Maybe she can learn some calming techniques, like stopping and taking 10 long deep breaths before continuing? Maybe you can ask her to write down what it is she wants to say and give it to you in 30 minutes, but not right now, etc. Just things to force her to stop the emotional crazitalk and do some thinking.
Yeah. This is a good idea. She needs to start learning how to think things through rationally. Maybe she should even be given some reasons as to WHY she should do certain things? Like, you need to learn resposibility, you should do chores to help your family keep the house clean (you are part of the family and need to take responsibility in maintaining a clean home); don't be lazy, we all have to work, too and so should you; you will need the skills to take care of your own house when you get one of your own, someday, etc.. She probably won't like this, but it might get her thinking.
Hmm, you know, something just occurred to me. Does your daughter have any creative outlets? Theatre, dance, music, painting, writing, etc.? Because maybe part of what she needs is somewhere to channel all that energy and passion that she has?
This definately helped me as a teenager when I was angry. If I could draw ugly pictures of people who were annoying me or making me angry (then I could laugh at the picture and feel better), or express my feelings through drawing. Also, writing is also a VERY good emotional outlet. I saved myself from going completely insane by being able to vent my feelings on paper. I would just freewrite whatever was going through my mind or start wring poetry. This was a life-saver. Another thing that helped me was just to dance in my room, by myself, and keep dancing until I could dance no more, my emotions and energy became drained and I felt a lot better. I had some serious depression, but was able to mantain a bit of sanity through my creative outlets.
She overreacts to everything? She's heedless to your warning shots? Naturally. How much perspective do you think she has? Perspective is still YOUR job. For her, everything is immediate, visceral, and of uniform importance. Every issue is THE issue, every emotion is THE emotion, every disagreement is worth a temper tantrum. She still thinks like a child. The change that has occurred is that she is starting to believe that her thoughts should be treated like adult thoughts, and that is volatile.
`Tis true. My science teacher said she believes all teenagers are mentally ill!
I think that just about says it all! I'll believe that one. I was pretty crazy, irrational, depressed, schizo, myself. People said I should have taken anti-depressants, but I was too paranoid and sensative to drugs to ever take them, so I didn't. Only one time did I take some anti-depressants for a couple days and it had an ill affect on me, so I stopped taking them, and just tried to deal with my pycho-mind the best I could keep it under control.
I don't see how on earth one could jump to the conclusion of chemical imbalance. It's absurd. Kids going through puberty are emotion machines who experience the highest highs and the lowest lows. I would contend that a pubescent kid who didn't go through those things would be a cause for concern.
Hmm. Well, I think that if these fierce (and 'primitive') emotions are somehow channeled through some sort of creative outlet it's not as bad, and can actually turn out to be a good thing because they are converted into something creative (and 'sophisticated'?) instead of just raw energy doing nothing but stirring up chaos. The emotions are still very intense for the person experiencing them, but can be somewhat controlled and placated throught the creative outlet.
Teenagers don't think their parents understand what kind of hell they are going through with all these new emotions and feelings coursing through their veins. Heck, I STILL don't think my parents remember what it was really like to be a teenager! I still think they didn't understand anything about me as a teenager.
