There are milestones we’re told will make us adults — and then there are milestones that only dress the child in a bigger suit. We were promised that time, paperwork, and performance would deliver us into maturity: a job, a mortgage, a ring, maybe kids to fix what’s broken. But if adulthood is so easily won, why are so many “adults” still run by frightened, unintegrated children wearing the mask of competence?

This episode isn’t about shaming immaturity — it’s about exposing the architecture of it. We track how stress and trauma regress the very executive function we rely on, how external milestones get mistaken for inner rites of passage, and how a culture without elders mass-produces pathologically adolescent lives. What if the problem isn’t you, but the myth of adulthood itself?

Whether you’ve checked every box and still feel hollow, or avoided the script and still feel lost, this conversation strips the mask and asks what it actually takes to become an adult — inside.

Together, we ask:
– What if “adult” isn’t an age or achievement, but a rite of passage most people never undergo?
– What if stress and trauma regress the brain’s CEO — and interns (child parts) start running the boardroom?
– What if external milestones (job, marriage, mortgage) say nothing about inner milestones (boundaries, regulation, soul purpose)?

In this episode:
– Arrested development, explained: why parts of us freeze at the age of impact — and keep making today’s decisions
– When the CEO leaves the building: the boardroom metaphor for inner leadership (and why interns shouldn’t sign contracts)
– A real case study: Eleanor’s costly contract signed by a child part — and what “adult cleanup” required
– Stress → regression: how chronic pressure shuts down executive function and revives primitive coping (games, avoidance, shutdown)
– Attachment over autopilot: why relationship patterns mirror early bonds (and how “mindset hacks” miss the depth)
– External vs internal milestones: drinking age, degrees, and deeds vs boundaries, emotional range, and true responsibility
– Bill Plotkin’s arc: child → adolescent → adult → elder — and why spiritually integrated adults (and true elders) are rare
– From performance to initiation: moving beyond the IKEA flat-pack life into soul-level purpose and service

Hosts: Daniel Darman & Elinor Moshe
Speakers: Daniel Darman & Elinor Moshe
Produced by: Truth of You
Copyright: © 2025 Truth of You
Website: truthofyou.com.au
Instagram: @theelinormoshe & @thedanieldarman