my child has anger issues

[jan37h]

My 8yr old has anger issues and finds life in general frustrating. he is generally unhappy, switched off at school and causes problems there for entertainment value. He is violent towards me and his dad and swears when he is angry. he smashes stuff up and tells us how much he hates us. then he sobs and goes on about how much he hates himself and has recently talked about wanting to kill himself and i caught him with his dressing gown tie tied around his neck and he was pulling it tight. Then he sobs alot more talking about how worthless he is. Then the final stage is he calms down, has a cuddle then he is ok. These episodes can arise out of something very small and to anyone else insignificant. he lacks self asteem, and is very cuddly, needy of mum and just wants to be at home with mum, dad and brother. we are both teachers and have a good understanding of how to talk to kids, and we are a loving happy family that most kids would thrive in. i took him to the doctors and he refered us to mental health as he thought he needed to see a psycologist. they wrote to me and said we need family support, so we told them we werent interested. i am worried about his future, i have him on omega3 and 6 and this has helped alot, but do you think he needs to seek help of a psycologist or is it just attention seeking. he is a good sports man and we really try and boost his self asteem with this, but it doesnt work.

[jan37h]

i refused family support just because i dont want to many agencies getting involved. i have worked with agencies through my job.  having spoke to pyscologists (at work)they make lots of sense, but i havent much faith in some agencies. i am going on a course for anger management for parents, lets just hope it helps.

thanks all

[Natta1980]

Maybe a mood disorder?

I do not see any reason as to why you would decline professional help

You do not have to put him on drugs if you do not want to - but it may be helpful to find out what it is as there are different behavior management techniques that work especially well with mood disorders

And, of course, bullying is always a possibility

[chelleby6kids]

hi if I was in your situation I would take the help as you seem to be willing to do all you can to help your little man it really can help my step daughter was experiencing similar symptoms and we had to accecpt that we were just doin all that we could for her when we had to see  family support.My eldest child started to behave quite badly with me and his father it turned out he was being bullied at school but he thought that we would be angry with him for not sticking up for himself we went to school and got the matter sorted his bad behaviour stopped  over night it could be worth just asking him to just to check

[91004]

If the psychologist recommended family support why did you decline, it sounds like the child needs to learn how to deal with his issues.