Sometimes we wonder if therapy would be a beneficial tool. We question if our child or self is "severe enough" and we hope and wish the hard stuff away. Sometimes, people are able to grow and change on their own, but at the very least, accessing therapy would help to speed along the growth process. I am a data driven decision maker professionally, and want to give you some concise and clear ways to help determine if therapy would be beneficial for you and your family.
First, label or think of the behavior or emotion in question. Then ask yourself the following.
1. Frequency and Duration: How often has the undesired behavior been happening? Have your child's outbursts grown from "every so often" to a few times a week, or even daily? Have you seen an increase in isolation from your teenager? Are you noticing mood changes more often? Is it taking longer for your child to recover from triggering events?
2. Intensity: Are the outbursts increasing in emotion? Are they escalating from crying to screaming and yelling to violence? Are emotional responses proportionate to the circumstance, or are they seemingly and increasingly irrational? Is your child's tenancy to avoid risk turning into a complete withdrawal to electronics?
3. Life Impediment: Is your child not able to fulfill simple life expectations without incident? Can he/she attend school consistently? Can he/she do homework and turn it in? Can you identify a social network for your child by name? Are they losing interest in parts of life they once loved?
Occasionally a person will fit into all three categories, which would imply that person is close to a crisis point. If this is the case, the person should access therapeutic support as soon as possible. More often, a person will identify with a few of these indicators and therapy is appropriately accessed as a preventative tool in hopes of steering away from a potential catastrophe. Reach out today and let me help you and your family learn tools to help regulate and control thoughts and emotions, leading to a happy and fulfilled life.