It seems blindingly clear what the author means, and if one isn't going to connect with the article because they're hung up on "is acting like" versus "is", they weren't going to get it anyways.
If somebody's anxiety prevents them from connecting to the article because the author refers to themselves as "a baby" instead of "like a baby", that person may benefit from talk therapy.
If somebody is getting hung up on something as nit-picky as that, they're not going to see the forest for the trees in an article like this.
Ironically, playing nit-picky semantics games like this is the kind of avoidant attitude that lead people astray from personal growth.
* someone reacting strongly to this slight difference is "acting like a baby", at least colloquially, but I'm not sure if it meets the author's definition of "active".
* the author using the term "acting like a baby" might get through to people who are sensitive to the difference