Erikson's Identity Vs. Role Confusion

Emotional
When I was 13, I was diagnosed with a rather severe anxiety disorder. I was unable to function in the world in which I was living. Every day was a struggle and I was plagued with self-doubt. Everything in my life was more than I could handle and almost every day ended in tears and a fight with my parents. It felt as if my life was falling apart and there was nothing I could do about it. Thankfully, my parents realized that something was wrong and were able to find a therapist who gave me the help that I needed. When my anxiety disorder was first diagnosed, I was at the beginning of Erikson’s Identity vs. Role Confusion stage (Polan & Taylor, 2015, p. 66). Around the beginning of adolescence, the adolescent constantly thinks about
66). The adolescent “discovers who they are,” which leads to the development of their identity formation. If the adolescent’s identify is not formed, they cannot find their place in a social world, which leads to Role Confusion. Due to my anxiety disorder, I was at risk for Role Confusion. Erikson’s theory is based on overcoming crises (Baker-Smith & Moore, 2001, p. 20) and I was definitely in crisis. I was expressing “feelings of inferiority, role confusion, isolation, stagnation and despair which are the antithesis of Erikson’s healthy person” (Baker-Smith & Moore, 2001, p. 21). My anxiety was hindering my identity formation because I was consumed by worry---about what other people thought about me, how I compared to everyone else, and how I was not “good enough.” I thought that I was stupid, and that therefore no one liked me. I was so busy thinking about how bad I was and what other people thought of me, that I did not spend any time developing who I actually was. It took many years and a lot of hard work with my therapist to figure out who I was and to establish my own identity. I left High School knowing a lot about myself and currently have a very strong sense of identity. Throughout my struggle with anxiety, I learned a lot about myself and who I am
My religious identity and community have taught be the importance of helping others. The greatest actions that someone can take are the ones done not for reward but because they are the right things to do. My moral development through a religious community has shaped the way that I think about my life its purpose. I know that it will not always be easy to work as a nurse. Long hours, hard patients, seeing and caring for people when they are sick and dying, when they feel that their dignity has been taken and that they are at their rock bottom—these are not easy things to deal with. It is in those times that I will turn to my faith. I will look at the moral code that I have developed, and decide what my next action will be. According to Kohlberg’s theory, I have created a moral compass for myself using my religious identity. Kohlberg himself acknowledges the positive effect that religion can have on a person. Religion helps a person form a response to the uncertainty of “moral evil, suffering, and death. Religion offers a way of accepting reality as ultimately trustworthy in spite of the ambiguity occasioned by the gap between the moral ideal and the real, by the existence of suffering, injustice, and death” (Kohlberg & Power, 1981, p.213). When my moral compass does not tell me, what needs to be done, I will