What to do if your child is angry and self-harming

In daily life, everyone has a different personality. Different people have different tempers. Some people have a bad temper, while others have a mild temper. Although a person's personality is related to genetics, the acquired living environment also has a great influence. Parents can see whether their children have a good temper and whether their personality is easygoing from an early age through careful observation. What should we do if children abuse themselves when they are angry?

What should I do if my child is angry and self-harming?

1. Help children recognize the dangers of self-abuse: Once parents discover that their children are engaging in self-abuse, they should promptly explain to their children the adverse consequences of doing so and let them know that doing so will not solve any problems.

2. Teach children to evaluate themselves correctly: No one is perfect, and everyone has both advantages and disadvantages. For children who engage in self-abuse due to low self-evaluation, parents should help them reshape their self-cognition and let them evaluate themselves correctly.

3. Listen patiently to the child’s voice: Parents need to listen patiently to the child’s explanation to relieve the child’s inner pressure and avoid self-harming behavior.

Reasons why children engage in self-harm

1. Perfectionism: Many parents set strict requirements on their children when they are very young, especially the parents of outstanding children, who require their children to do their best in everything. This makes the child a perfectionist at a young age, who cannot tolerate mistakes, especially cannot tolerate himself making mistakes. Once you find yourself making a mistake, even a small one, you must punish it severely.

2. Improper education: If parents usually adopt harsh punishment methods, children will unconsciously adopt this behavior.

3. Personality and temperament reasons: Due to differences in personality, temperament and living environment, some children tend to deal with setbacks by engaging in self-harm or self-abusive behaviors.

In real life, parents should set a good example themselves. When encountering problems, they must be patient and not be impatient or lose their temper. If parents are extreme people in life, their children will be greatly affected. Everyone wants their children to be successful, but parents’ demands should not be too extreme, just appropriate.