Hello and welcome back to savvy psychologist. I'm Dr. Ellen Hendrickson, and I'll help you meet

life's challenges with evidence-based research, a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment.

This week, do you take odd pride in knowing how to clean the dishwasher filter? Do you tell your friends in a conspiratorial whisper about the miracle of compound interest?

Does going to bed at 9.30 give you a high?

If so, congrats.

You are adulting.

Adalting, which the Oxford English Dictionary shortlisted for Word of the Year in 2016,

along with alt-right, huga, woke, and post-truth, is behaving in a manner consistent with

responsible adulthood. And this can be little things like cleaning snow off your windshield

with an actual snowbrush rather than your flailing late-to-work

arms, or it could be making a dentist appointment without your mother reminding you. But it can also

be the big things, figuring out your values, learning how to take care of yourself, and taking

responsibility for your life, rather than blaming traffic, your little brother,

or Jack Daniels. Now, much of adulting consists of working against human nature. We humans tend to

focus on whatever shiny thing is directly in front of us. So adulting often means taking the long

view, saving for retirement, doing cardio, taking your vitamins. But as the name

implies, it's also simply the process of growing up. Adalting occurs as you trade dependence for

independence and self-centeredness for community. And over the years, out of all the college seniors

I've worked with in treatment,

100% have freaked out about graduation in one way or another. It is normal. So, for example,

one woman obsessively read personal finance books to cope with her anxiety about supporting

herself. Another, after triumphantly turning in her thesis, fell into a deep slump.

...