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It's All Your Fault episode 230

TikTok Famous: Parental Alienation and Barricaded Bedrooms

Alienation in Utah

High-conflict situations often include extreme behaviors and the case we’ll discuss in this episode is a perfect example of extreme behaviors.

In the U.S. state of Utah, a 15-year-old boy released a TikTok video detailing his family’s high-conflict drama. According to the video, he had barricaded himself along with his 12-year-old sister inside a room at their mother’s house in order to avoid a judge’s order to reunite with their allegedly abusive father. His videos detailing this harrowing and dramatic experience have made him TikTok famous, at the very least.

The issue in many (most) alienation cases is that the courts don’t know who to believe. Is mom lying? Is dad lying? Are the kids lying? It’s a mess for the courts to identify what’s happening and a tragedy for all involved.

In today’s episode, Megan lists the case details and asks you, the listener, to decide who is lying and who is telling the truth. Then, Bill provides an analysis of the case and how we can use a structured approach to understanding what’s going on, or at least make a best attempt at figuring it out.

Links & Other Notes:

Note: We are not diagnosing anyone in our discussions, merely discussing patterns of behavior.

Hosted by Bill Eddy, LCSW, Esq. and Megan Hunter, MBA, It’s All Your Fault! High Conflict People explores the five types of people who can ruin your life—people with high conflict personalities and how they weave themselves into our lives in romance, at work, next door, at school, places of worship, and just about everywhere, causing chaos, exhaustion, and dread for everyone else.