Understanding how emotions function in humans has been instrumental in guiding how I parent my three children, and it’s one of my favourite pieces of education to teach parents when we begin treatment together. Having a framework to lean back on helps parents to know what’s happening moment to moment.
Anxiety is the body’s natural alarm system that signals some kind of threat in the environment. It’s an important emotion, and one that has likely ensured our survival. Through evolution, anxiety has served us well- it alerts us to predators, helps us to protect our young, and prepares us for action through the fight, flight and freeze response- when needed.
Why won’t my child listen? Why is he being so defiant? Why do I have to ask so many times for her to do what I need her to do?! Oppositionality is defined as the refusal to conform to the ordinary requirements of authority and a willful contrariness.
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