PEDIATRIC BRONTOPHOBIA

A child’s fear of thunder!  One of many things that leaves a parent feeling absolutely helpless.  It’s heartbreaking to see your child cringe in terror, and know there is absolutely nothing you can do to make the thunder go away.

But perhaps there are some ways to address the fear.  Many psychologists suggest that any phobia is an aggression that has been turned inward.  The solution then is to help the child express aggression outwardly.  I’ve written about this elsewhere, (which will be another in this series), about a granddaughter joining me in yelling at a bug that frightened her.

One approach might be for the child to join parents as they yell at the thunder, and threaten to tell its’ mommy on it for scaring the child.  But there is a problem with this in that it makes Thunder a kind of enemy.  Perhaps it would be better to regard Thunder as an ally who is yelling at something or someone in order to protect somebody.  For instance:

“Who do you think Thunder is yelling at?”

“I don’t know.”

“I don’t know either.  But when I was out walking the other day, a big old dog came out and barked at me.  It scared me a little bit.  I wonder if Thunder is yelling at that dog, to tell him to stop scaring people?  What do you think?”

 “Maybe.”

 “Well, why don’t we join in and yell at that dog too?”

 At this point you could all go to the door and yell along with Thunder at that bad dog.  You might also thank Thunder for helping to protect everybody.

 When you have tried out your version of this approach, please let me know the results.