Cycles anyone?

CW seems to have this thing where about every 2-4 months she completely loses her s***, turns into a raving B****, and has to be dealt with.  Suddenly, No one understands her!  She's got too much on her plate!  She doesn't like physical contact!  She needs to be alone!  *sob*

We had one of those on New Year's Eve.  My normal response when she starts getting b****y is to start restricting alone time and or computer time, since most often it seems that her lack of interpersonal skills is what's causing her to sound like a melodramatic, attitudinal, hormonally wrecked teenager.  Eventually though, she breaks down and we can have an actual conversation about what's going on in her head.  This time I had to remove her e-reader (and hence music-in-her-room) privileges before she cracked.  She needed a refresher on dealing with stress, and a blunt reminder that pacing around her room in the dark TALKING to herself and listening to angst-y music is not really the best thing she can be doing for herself (especially since she's "sometimes not sure if she's going insane"), since it was quite obviously NOT working.  That was something else we talked about - stopping to re-evaluate the situation and her responses, i.e., NOTICE when what she's doing to try and cope isn't working, and either try something else, or ask for help.

We reiterated that physical activity is a GREAT outlet, and that that's one of the many reasons we had her start walking on the treadmill in the mornings before school.  We'd wanted to get her into a good life habit early on (and it seems like she has), that would help her deal with stress, among other things.  We talked about going to the Studio, and how Daddy adores being able to punch and take punches without having to hold back.

We talked about the possibility of S.A.D., and how spending lots of time in the dark might be exacerbating it, if it IS an issue for her.  I pointed out the fact that we've got the full spectrum light bulbs in the house, during the winter in particular, to help combat that in me.  I offered the option of a therapist if she wanted (she most adamantly does not).  And as always we told her that she can talk to us about anything, and while yes, we may get angry or upset at first, we'll work through the issue, whatever it is.

I love that girl, but sometimes man...  *sigh*