Hi all,
It's been a pretty good summer around here! I have very little to complain about, but I'm gearing up for the start of the school year in 3 weeks and I'm not doing very well.
difficult child will be starting a new school (a gifted magnet) and will have a new teacher whom I haven't met, and who is rumored to be a difficult personality and a very strict person. I am starting to think about this too much, worrying about the phone calls to come, and seeing things in difficult child's behavior that won't pass muster in a classroom setting.
He's doing GREAT this summer, and did OK last year in the classroom with a terrific teacher. But he still is markedly impulsive, tends to blurt things out when he should stay quiet, tends to not stop when he's told to stop. And when he's anxious it gets much worse, and he's pretty awful to his little brother, especially when anxious.
Guess who's making him anxious! Me! I've begun to nitpick him, based on my own fears about school. "You can't do *that* in a classroom! School starts in 3 weeks." "Is that the way you're going to behave when your new teacher tells you to stop?" And in general I'm just being hard on him. Which makes him more anxious. Which exacerbates his behavior issues. Which makes me harder on him. And so on...
I need a lesson in detachment. I need help understanding that my difficult child is a fabulous, special person even though he is not well-matched to a typical classroom setting. I need to not feel like *I'm* starting a new school in September. I need to stop myself from getting in everybody's way.
I don't know if it's this transition, or some other stuff in my life right now, or what, but I'm beginning to think I'm veering into actual depression and may need some medications.
Does anybody have any advice on chilling out about school, or maybe share your thoughts on a good first-time antidepressant medication (for me)?
Thanks for listening!
It's been a pretty good summer around here! I have very little to complain about, but I'm gearing up for the start of the school year in 3 weeks and I'm not doing very well.
difficult child will be starting a new school (a gifted magnet) and will have a new teacher whom I haven't met, and who is rumored to be a difficult personality and a very strict person. I am starting to think about this too much, worrying about the phone calls to come, and seeing things in difficult child's behavior that won't pass muster in a classroom setting.
He's doing GREAT this summer, and did OK last year in the classroom with a terrific teacher. But he still is markedly impulsive, tends to blurt things out when he should stay quiet, tends to not stop when he's told to stop. And when he's anxious it gets much worse, and he's pretty awful to his little brother, especially when anxious.
Guess who's making him anxious! Me! I've begun to nitpick him, based on my own fears about school. "You can't do *that* in a classroom! School starts in 3 weeks." "Is that the way you're going to behave when your new teacher tells you to stop?" And in general I'm just being hard on him. Which makes him more anxious. Which exacerbates his behavior issues. Which makes me harder on him. And so on...
I need a lesson in detachment. I need help understanding that my difficult child is a fabulous, special person even though he is not well-matched to a typical classroom setting. I need to not feel like *I'm* starting a new school in September. I need to stop myself from getting in everybody's way.
I don't know if it's this transition, or some other stuff in my life right now, or what, but I'm beginning to think I'm veering into actual depression and may need some medications.
Does anybody have any advice on chilling out about school, or maybe share your thoughts on a good first-time antidepressant medication (for me)?
Thanks for listening!