"Mental health professionals are interested in parents’ perceptions of adolescents who engage in self-harming behaviors. A new study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry (2008) titled, “Parents’ perspectives on adolescent self-harm: qualitative study,” examines this issue. Twelve parents of adolescents who engaged in self-harming behaviors were interviewed. And the results? “Parents commonly suspected and spotted self-harm prior to disclosure or service contact; however, communication difficulties and underestimating significance led to delays in addressing the behaviour. Parents struggled to understand and cope with self-harm.” The data from this study support that idea that parents are often aware of the their child’s self-harm but are unsure of how to intervene.
The Bottom Line: This study supports the idea that parents are often aware of their adolescent’s self-harming behaviors, but lack the knowledge of what to do about it. "
Source:Dr. Jeff's and Dr. Tanya's Blog
Gees...
3 comments:
yes, and it is a load of pie in the sky rubbish anyway. I have yet to find one psychologist, psychiatrist, counsellor, therapist - whatever, who treats parents as anything other than, at best, a plain nuisance and at worst as something that has crawled out from under a stone.
In an ideal world this should be a teamwork approach - the person concerned, their parents and their medical advisors should be working togethe; we have the same interest at heart surely?
Reality is that parents "struggle" as they put it because they have no support, no information other than what they can research themselves and are treated as pariahs and indeed often as the sole cause of all their kids' problems. Believe it or not, this is NOT always or even often the case.
On top of that, these guys Tania and whatever almost seem to be criticising us for or act surprised that we are "struggling" to cope. For goodness sake, what parents wouldn't it? This is not something that in our wildest nightmares we ever expected to have to deal with. We do deal with it, by and large fairly well, but yes, at times we do struggle. So what does that make us? Human doctor, human.
We have raised and nurtured these precious kids of ours and then we see the horrific damage of their self harm. It is heartbreaking because we love our kids and we feel so helpless to do anything to help. So yes, we do struggle to come to terms with it and the only reason we ever can is that we know that however awful it is for us it is ten times worse for our kids themselves.
I can understand your frustration Lauchlan, Ive dealt with some brilliant psychologists & I've dealt with some damn ordinary ones. I have as a parent and personally.
Your points from a parents perspective are so valid. It is heartbreaking to go through this with a child and then to be treated as you have described is just wrong.
All I can reccommend is shop around until you find one who works with you. No parent is prepared for dealing with this, how can they but getting someone who treats you with positive regard is essential, for although your child is in emotional pain (and confusion) so are the parents.
If you can find a good counsellor, family therapy can be brilliant...let me know how you get on Lauchlan. Often parents are overlooked by it effects the whole family and that needs to be recognised.
Sorry about the delay in answering, my computer went down...grrrr
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