Ahhhhh hormones, the element of having a teenager that was most anticipated and yet I still feel I completely unprepared in dealing with!
I think I actually once uttered the words, “I’ve been dealing with my own hormones my whole life, how bad can a teenagers hormones even be?”…… Oh Sheree, you foolish woman. SO bad, so very, very bad!
By the time The Teenager hit 10 she had started to feel like a little pressure cooker waiting to explode. I felt quite certain that once she started her periods things would ease and a kind of normality might resume. But if we know anything by now, it’s that I know nothing, right?!
It quite possibly made things worse, in fact I started to question if the problem actually was hormones/puberty and not a mental health issue. I don’t mean that to be in anyway dramatic or belittling, I genuinely thought she might be suffering. I had expected tears, stroppyness, a lot of sleeping and attitude – I had not anticipated pure rage (which came accompanied by sometimes violent behaviour), paranoia and physical symptoms such as numb hands and feet. After quite a few visits to the Drs and a handful of blood tests it was determined that it was all down to hormones (To my absolute horror, it was suggested that the pill may rectify things, but that’s a rant for another day!). So while the poor love was suffering, thankfully not in the way I had feared!
Once her menstrual cycle had settled into a regular pattern – this took about 10months – the more extreme behaviours subsided. We no longer have the paranoia or anger which has been a huge relief! I mean she’s still stroppy and unreasonable at times, but she also lets us see her nice side sometimes and now no longer punches door frames and walls – which is a huge relief because in all honesty I had no idea what I was supposed to do about that! Learn to use tranquilliser darts perhaps?!
When the behaviour was at its worst I could feel myself battling a certain amount of sympathy, i knew she couldn’t always help herself – but at the same time I could be certain that she knew her behaviour was unacceptable. Balancing being understanding and supportive while also being firm seemed impossible and I’m sure I have let things slide that I probably shouldn’t have.
There’s a little bow that sits on top of the present that is puberty; that old wives tale about women in the same household ending up all being in sync? Totally happened! So we have the wonderful treat of being unreasonable, irritable and just generally crap at the same time……. aren’t we lucky!
Can we skip the teenager bit? 