Somewhere along the way, you got a reputation.
Maybe it started in second grade, when you pointed out that the teacher had broken the same rule she’d just punished a classmate for. Maybe it was a coach, a youth pastor, a parent at the dinner table. You asked a reasonable question about something obviously unfair, and the room went cold.
You expected an answer. You got a consequence.
By adulthood the labels had piled up. Difficult. Intense. Argumentative. Has trouble with authority. Doesn’t know when to let it go. You may have started to believe them. You may have spent years wondering what’s wrong with you that you can’t just nod along like everyone else.
As a therapist, I meet a lot of neurocomplex adults carrying this label, and when we trace it back, the story is remarkably consistent. A child noticed something real. A child said it out loud. And the adults responded to the saying and ignored the something.
That’s where the “authority issue” comes from: teachers.
A mind built to notice
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