# Maladaptive Thinking?



## Mrs. King (Aug 30, 2005)

Yesterday, my daughter asked her 15 year-old friend to help her catch our dog, which had escaped. The friend, who has been staying at our house for the last month, rent-free, said no. He wouldn't help. My daughter felt annoyed and said so, at which point the lad went off crying. He kept popping up at odd moments, drunk, talking to the girls who live opposite our house, saying he would beat-up my daughter. Then he would phone and say would my daughters meet him, at which point he would run away from them. All this culminated, at midnight,  in him dangling himself over a motorway bridge, threatening to kill himself because nobody liked him, until the police took him away. All I could think was 'it would have been easier for him to apologise for not helping to catch the dog'. All I could see was attention seeking, and diversionary tactics to get away from the real issue, which was that he had let my daughter down when she needed his help. Am I correct? And if so, do such things lead to mental health problems, because his was a terrible maladaptive strategy for coping with embarrassment, guilt, or whatever. It probably seemed justified to him, but from the outside, it was faintly ridiculous.


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## Mrs. King (Aug 30, 2005)

Yesterday, my daughter asked her 15 year-old friend to help her catch our dog, which had escaped. The friend, who has been staying at our house for the last month, rent-free, said no. He wouldn't help. My daughter felt annoyed and said so, at which point the lad went off crying. He kept popping up at odd moments, drunk, talking to the girls who live opposite our house, saying he would beat-up my daughter. Then he would phone and say would my daughters meet him, at which point he would run away from them. All this culminated, at midnight,  in him dangling himself over a motorway bridge, threatening to kill himself because nobody liked him, until the police took him away. All I could think was 'it would have been easier for him to apologise for not helping to catch the dog'. All I could see was attention seeking, and diversionary tactics to get away from the real issue, which was that he had let my daughter down when she needed his help. Am I correct? And if so, do such things lead to mental health problems, because his was a terrible maladaptive strategy for coping with embarrassment, guilt, or whatever. It probably seemed justified to him, but from the outside, it was faintly ridiculous.


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