Parental alienation can take a toll on your child and your relationship with them. The falsehoods fed to your child by their other parent can morph the way they view you, causing division and conflict that’s challenging to overcome. While there are legal strategies you can implement to bring parental alienation to stop and repair your relationship with your child, it’s important that you take care of yourself as you navigate the process. If you don’t, then the stress, anxiety, and depression that often accompanies these situations can wreak havoc on nearly every aspect of your life, from your ability to get a good night’s sleep to your job performance and other relationships.
So, what can you do to protect your own emotional and psychological well-being when you’re dealing with parental alienation? Let’s look at some coping strategies that we hope you’ll find useful.
It’s easy to lash out in anger at the other parent when they’re subjecting you and your child to parental alienation. But that isn’t the healthiest way to deal with the situation. In fact, retaliating against the other parent may backfire on you, giving the other parent a justification to seek a more restrictive custody order. Therefore, if you’re facing parental alienation, then you should consider implementing the following coping strategies instead:
- Allow yourself to feel your emotions: If you can’t act on your emotions, then you might try to suppress them. But this is unhealthy and can lead to other mental health issues. You need to allow yourself to feel your emotions so that you can accept them and eventually get over them. Writing about how you feel in a journal can be a great way to really think about your emotions, where they come from, and how you can gain acceptance of them.
- Seek out assistance: You shouldn’t have to shoulder the realities of parental alienation on your own. And you don’t have to. You can discuss your experiences with a mental health professional like a therapist or psychologist who can help you gain a better understanding of your mental state and how to cope with the struggles you’re facing. This can give you a sense of support and a feeling that you’re not going at this alone.
- Develop a sense of normalcy: When you’re being subjected to alienation, it can feel like your world is spinning out of control. But you can regain that control by establishing a new normal. You can strike up new relationship, rekindle old ones, and turn towards those things you care about to give you a sense of joy and purpose while you try to undo the harm caused by parental alienation.
- Be productive: While your mind is probably swimming with negative thoughts, you have to try to push them to the background and focus on taking action. By being proactive, you’ll gain a sense that change is possible, which will give you hope for your child and your future with them.
Don’t let parental alienation take your child away from you
If left unaddressed, parental alienation can devastate your relationship with your child and cause serious harm to your kid. You can’t sit back and let that happen. So, start thinking about how you can take care of yourself and how you can develop compelling legal arguments that seek to bring alienation to a stop and rebuild your relationship with your child.