On Dr. Phil today - Teenage Rage

[Calamity Jane]

Thought this may be helpful for some here. Here's the synopsis:

Phyllis and Barry say they're desperate to calm their violent 15-year-old son, Brandon, and turn to Dr. Phil for help. The couple confides that signs of their son's anger began around age 6 and has grown progressively worse -- so much so that their requests for Brandon to perform simple tasks such as brushing his teeth or bathing cause him to go into a rage, breaking things and punching holes in walls, and even chasing Phyllis with scissors. Barry says they walk on eggshells, waiting for Brandon’s next violent outburst and that every day he leaves the house worried that his wife may not make it to the end of the day. For protection, the couple says they’ve even installed locks on various doors throughout their home, providing Phyllis a "safe room" in which to hide. What is at the root of Brandon's anger? Dr. Phil spends some one-on-one time with the young man to determine what’s driving his behavior. And, find out what Phyllis recently found in Brandon’s room that shocked her to her core.

 

[Californiablonde]

Wow he sounds exactly like difficult child before she was properly medicated. I watch the Dr. Phil repeats every night after work. Will be an interesting show to watch.

 

[AnnieO]

Sounds a lot like many of our difficult children... I wonder. I'll have to see if I can find it on demand...

 

[HopeRemains]

Well, I watched the first half of it and decided that I should turn it off, because difficult child got home 20 minutes into it. A few significant things happened because I watched it. First of all, my 3 yr old was sitting in my lap and watching the clip where they said they were afraid he was going to kill them one day. At that point, my 3 yr old said "That's not good, is it Mommy?". He then brought up the time where he was in the tent with difficult child and difficult child told him he was going to kill him with a knife. I asked him if that scared him. He said yes, and difficult child scares him when he is hitting him and when he tells him stories. My guilt is horrible. He gave me bigs hugs when I said he doesn't have to worry anymore and that Mommy will protect him.

Then, difficult child walks in about 10 minutes later. The first thing easy child does is tell him that he told me about the tent incident, to which difficult child looks very guiltily innocent and says he doesn't know what he's talking about. I realized a couple of days ago that I caught on tape the first and only other time I brought it up with difficult child. He slammed his apple down and screamed at easy child that he is a LIAR!!! After that, I decided to avoid the subject if only to save easy child from his wrath, because husband would never do anything about it anyhow. He never even mentioned it to difficult child!

Then, difficult child tells me that he had a dream last night about zombies. He said that one of the zombies told him to go over and kill dogs.

He then said "What's in your cup? Blood?" then laughed it off. (Fruit punch)

I just feel like crying. Plus, Dr. Phil is as big a jerk as ever, lol. Was he fooled by that boy? Oh my.

 

[Nancy]

Very sad. And there are so many others out there like this boy and no help. He has been to 14 other doctors and on many different medications. What does that tell you about the medical community's ability to help these children? So when I hear politicians talk about mental health help as if that is going to cure these kids I could scream.

 

[Calamity Jane]

I was stunned that after Dr. Phil interviewed this young man, he and the medical director of a treatment facility who sat in on the conversation both agreed that they thought he had autism, and all the drugs he was previously prescribed were actually making him worse. Dr. Phil made it clear that he wasn't diagnosing him, but that was his opinion. Never in a million years would I have guessed that, but it sort of made sense after Dr. Phil explained about brain function, brain immaturity, etc. Incredible.

 

[DownTheRabbitHole]

Ok I'm getting so annoyed with my cable... what channel does his show come on? ABC, NBC, CBS. I have direct tv and did a search and everything and can't find a listing.

 

[Calamity Jane]

Rabbit,
It's on CBS network in my area.