I’ve mentioned my unabashed love for How I Met Your Mother once or twice, but up until this point, that’s been more about the characters than some of the philosophies that the show brings forth, especially one that is so common that I’m surprised that it hasn’t been discussed more.
If you haven’t guessed by the title, I’m talking about revertigo.
Revertigo, for those of you too lazy to click on the urban dictionary link I provided above, is the phenomenon that occurs when you see and interact with people from your past and revert to your old personality and mannerisms around them. It happens to all of us – with old bosses, family, friends, ex-significant others, and even our physicians. Whether it’s excitement or fear or complacency, everyone can get it.
Sometimes, it’s because we don’t know how else to act around them. We find comfort in our old patterns and routines, becoming complacent as we were, rather than showing these people how we are now. And while revertigo may be a comforting security blanket in some social situations, the cost is even higher.
Rather than allowing the people from their past to get to know them in the present, those who submit to revertigo try to preserve their old selves instead, preventing others from seeing them as they are. It’s unfortunate to find out that someone hasn’t changed, especially as some of those changes may have occurred – they can end up looking immature, lazy, direction-less, or even pathetic. Sometimes, we completely change as people during the interim of a few years. But revertigo means that some will never see that.
There’s no quick cure for revertigo, other than a good amount of self-esteem and the control to focus on how one is now instead of then. After all, there’s a good chance that the other person has changed too. And using a personality time machine means that two people are missing out on getting to know each other better.
