Dr. Harry Barry

That's where we get these intrusive thoughts and compulsive actions.

That's a very different condition.

We might deal with that another time, you know what I mean?

Well, we will.

We'll cover that another time.

Another listener says, I can't tell if my child is a perfectionist or if they're just really highly strong.

Is there anything I can do to balance them out and help them get less stressed?

I think you can.

One of the things that we can all show is a lot of parents are worried about showing up that they themselves get anxious.

So I think it's really important

that they, for example, show that they fail regularly and how they adjust to that and how to cope with that.

And also to admit if they get anxious themselves, to not be afraid to reveal that to the child and say, you know, I get very anxious about things and that's normal.

So normalising a lot of this takes away a lot of the heat out of it.

So show them that we fail and that we're still a good person after we fail.

Exactly.

That's the secret.

That's the key.

OK, Harry, thank you so much for being with us with that valuable advice.

And we'll chat again soon.

That's Dr. Harry Barry, who's a GP and mental health expert.