I live with my parents and I feel like I'm in a tiny bubble.

[Seiko]

I'm in college (19) and my parents have paid for my anything and everything. Furthermore, there has only been a single day when I needed to visit campus: that was for paperwork. The entirety of my college experience so far has been solely online. I don't go to an online school, but I live in an especially cautious area when it comes to COVID.

And during this time—while other kids were doing "normal things"—I've been in this safe haven of a bedroom shielded from reality. I'm too scared to do rudimentary things like driving. I need constant hand-holding and reaffirmation. I feel underdeveloped and wholly inadequate for adult life. I don't feel like I'm competent or confident enough.

The most recent example would be navigating airports. How needlessly complicated is that? Even driving there. So many different lanes and conflicting signs. Driving is a big one for me. Complicated intersections, merging onto the freeway, countless traffic laws, getting lost—it's a lot for me to take in. I just wish things were more intuitive.

I live in a tiny bubble of a comfort zone coddled by my parents; anything else feels like uncharted territory. I have super high inhibitions. I'm too scared to even move away from home. I have fantasies of a career, but when I come back to reality I see just how far-fetched it is.

 

[timf]

Some people face developmental delays. For example people with Aspergers can be inhibited with anxiety from attempting to navigate uncharted waters. This can seem strange in they many have exceptionally high IQs. However, sometimes it is not so much a matter of being smart as it is learning to manage anxiety.

You might try small steps like a weekly outing to work in a volunteer group, a church function, or even a book club. Driving might become a little easier if you can practice more like in a rural area.

There is a phrase, "Nothing succeeds like success". As you move from small "successes" you may gain from such experimentation, you can use them to build a foundation for larger successes.

 

[Celerity]

Not to minimize your distress, but you are only 19, not even old enough to drink. You have lots of time to branch out and experience the world. Don't let anyone make you feel ashamed for staying with your parents right now. For the vast majority, it is the financially sound decision.

I have ten years on you and am living with my parents. I boomeranged - left at 18 only to come back at age 24. I am ashamed of this in addition to all the contributing failures that led me back here, but I don't have a better alternative at the moment beside a final exit.

 

[whywere]

Like @x_riverrock11 said so eloquently, you are just 19 and starting out. There is absolutely nothing wrong with getting a helping hand to get a great start in life and a career. With college so darn expensive these days, when I went to college back in the early 1980's, tuition, room, board and books was only like $3,000 U.S. dollars a year, for real, that getting a good foundation to start is great.

You will spread your wings and soar as you get through all the years of college and I 100% believe in you and you will be great in whatever field you want to endeavor in.

Enjoy our time in school and your youth, I am 66 for reference point as you have so, so many awesome experiences waiting for you that you will enjoy so much.

Sending you lots of caring and encouragement as you are on the path to doing just great.

Walter

 

[Cosmic dust]

I had overprotective parents when I was a kid and never had a social life, I too used to feel insecure about things that looked simple for others, because of that, in my early 20s, I felt like a huge baby and I used to put myself down, believing that I couldn't do things like other people, what I did not realize, is that is perfectly normal to feel insecure sometimes, or to feel uncorfortable with new things, like a person learning how to drive, or someone that is new on a job, or new to airports.

Yeah, there are people on your age that drive, move away from their parents, work and do a lot of things that you can't, but that doesn't mean that you can't learn these things one day, or that these people never feel insecure or afraid of something.

Just take your time to explore new things slowly, to face new challenges, and believe in yourself, you can explore the uncharted territory, is not always going to be easy, your performance is not going to be perfect, and it does't need to be, but you can do it.

 

[Seiko]

An old thread, but on several international flights with five or more different transfers--I competently flew. Even filled out the customs forms for some of my family and led them to all the right gates. I have also been driving a bit more often; I can now park decently and drive on the freeway with relatively no change in heart rate. Today I drove for a couple of hours in busy I-5 traffic, and I was fine. Things are looking up.