My nearly 15 yr old son is having a dip in mental health and we're proud that he's opened up to us where he's at. We pay for a counsellor but he says he hasn't brought these things to her yet. My query is about feeding the woes. He has always had a tendency to find the drama and woe in everything and with an empathetic listening ear and a 'poor you' response the sorrow grows and the hurt is more dramatic. Any suggestions on how to help him feel heard without feeding that need to make everything worse? We've just had a long chat and I've recommended a good night's sleep, but every time I tried to leave he would start again about what would happen if things got worse, will he make it to Christmas etc. I find it hard not to ask him to stop being over dramatic. Every Time I even hint that maybe things are going too far he gets offended that I'm not validating his feelings. He is lonely and at an age where he's seeing friendship groups develop without him. But he's also the school house captain, and host of the school talent show. The boy loves to be leader and loves a crisis. I can see he's down, with lots of negative thoughts and I want to help him work through those, but I'm finding every time we talk he's aiming for shock tactics. Fine line to tread. Any advice?

Posted by UKmum at 2023-11-29 23:54:33 UTC