When I was a little kid I had a school psychologist give me the marshmallow test. It was extremely awkward because their assumption was the same as used throughout this article, that the marshmallow represented a strongly tempting treat. But it happens that to me as a picky eater marshmallows were always creepy nonfood and to this day I still find them absolutely disgusting. I was also quite disciplined because of my…
I went the complete opposite direction as the result of violent and abusive parents and had never considered that the opposite also occurs, but of course it must.
For whatever reason, the more violent my parents became with me, the more violent and defiant I became…and not just with my parents. I came to see everyone and everything as a threat to my safety and began to respond accordingly.
Given the whole fight or flight thing, I am wildly predisposed to choosing fight. It took years and I mean years to learn to control this.