Alex's Answer

Hi there, you are very welcome to Ask Alex.  

Thank you for getting in touch. We understand that it’s not always easy to share how we’re feeling, but we also know how important it is to talk about our worries.  

It sounds like you are wondering how you can ask your parents to support you in engaging in therapy.  It can be very hard to ask for help, and sometimes it can take weeks or even months for us to feel comfortable to confide in someone about how we are feeling, but like any problem, the sooner you reach out for help, the sooner you can regain control of the issue and get back to feeling like yourself again.  

It takes a lot of courage to confide in others about our feelings, so if you are finding it difficult to broach this topic with your parents and are nervous about talking to them face to face, you could try arranging a quiet time with them and talking things through over a phone call. If you think it might be difficult to verbalise how you are feeling, you could try writing a letter or email to them, as this will give you plenty of time to put on paper what is going on for you and the reasons why you feel therapy may help with this.   

You may also find it helpful to talk to another trusted adult like an aunt or uncle, teacher, or coach about how you are feeling, and they can then be there to support you in chatting to your parents about it. It can be good to have a network of people around us to support us when we are going through a challenging time.  

If you feel that you are not yet ready to talk to your parents or another trusted adult, you are very welcome to chat to the Childline Team about how you are feeling. While chatting to Childline, you could also practice what you might say to your parents, as sometimes it is easier to talk to someone, we don’t know about the struggles we are facing. Childline services are free and confidential, and are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can contact Childline by phone on 1800 66 66 66 or through our web chat on www.childline.ie.  

Here are some articles from the Childline Website which you may also find helpful: www.childline.ie/getting-help/ and www.childline.ie/not-sure-how-to-ask-for-help-heres-what-to-do/.  

Reaching out is the hard part, and you have taken the first step today, well done! Now that you’ve done that, you can focus your attention on feeling better and getting back to doing the things you love.   

Thank you for contacting us. We would love to hear from you soon. 

Take care,    

Alex