Parenting: Dealing with meltdowns
Sep 9, 2026 · 19 min · 5 segments
Child Psychotherapist Joanna Fortune joins Seán Moncrieff to answer your parenting questions…
- Speakers
Joanna FortuneGuest
Seán MoncrieffHost
Sep 9, 2026 · 19 min · 5 segments
Child Psychotherapist Joanna Fortune joins Seán Moncrieff to answer your parenting questions…
Joanna FortuneGuestSeán MoncrieffHost
"My 13-old, uh, year-old daughter can experience quite intense anxiety and meltdowns, which are beginning to affect the whole family.
She's a bit of a perfectionist and finds sudden changes particularly difficult.
She can also become very anxious about social situations, which can trigger a meltdown.
For example, a few weekends ago, she was due to go to a party with three school friends.
They were planning to watch a movie and have pizza at one of the girl's houses.
As the day went on, she became increasingly anxious and worked herself up to the point where she had a major meltdown, screaming and shouting.
Although the psychologist did not give her a formal diagnosis, she felt that my daughter was displaying some OCD-type behaviors and also had a number of autistic traits.
Um, and I think, you know, one of the things that gets overlooked is this whole concept of perfectionism in, well, in anybody, but particularly in young people.
Because when s- like the impact perfectionism has on mental health and wellbeing is huge.
You know, it, it f- can trigger a chronic stress or even severe anxiety responses in kids, and there's quite a bit of this.
But also, in this letter, but what also comes up for me though is this y- y- and again, it seems silly.
It did ultimately go well, but she, she almost sabotaged herself in how she approached the buildup.
That's very common with kids with this type of h- of, you know, self-oriented perfectionism.
They have a picture in their mind of how an event, even something they're looking forward to, is gonna go, and then they can't anticipate with certainty is that a guarantee, and so they get themselves anxious and worked up, and it would be easier not to go.
"My 13-old, uh, year-old daughter can experience quite intense anxiety and meltdowns, which are beginning to affect the whole family.
She's a bit of a perfectionist and finds sudden changes particularly difficult.
She can also become very anxious about social situations, which can trigger a meltdown.
For example, a few weekends ago, she was due to go to a party with three school friends.
They were planning to watch a movie and have pizza at one of the girl's houses.
As the day went on, she became increasingly anxious and worked herself up to the point where she had a major meltdown, screaming and shouting.
Although the psychologist did not give her a formal diagnosis, she felt that my daughter was displaying some OCD-type behaviors and also had a number of autistic traits.
Um, and I think, you know, one of the things that gets overlooked is this whole concept of perfectionism in, well, in anybody, but particularly in young people.
Because when s- like the impact perfectionism has on mental health and wellbeing is huge.
You know, it, it f- can trigger a chronic stress or even severe anxiety responses in kids, and there's quite a bit of this.
But also, in this letter, but what also comes up for me though is this y- y- and again, it seems silly.
It did ultimately go well, but she, she almost sabotaged herself in how she approached the buildup.
That's very common with kids with this type of h- of, you know, self-oriented perfectionism.
They have a picture in their mind of how an event, even something they're looking forward to, is gonna go, and then they can't anticipate with certainty is that a guarantee, and so they get themselves anxious and worked up, and it would be easier not to go.
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