0:00
/
0:00
Transcript
0:00
SPEAKER 1
Very excited to sit down this week with Abigail Shrier. The thing that I tell parents to ask themselves is you have to ask yourself the question that we're never asking, which is, will this make my child stronger? Not, is it going to upset her right now?
0:16
So, you know, in the book I talk about bad therapy and what is bad therapy? Bad therapy is something that makes symptoms worse or introduces new symptoms to a child or teen. And one of the biggest things that school counselors are doing and therapists are encouraging is that we let kids out of their responsibilities, right?
0:35
Oh, you don't have to take This is Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy. I'm Bridget Phetasy and you are welcome. You know the drill. Please subscribe, rate, comment, share, reach out, tell your friends, send smoke signals, whatever. We love your feedback and we want to hear from you.

E274. Bad Therapy: Why The Kids Aren't Growing Up - Abigail Shrier

Walk-Ins Welcome Episode #274

Abigail Shrier returns to talk about her latest book Bad Therapy: Why The Kids Aren't Growing Up . She and Bridget discuss what led her to write the book, her initial premise, how it changed along the way, why kids today seem to be in a lot of psychological pain, the potential harms of too much therapy, the overuse of the word trauma, how talking about and focusing on your pain can make it worse, and how kids are being taught to make their pain an organizing principle of their lives. They cover how our blanket culture of therapy can feed on parents' insecurities and how they really need to take back their authority, what kids today are really anxious about, how being a parent means you have to do things that are uncomfortable but that are good for your kids, why a certain amount of repression is healthy, how important independence and risk taking is for children's development, overmedication and how numbing a kid to the ups and downs of life has a lot of consequences, why you should research your therapist the way you would a surgeon, and what you can do as a parent to counteract these issues.

Sponsor Links:

Patriot Gold: Call 888-614-9238

AG1 - https://bit.ly/AG1-WiW

Varnamtown: https://bit.ly/wiw-varnamtown

Pluto TV: https://bit.ly/WiWPlutoTV


Bridget Phetasy admires grit and authenticity. On Walk-Ins Welcome, she talks about the beautiful failures and frightening successes of her own life and the lives of her guests. She doesn’t conduct interviews—she has conversations. Conversations with real people about the real struggle and will remind you that we can laugh in pain and cry in joy but there’s no greater mistake than hiding from it all. By embracing it all, and celebrating it with the stories she’ll bring listeners, she believes that our lowest moments can be the building blocks for our eventual fulfillment.


Walk-Ins Welcome Merch

Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Discussion about this video

User's avatar
QX's avatar

Bridget, if you come around to read this: After your talk with Abigail, do you think the reason why GenX parents are so over-managing their kids because we GenXers never let go of our own trait of fixing problems? In other words, instead of giving our kids the same experience of freedom to take risks and solve our own problems that we had and are so proud of, we're now diving head first into solving their problems too because that's just what we do?

Are we like the king who's still occupying the throne, so his son the prince cannot ascend because the king is still in his prime and nowhere near done yet?

I don't have kids BTW. I say "our kids" meaning kids of our generation.

Expand full comment
Andrew Heard's avatar

I'm enjoying much of Schrier is talking about with her recent interviews. She comes at ideas differently and considers solutions that don't necessarily seem obvious but end up becoming it in hindsight.

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
Feb 29, 2024
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
QX's avatar

I am utterly baffled by how GenXers, who grew up being latchkey kids with so much freedom, who delight in that and are proud of their independence and problem-solving skills, became helicopter parents who raised the most coddled and weak generation. What happened? Why didn't GenXers value the very thing that made them strong and resilient in their kids?

Expand full comment
0:35
Oh, you don't have to take This is Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy. I'm Bridget Phetasy and you are welcome. You know the drill. Please subscribe, rate, comment, share, reach out, tell your friends, send smoke signals, whatever. We love your feedback and we want to hear from you.