my age. Intellectually, I, too, am an old man.

i feel older than i am because people my age are interested in things that seem stupid and futile.

i feel younger than my age because other people my age think what i am interested in is trivial in comparison to the complexities of adult life.

so that all cancels out to make me feel my age.

Yes, and in some ways I feel as if I was born old and get younger as time goes by. Maybe because my disthymia is relieved after many years of suffering. I am more realistic yet less cynical . I am more comfortable around people older than me yet still enjoy childlike things. I'm watching SpongeBob right now. I feel so young when I compare myself to what others have accomplished and so old because of what I've observed about human nature. I think that comes from the detachment. This dichotomy is on my mind a lot lately because my birthday is tomorrow . I am immature in so many ways and in other ways I'm very old.

Exactly as Traex.

I'm emotionally ret*d maybe age 14. Intellectually I'm brilliant which commonly shows as insight decades beyond my years.

Yes. I've been told I look younger than I am, often confused with undergraduate students. Most of my friends are older, though, by at least 5 years. I have very few friends who are younger. Fortunately, this starts to matter less and less the older you get.

Funny, this just made me remember about Boy Scouts growing up. I was the only one in our troop who was in my grade. I was the oldest by about 4 years. I'm not sure why I stayed in, but I think I liked the idea of mentoring.

YES x 1000

Amusement parks excite me a lot more than they probably should for an "adult". In fact, i'd probably go every week if Busch Gardens was closer to my house... ROLLERCOASTERS!! ! YAYYYAYAYAYAYYYY!! !!
I find a lot of "toys" really amusing.
Whenever i see someone out with an animal, i basically think like an 8 year old, get excited, and go up and ask if i can pet it, sometimes start talking to it, lol.

But, i also feel like i think much more logically than the majority of people.. And, to put it bluntly, a lot of people just seem like complete idiots most of the time.

Emotionally I range from infant to about 10 years old. Intellectually, I am around 60 years old(I am 30 years old). Even though I am in go to an agency for disabled people,I do better with normal intelligent adults, then i do with the disabled. The age range I feel comfortable with are people ages from 18-50. I also do well with children ages 5 or 6 to about 12. I do okay with any youth from 13 to 17, if I know them really well.
Even though my interest is medical, which is very intellectual, my hobbies can be quite infantile to about little children ages. I am not really into any of the teen or adult things, nor the pre-teen stuff either. I just fit pre-teen clothes because I am a very skinny person.

This describes very well how I feel.

Of course. Part of me is still fifteen, and part of me is seventy-five and always has been. There is very little in between.

Yes, I feel older because I'm wiser (not just my opinion) then most people my age, and I don't fit in with most people my age (except those who are older then their age too) because they're immature. I feel younger too because I'm still really naive and act more like a ten year old (not the silliness or anything, but just the interactions themselves are not up to par with somebody my age) when I'm nervous or really tired. There are many more reasons why I'm older yet younger, but I'll save you from the many pages that would fill
I think that just because we are a certain age, it doesn't mean that we act only in that age group. I think everybody is a combination of ages, and we strand it together into one number. (If that makes any sense It does in my head anyways)

Sometimes I feel profoundly old, but with none of the experience and self assuredness that goes with being old. (I'm 19)

Sometimes I feel like a little hyperactive kid.

Excellent quote.

I agree, some teenagers for example are very wise for their age, some people are old and experienced but still have something innocent about them, and these components have to be stranded into one age.

In my world they call it "asynchrony". Hmm. 12 years old emotionally, and I don't know how old intellectually...

I sure do. I feel like I was born in the wrong generation because I do not fit in with people of my age range and I do not like to do what other people my age do. Most people my age want to "live a little" or so they say. By that they mean doing stupid crap like partying, doing drugs, getting laid and all that other nonsense. I feel I am too mature because I have no desire to act like an a**hole and waste my 20's doing stupid meaningless stuff like that. I'd just rather built up my college years so I can get a good job someday. I feel I am more mature then my peers because I act in an adult like manner and I'm very serious. I feel like an older man in a young person's body which is why I'm also attracted to women who are older than me. I also at times feel like I am a bit immature for my age because I am very innocent, I have no desire or understanding of sex and I don't think I can ever go through with doing that activity in any point in my life.