Family Crisis

In class today we talked a lot about ABC. A is the actual event, or crisis. B is the behavioral responses. C is the cognition or the thoughts and interpretation of the event. I really liked how this kind of lays out the types of things that actually happen when we experience a crisis in our families. Also I think sometimes people look at other families going through a crisis and judge them on how they are reacting or why they are acting that way. We really can't do this, because we really don't know what we would do in that situation unless we have experienced that same crisis. In that case you would not be judging them, you could be sympathetic to them and try to help them and let them know that you know how they are feeling.
Another thing I thought about when dealing with a crisis is how you think about it later, and how you experience it has a lot to do with your attitude. If you are going through this event thinking that it is unfair and that it really sucks, and that you will not learn anything from it then that is probably what is going to happen. This attitude not only affects you but it also affects all the other people around you that are dealing with the crisis too. It is so important that we try not to have a bad attitude, and that we just try to draw strength from the people around us. I know that when my family experiences a crisis we draw strength from each other. Not just one person has the strength either, it is more like we all boost each other up. Together we get through it, and it is always a lot harder when we are trying to get through it alone. My family works as a team, and we function as a team, so when we are going through hard times we get through it as a team.
Another thing I appreciated that we talked about was how to convey the news of a crisis. It can make a world of difference if you calmly tell somebody what happened, or if you are panicked and yelling about what happened. I think especially if you have young children you need to exercise restraint in telling them about the crisis. You should not be crying and hysterical when telling them something because that is how they are going to react. You should be calm and collected and let the children lean on you for support when telling them of a crisis. I remember when my grandfather died my parents sat all of us kids down and calmly told us that he had passed away and that we were going to leave the next day for his funeral. We did not over react or anything, we were all sad, but it was something we could handle. Family crisis are already hard to handle, we do not need to make them worse with how we deliver the news, or how we react to the news.