Caregivers, I'm finding more and more of my middle school and high school girls discussing the emotion of 'anger' in our sessions together. The usual focus of anxiety and low self-confidence has, as of late, taken a back seat to this.
The anger their talking about with me is actually fueling their anxiety and low confidence levels. The girls are seeing their caregivers frustrated and more excitable than usual, in an overwhelming way. What I'm learning from these sessions, is that the girls are seeing their caregivers fuming at the television and at social media. They are witnessing their caregivers saying horrible things about friends and family members they apparently love and care about, who are on "the wrong side", which is shattering their sense of security in the world. Most of them don't understand the details of the politics, what they understand is that their caregivers seem off-kilter, unpredictable, and a bit scary.
If we look at their coping mechanisms like a sieve, they're sieve is already becoming full from adolescent development issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, and academic pressure. When we poor more into the sieve, for lack of a better way to describe it, the sieve gets clogged.
I myself have learned so much from them during this politic firestorm lately, and have tried to be more cognizant of how much my own 13 year old daughter needs to see and hear.
I write this only because they're opening my eyes daily to how deeply they are being affected by it, and I wanted to pass it along to all of you amazing caregivers out there that are doing your very best just like me.