Being a parent is perhaps the most rewarding role one can have. It makes you feel complete, adds to your purpose in life, and it’s such a wonderful feeling to have your own children running around, jumping and laughing. Such bliss!

Then comes the part where you forget the bliss, and just want to pull out your hair! The laughter, turns into exasperated pleas to “eat your cereal”, or “do your homework”. If you’ve got teens, it’s a different ball game all together. Here you are trying to be their friend, do all that the self-help books tell you, and all it needs is a “get off my back mom!” or “I hate you”, to make your emotions go flying off the handle, and there you are, venting, yelling, justifying about how much you are trying and that it’s for “your own good”.

It is natural to lose control occasionally, but slowly, along with your job stress, daily house chores, social obligations, avoiding the extra calories, trying to find time for your spouse, and failing to find any time for yourself, you start getting irritable with your child’s tantrum more and more.

Now is exactly the time where you need to stop, take a step back, and remember how you never wanted to be at this stage. Exhausted, frustrated, and feeling guilty. We believe that we will be able to manage all aspects of our lives, perfectly. In fact, we believe we “should” be able to. Hence, we do not seek guidance until things go completely over our heads. The longer we wait to get help, the more the damage is already done.

So, instead of going through this chaos, do the best thing you can do for yourself: seek out guidance from a therapist who can help you with the following: