Saying, "I'm just impulsive" to justify acting on urges is a cop out.
It's like saying, "I'm just an inactive person" to justify not taking the time to exercise.
There are skills that you can learn and actions that you can take to improve.
And at the teen support center, while we believe that you're doing the best you can, we also believe that you can improve, be more skillful and make better choices. (If we didn't then why would we do what we do?!)
Often times emotional teens act without thinking through all the consequences.
In fact, this happens a lot with teens in general. The pre-frontal cortex of the brain that's responsible for decision making isn't fully formed.
So making effective decisions takes some work.
So that your teen doesn't act in an instant on intense emotions...
and self-harm
or lash out
or steal
or cave to peer pressure.
We've seen many a teen act impulsively to avoid intense emotions.
And we've heard the line "I'm just impulsive" many a time too.
It's time to stop owning skills deficits as personality traits and own the responsibility to do the work to improve.
Because we know you can.
Because we believe in you.
Are you ready to believe in you too?