Need reassurance... am I terrible)

Also, separate response because editing is hard on mobile: I’m not too concerned about the hurting animals. When she’s herself again, she’s distraught about causing any one or anything pain. I don’t think she’s socio/psychopathic. She truly just loses control of her emotions and can’t control herself. It has gotten much better. I promise you, if I felt my dog was in true danger, I would be out. The first time it ever happened, I actually spent the night at a pet friendly motel. I did not plan on going back. And even when she hurts feelings, she become very genuinely apologetic and tries very hard to make it up to you.

That’s our main counselling focus right now: emotional regulation. She needs to recognize her anger/frustration and find a way to process/express them without self destructing. Which progress has been made. When I first came into her life, she was utterly nonverbal and inconsolable in this state. Now she can (with a lot of work) explain why she’s mad and work to resolve the problem. And I mean a lot of work. But she does use words and try to explain her feelings.

/r/stepparents Thread Parent