A child will go to extremes to get his physical needs met. For emotional needs he will go even farther (we see this with anorexia, bulimia, etc.). Emotional needs are even stronger than physical survival needs. Children will do dangerous things to get people to notice them. Nobody wants to be just “average.” An average boy will choose to become the class clown because at least he is then a somebody. He would rather be a clown than a nothing. This is very subconscious. Children will go to extremes even if it’s not comfortable. Better to be uncomfortable than to be a nothing. A person has to be a something.
Think of how things bother us when we’re tired, hungry or nervous. Children are the same way, but they lack the ability to recognize it and deal with it appropriately.
