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Teenagers

Parenting teenagers has its ups and downs. Get advice from Mumsnetters here.

Strategies needed

4 replies

drmelons · 25/06/2021 21:42

Posting for advice from the wise women of mumsnet!

I have a teenage daughter who generally copes well with life but can struggle with her thinking patterns at times. She has previously had a couple of sessions of counselling as she got stressed about GCSEs and would catastrophise in her thinking. Her counsellor gave her some great thinking strategies and all went well from them on.

More recently she has identified that her brain seems to respond to difficult and stressful periods by almost going into a self punishment mode ( continual thoughts that she is overweight, spends too much money, is no god at her sport, nobody likes her etc). It is great that she can see that this is her brain reacting to pressure and that deep down she knows these thoughts aren’t really what she thinks but she says that they can become too much and a little overwhelming. It has flared up this week as she has had a week of uni/job/apprenticeship input at school and is feeling stressed about the future.

She is adamant that she doesn’t want to see a counsellor but I am at a bit of a loss as to how to advise her about strategies to help. Any advice welcome.

OP posts:
lljkk · 25/06/2021 21:47

obsessive?

drmelons · 25/06/2021 21:50

Not sure that the thoughts are obsessive but I think they can dominate at times (does this mean they are obsessive?)

She tries to deal with them using distraction but I wonder if this is just side stepping the issue?

OP posts:
RENNY · 25/08/2022 12:40

Hi OP (drmelons), my daughter seems to have similar issues, are you able to recommend a counsellor (we're in Twickenham) who has dealt with severely negative self-perception issues? What you mention about your daughter's brain seems similar to our daughter's mindset. Thanks (concerned Dad on her mum's account)

HUGanALPACA · 25/08/2022 23:51

Do you know about DBT? V useful therapeutic approach for struggling teens.
Look on amazon for DBT workbooks for teens. It encourages the individual to attend to their immediate needs first (eg - getting proper sleep, eating properly, etc) and builds from there. V useful with one of my teens and v useful for informing parenting. Good luck x

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