Lesson 6: Building Anger Management Skills
When To Seek Help
For some of us there comes a time to seek help for a troubled child. How do you know what to look for? Here are some signals your child may need help:
- Sudden severe changes in personality
- Hurting small animals or children
- Setting fires
- Prolonged loss of appetite
- Changes in sleeping patterns
- Sudden outbursts of violence that haven't responded to intervention.
- Withdrawal from family interaction
- Excessive crying or feeling hopeless
- Bedwetting
- Inappropriate sexual behaviors in young children.
It’s a very difficult thing to discover your child needs help that is beyond your capabilities. It hurts, and often a parent feels like he failed his child in some profound way. Whatever the reasons, getting help for your child can make a significant difference in the way he feels. Trauma, mental illness or addiction are all treatable, especially if you get help early.
Child molestation often gets swept under the rug. Children molested by a close friend or relative have created a difficult situation for a parent. Instead of supporting and defending their child, they may either refuse to deal with it or act in a punitive manner towards the child. This type of reaction scars children forever. While this reaction is somewhat understandable in light of the shattered relationships attendant on such a disclosure, the situation is never worth hiding from. Your child will never be able to trust or forgive you.
Facing issues together can bring a family through pain and tears into an active and healthy unit. It takes courage, compassion and commitment to open up your darkest corners in therapy. For a child’s sake it is a worthwhile journey.
Have you ever needed help and your parents refused or ignored the signs? How did it feel? Are you still hurt and angry?
