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What Causes Adults To Behave As Children?
Question: my 33 year old daughter was found unresponsive on the floor yesterday evening, she did not want to cooperate with the doctors when she got to the hospital. she started acting like a 6 year old little girl, but the hospital said that she was ok and released her to go home. today she is acting just like she was when she was 6 and shows no sign of improvement. there are family and friends that she does not know who they are. she asks to go to the bathroom and asks to eat. she is acting just like a young child stuck between the present and the past. what could have happened to her to make this 33 year old revert to acting like a 6 year old child? what should we do? they said that she has anxiety issues but what could have caused this to come on so severely and so suddenly?
Brief Answer:
Possible behaviour regression.
Detailed Answer:
I read your question carefully and I understand your concern.
From the description of her symptoms and behaviour, as well as what you have been told at the hospital it seems like behaviour regression. It is a type of psychological defensive mechanism where an individual under stress, when the amount of stress is too much for him/her to handle becoming unacceptable, reverts to an earlier stage of development.
However since the situation persists, especially if there is any other symptoms like fever, headache, vomiting, weakness of the limbs on one side, seizure etc, I believe you should present yourself again at the ER to make sure there are no other possible causes like nervous system infection or stroke.
If those possibilities are excluded, then I believe a psychiatric consult is necessary. Psychotherapy is the most common management strategy.
I hope to have been of help.
Possible behaviour regression.
Detailed Answer:
I read your question carefully and I understand your concern.
From the description of her symptoms and behaviour, as well as what you have been told at the hospital it seems like behaviour regression. It is a type of psychological defensive mechanism where an individual under stress, when the amount of stress is too much for him/her to handle becoming unacceptable, reverts to an earlier stage of development.
However since the situation persists, especially if there is any other symptoms like fever, headache, vomiting, weakness of the limbs on one side, seizure etc, I believe you should present yourself again at the ER to make sure there are no other possible causes like nervous system infection or stroke.
If those possibilities are excluded, then I believe a psychiatric consult is necessary. Psychotherapy is the most common management strategy.
I hope to have been of help.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Vinay Bhardwaj
Answered by
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