News Summary

• "One of the things that person is going to have to come to grips with is do they deserve to have a life of their own," Gibson said, "even if it means that parent is going to have to find someone else to be dependent on..
• "The children feel like they have to take in and contain the parent's distress or the parent's rage," she said..
• "As they grow up, children of reactive parents become hypervigilant by default, even when they're not with their parents, and are excellent at reading people and situations..
• Because these children are used to doing the emotional work for their parents, Gibson says they can end up choosing friends and romantic partners who make them feel the same way..
• "When a person is about to get upset, they know how to come in and soothe things or make sure they don't say the wrong thing," Gibson said.Often, these children don't even notice how often they scan their surroundings, she says..
• Gibson shared some of the signs you grew up with a reactive parent.A parent having free rein on how they express their anger or anxiety comes at the expense of their child, Gibson says..