Ah those teen years!

I am a firm believer that few adults would want to re-do the teen years. If you are one who would like to re-do them - AS THEY WERE - please please add a comment and tell us why.

The years where your age ends in "teen" are given different labels by different theorists - like adolescence, pre-adult, puberty, and one I like - "normal psychosis."

No matter what it is called, we as a species need to evolve through those 7 years. Not that 12 and 20 are always so great but we don't tend to put kids that age into the category teen. [By the way, I usually say "kid." It's a habit from way back when I first started studying psychology.]

The teen years are ushered in by hormonal changes - and these in turn lead to physical changes and all of this is accompanied by mental changes. Just like with 2 and 3-year-olds coping with an awful lot of changes the teen seeks ways to deal with it. A major difference is that 2 and 3-year-olds are still under parental control and watch while teens are not- or not as much as we as parents would like. They are in school, they often travel there without the car pool, they learn to drive, and like it or not they experiment with "things."

"Things" can include not only drugs, alcohol and sex; it can include personality, academic interests, and sports.

Welcome to "normal psychosis."