Parenting and Diagnosis

The article criticizes medicalizing misery and pathologizing childhood while not denying suffering. A child's identity should be separated from the child's behavior. Validation can coexist with boundaries around harmful behavior. Child distress should first be described in context before being diagnosed as a fixed disorder. Parents are encouraged to model mind management openly for children. The initial posture of describing rather than diagnosing asks what happened, when it began, what signals appear, and what contexts activate it.