I Am Prone to Emotional Breakdowns and Sometimes My Family Sees Them, What Can I Do?

- User Submitted

I'm a parent and I have high highs and low lows.
I'm having breakdowns in front of my children and spouse.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Um, high highs and low lows.
Okay, so I wanna talk about this from two angles.
One is your personal need.
Uh, I don't know what's triggering the high highs
and the low lows, but it, it,
it seems like it's manifesting in front
of your spouse and your children.
There's some, some suffering that you're going
through that I don't know.
And I guess I would wanna, uh, begin with that,
whatever it is that you're going through, uh, a phrase
that we use is, it needs a voice.
I need to be able to talk about what I'm experiencing.
And usually that's done in a place, a safe place
with maybe a therapist, uh,
because, uh, what you're experiencing, high highs
and low lows, I would probably want
to assess for depression.
I would want you to be assessed for what's happening with,
in the high highs and the low lows.
And I would, uh, invite you to
identify maybe there's some triggers
to those high highs and low lows.
I don't, again, I don't know that,
but if, just from my perspective, um,
but that's where I would start.
I would really encourage you to seek some professional help
to help you understand the high highs and low lows.
They may recommend that you do some blood work, uh,
to make sure that there's nothing physiologically
that's happening to you.
And if you continue to go through the high highs
and low lows, I would wanna talk
with the professional therapist about that
so you could get an accurate, um, a diagnosis and support.
The other part of that is then, uh, I,
I think inherent is your question.
I'm afraid that it's in influencing my
children or observing me.
Um, what do I do with that?
And again, I, I don't know if that's fully the case,
but I would assume that's one
of the reasons why you're asking.
And, and more important than anything, if you're going
through a high highs and low lows, I think loving your child
and them knowing they're loved through, um, words,
through physical healthy touch, like just giving 'em a hug,
um, letting 'em know that you love them.
And even acknowledging, you know, there's times
where I'm having whatever the high highs look like
with the low lows, uh,
and I just want you to be aware that I'm aware of, of this.
And I'm, I'm trying to figure it out.
Uh, and I just, more than anything,
I need you to know that I love you.
In my experience, love is one of the more powerful things.
So if you're really struggling, uh, your love
towards them can help with whatever their fears may be.
So I would wanna make sure that you're validating them,
showing love, and, um, they know
that you're doing whatever you can
to get the support you need, because that shows courage.
And I think that's really a courageous question.
You're even asking this. So thank you for asking.
And I would, that, those are the places I would
start with your question.
And Dr. Skinner, that helps us all with resiliency to see
that, you know, everybody has, you know,
different things that go on,
and yet we're able to, we're able to work through that
and we're able to be successful or, or whatever.
But mirror
or not modeling, I guess modeling that
for our children I think would be important.
Yeah, for sure.
That's a, and and not only is it modeling that,
but it's the, the ability
to be vulnerable with them, to teach them.
Look, we're not afraid of having difficult conversations in
this home where, you know, we're open
to an appropriate degree.
Right? I mean, I don't, you could also overwhelm your child
with what we may refer to as too much information.
So we do have to be careful
with not getting them too involved with all the stuff
that's going on in our lives.

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Dr. Kevin Skinner