This is how BUP (child and adolescent psychiatry) writes about self-image and identity:
“Identity is an obvious feeling of being your own person with their own qualities, thoughts, opinions and one's own personality. Identity is also an obvious feeling of being able to be yourself and daring to stand for who you are.
You create your identity by relating to your world in different ways. By the outside world is meant people you meet, the impressions you get and experience you make. This means that you start to look at yourself in relation to what you experience and that you can compare yourself to the outside world. You start to think about what you think is important, what you like and don't like, what you stand for, and so on. So you develop a self -image - how you look at yourself - and it is through the one that you build your identity.
The self -image is also shaped by how you are treated by other people. It is especially important to be confirmed by important people in one's life. It shows that you are important and important and through that you get a strengthened self -image. Developing one's own identity is something that goes on throughout your life and that begins already when you are little. At the age of nine, children become more aware of how they are in the eyes of others and begin to think about how their identity looks.
In the teens, it is common for many things to happen in life that make you perhaps start thinking more about your identity. The relationship with parents changes when you start to grow up and should stand more on your own. Maybe you also get new interests that make you no longer have as much in common with old friends. You can also get new friends and love relationships. It becomes important who you are in relation to others.
It is normal to think a lot about their self -image and identity as a teenager. It is a period in life when you may start to question things that have obviously felt in the past, you are starting to think about new ways and have more own opinions. You can see it as a period in life when you have the opportunity to try it out when it comes to thoughts and behaviors. That way you can find out who you are and how you want to be perceived by others, that is, get a clearer self -image and build an identity.
For some, all this can make them feel uncertain and confused about their own identity. It could be called an identity crisis. "
Identity is something we are thinking about from and to all life but during childhood/teens it happens a lot. During these years it is common for life to feel difficult for periods. "Who am I?" is a big question. How do we know that? How do we get to know ourselves?
It is important to ask for help if your child/your teen has a hard time and is feeling bad. Ours emotional card Can absolutely help to get conversations to start and to create an understanding of emotions and thus be able to ask for help, but in the case of the slightest concern or for support and advice you should contact for example BUP where you live. They help you forward with suitable support.
