Testimonial from Adult Group Member RBM

Testimonial from Adult Group Member RBM

I always had an anger problem, but never really
realized it until I gave birth to my daughter who is
now 7 years old. I realized I needed help when my
daughter said, “Mommy, why are you always
yelling at me?” At that time, she was 6 years old
and I said to myself, “What does she know?” Then
I thought about it a lot and saw myself in a
situation I didn't like. Child Protective Services
(CPS) got involved at that point which was about
one year ago. I KNEW I needed to handle myself
more appropriately.

So on my own, I decided to get help. At first I was
VERY against it for many reasons. My main
reason was, “It's not my fault, it’s more about
what's wrong with the world.” After a few classes I
began to change my tune, and remind you that I
had STRONGLY DISAGREED with almost
everything everyone including Dr. B had said. Dr.
B had some VERY good points of advice which I
love. For instance, learning new ways to manage
your anger is like learning to brush your teeth with
your opposite hand. It will feel awkward at first, but
eventually will get much easier with practice. Old
habits can eventually be broken. I took that line
with me everywhere.

Now about nine months later I realize that I have
changed. I believe I changed for myself and no
one else. I used to tell stories about how CPS has
no clue to what I’m about and that they had no
right doing what they did to me. I had to quickly fix
that problem because all it was causing was me
being upset 99.9% of the time and acting out,
taking it out on my daughter for no good reason.
Funny because I look back and say WOW, I did all
this on my own and now I have come real far and I’
m so super proud of myself.

The other day I had group and Dr. B mentioned
that I am no longer talking about issues between
me and my daughter, which is the main reason I
joined this group in the first place. I replied to Dr. B
that I guess this class/group has helped me see
reality as I’m getting upset less often and now
know how to handle my situations much better.
Yeah, that's it. I now know how to think before I
react. Yes I still am the first one to say that when in
an actual situation, it is VERY, VERY hard to take
into consideration to think before you react. It is so
much easier to react, but on the other hand by
thinking first I am in less trouble and I have a
better sense of life and how to handle issues with
life, driving, children, and reality.

I would recommend this class for many, many
reasons. I also took a parenting class, drug
addiction class and so forth and so on, which were
all New York State run. I found the most help to be
with Dr. B’s Anger Management class. At the
beginning of this story, I said I was TOTALLY
AGAINST this class. Nine months later, I’m ALL for
this class and it would even be a great idea if they
could have a class like this in the schools. I believe
it is VERY HELPFUL. You might initially disagree
with everything, but in the end you will think about
what everyone says and take it into consideration.
I would recommend this class to ANYONE and
EVERYONE. PLEASE do not think you are the
only one out there with problems because we ALL
have issues we can work on. We are not living in
a perfect world......

RBM (9/18/08)