Better to be good at feelings than to feel good
Our society is intolerant and disrespectful of young people's distress. We seem to dislike it when young people are angry, ashamed, frightened, sad or disappointed. There is strong encouragement to consider such distress as being a precursor of disease,1 so that parents, doctors and teachers are prone to label and intervene rather than sit with ordinary, healthy, but distressing feelings.
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- Paediatric Mental Health Training Unit, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA.
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