Disappointment--maturity vs. sense of control

Post Reply New Topic

I just came across this:
http://laughingwithaspergers.typepad.co ... tment.html

Someone with Asperger's explains on his blog how a disappointment about not receiving the correct DVD would have driven him into a very frustrated state just three years ago, but at the point this post was written, he took it completely in stride. He attributes that to "maturity".

However, in his explanation he says that he realized that it would take at most a week or two to get the DVD he actually wanted. This makes me think it is more the power to solve the situation, rather than maturity per se, that makes the difference. When the act of getting a DVD in the mail seemed more like "magic" to him, something that he couldn't confidently sort out, he was upset, but the opportunity to DO something to correct the error was empowering and solved the problem.

I am almost 30 and yet I still occasionally react to disappointments how he would have three years ago. In fact, I'm in one of those moods right now because of something that I've written about in another thread. It's about something, though, that is not within my power to solve. And other times it has had to do with things like chronic health issues that, likewise, I cannot change.

This makes me wonder how much maturity really amounts to knowing how to be proactive in doing certain things.