Helping Teens Understand How They Cause The Drama in Their Own Lives
My seventeen year old son quipped to his twin sister, "You. Are. Drama." She screamed back with her fists clench and her face red, "I am not!" She stormed out of the room and slammed her bedroom door. Then I heard a demanding scream at the top of her lungs, "Mom! Tell the boys I am not drama!!" My fifteen year old looked over at his brother and said, "Yep. She's drama." Amazing how kids who claim to hate been in the spotlight actually seem like they love to live in it. You have to figure out what is driving their behavior. Each child is different and their parents probably know them best.
C.A.R.E., the Center for Adolescent Recovery & Education, presents four very unique residential treatment centers for troubled young adults understand that their frustrations which cause them act out may be sabotaging them. The C.A.R.E. consortium of therapeutic residential centers for struggling adolescents is for both boys and girls.
How To Cope
Each child is different and for my daughter, I feel like she thinks she doesn't get enough attention and she becomes jealous of the boys easy-going personalities. Part of it is probably a personality and the other part is underlying feelings that she doesn't know how to cope with. Young adults act out in the same way. They have many feelings or frustrations they don't know how to deal with and are causing their own problems more so than they realize. I've concluded that if you want to help your children understand how they cause their own issues, you have to help them look underneath all of the external outbursts and sabotage. As they get older, their self-inflicted stumbling blocks are going to be much harder to navigate. If your family is trying to cope with adolescents who need help, please contact C.A.R.E. immediately and speak to a professional.