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Originally Posted by Lauliza
I suppose if private pay therapy were an option for me I'd think differently. But i need insurance to see a T and for that there needs to be a diagnosis, so I guess I'm looking at it from that perspective. I think family support is hugely important and agree there cant be too many adulta in a childs life. I dont think this necessarily needs to be in the form of a psychologist or therapist, but in some cases it may be what's best. There are lots of parents, myself included, who have benefited greatly from professional guidance when the situation was too complicated for help from friends or family.
Its interesting to note something from the perspective as a parent that I would not have understood when I was younger, and that's that many kids are brought for treatment by their parents, not because its what they want. I'm not saying this isnt warrented. I'm aware that many times it is, and its great that there is so much help available to those who need it.
But it can also be the result of helicopter (or over anxious) parenting too. For a real diagnosis there needs to be a disorder, and many normal childhood begaviors can be considered a disorder if we overanalyze it enough. Kids who are quite well adjusted are sent to therapy and end up sitting in silence for 50 minutes when they could be out doing "kid" things- likely because its their mom or dad who could really use the help. This kind of thing you really only see in the US...
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When I saw a therapist as a kid, it wasn't about "treating" anything - I didn't have a diagnosis and was only there because my teacher had recommended that I see someone to talk to about my emotions and stuff I'd been going through as a result of my parents' divorce and my brother being diagnosed with autism. I don't remember all that much about it other than playing games that I thought were stupid that were about expressing your feelings (the point of which I suppose was to teach me emotional regulation), but I remember that it was really nice to have someone to talk to who wasn't in my real life, who I could talk to about my brother's antics without feeling guilty, because in my "real" life, I always wanted to be a super supportive big sister and I never said anything bad about him to anyone.
And if I tried to talk to my parents about that stuff, they just reminded me that he couldn't help his behavior (which I knew) and that I was older and had to be mature and deal with it. So it was really nice to have someone to talk to who wouldn't judge me for being like, "J came into my room yesterday and broke my dollhouse that my grandpa gave me before he died, and when I got upset about it, Daddy just told me it's not his fault; he can't help it; deal with it." And instead of telling me I shouldn't be upset about it, the therapist would let me express my feelings and help me work through them.
Ideally, a kid will have a parent who can provide that sort of response, which I would try to do for my kid, but I think even if my parents had been supportive about stuff like that I might still have not felt comfortable going to them for those sorts of things because ever since I was a little kid I always wanted to project the image of having things under control, even to them. So I would want my kid to have that option, even if it was just seeing a therapist once a month or so. Like your yearly check-up at the doctor's office or the optometrist or the dentist - it's not to fix anything, but just to make sure everything is progressing well.
Of course, this viewpoint is subject to change in the future...but I know how much having someone to talk to (even before I had any clinical diagnosis) helped me when I was a kid, and I guess I was really lucky my parents could afford that. I guess I don't know if it would help my (theoretical, probably non-existent) kid, but it probably wouldn't hurt them.