And the first more important question for consideration is the age of the child or adult your are talking about.
It seems like it would be, doesn't it?
I can't tell, though, whether you're proposing that the difference is that one has more legitimate authority over a young person than a middle-aged one, or that youth may be assumed to still be capable of change, while middle-aged people are not.
In either case, I'm not sure I agree. It's been one of the hardest things for me, working with both teens and adults: facing the realization that in all likelihood, this person will never significantly change. And it's happened to me in working with both teens and adults...and then there are both who /do/ change, in spite of amazing odds against them.
It's excruciating. No matter how old a person is, 15 or 75, when they're in the grip of a pattern of thought and behavior which is ruining their life and making it impossible for them to be with others safely or sanely--it's like the thing that will help is right there just outside your grasp, just outside *their* grasp, which is more important. It's painful and exhausting and it sucks, for the people trying to help and the people who need help, both.
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Date: 2005-08-19 11:02 pm (UTC)It seems like it would be, doesn't it?
I can't tell, though, whether you're proposing that the difference is that one has more legitimate authority over a young person than a middle-aged one, or that youth may be assumed to still be capable of change, while middle-aged people are not.
In either case, I'm not sure I agree. It's been one of the hardest things for me, working with both teens and adults: facing the realization that in all likelihood, this person will never significantly change. And it's happened to me in working with both teens and adults...and then there are both who /do/ change, in spite of amazing odds against them.
It's excruciating. No matter how old a person is, 15 or 75, when they're in the grip of a pattern of thought and behavior which is ruining their life and making it impossible for them to be with others safely or sanely--it's like the thing that will help is right there just outside your grasp, just outside *their* grasp, which is more important. It's painful and exhausting and it sucks, for the people trying to help and the people who need help, both.