81. A Mom’s Lived Experience With Her Son’s Suicidal Ideation and Program Journey [Parent Interview]

Parenting Post-Wilderness: Parenting a Struggling Teen Before, During and After Treatment

“We were mentally panicked. We didn’t want our kid to die and we didn’t know what to do.”

Today's episode will hit close to home for many of you. We're diving into the raw and real journey of a mother facing her son's struggles with mental health, including suicidal ideation and self-harm.

She reflects on her son growing up as an emotionally needy child, things getting rougher when he became a teenager, and eventually escalating after an event that happened at school during his sophomore year. It was like her son fell apart overnight. He started cutting himself, carving words in his skin, and threatening to kill himself.

“We had nothing … in our repertoire of parenting tools about what to do when your kid is having feelings like that. And we really panicked.” - Guest

What followed was a rocky road of homeschooling, therapy, mental hospitals, wilderness, and a residential treatment center (RTC).

“There’s no way to sugarcoat how hard it is. It’s unbearable but you have to walk through it” - Guest

If you've ever felt lost or overwhelmed as a parent, if you're struggling to support a child with mental health challenges, or if you simply want to hear a story of resilience and hope, then this episode is for you.

Tune in and listen to this mom's incredible journey of how she lived through her son’s mental health crisis, suicidal ideation, self-harm, and program journey. You won't regret it.

In this episode, we discuss:

• A mom’s lived experience with her teen who struggled with mental health, self-harm, and suicidal ideation;
• The rabbit hole of thinking back to the past, the ‘what if’s’ and blaming yourself for decisions you’ve made in your parenting;
• How this mom used to respond to her son’s behavior;
• The choices this mom made in times of crisis;
• Her son’s resistance when he was sent to wilderness;
• The hardest thing this mom had to do in her life;
• This mom’s lived experience of bringing her son home after wilderness to see if he had done enough work to keep the work going at home;
• This mom’s realization that the language she was using was invalidating her son’s feelings;
• What does it mean to do your own work as a parent?;
• And more!

Need support?

🗺️Need help setting healthy boundaries with your teen AND following through? My free guide will help you do so by creating your own Parent Home Plan!

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And remember parents, the change begins with us.

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