What to do?

October 7, 2014 ~ A few days ago I encountered a mother in the parking lot of a store who was trying to calm her very large teenage son who was extremely agitated. I don't know what the problem was, but every time she tried to tell him to calm down he would put his hands over his ears and yell as loud as he could. Then he would follow that with running at full speed and slamming himself into the side of the car. I wanted to help her, but I didn't know how....and, honestly, I was a little afraid of her son. So I just kept walking, went into the store, then worried about it to the point that I finally decided to go back outside and ask her if there was something I could do to help.

They were gone.

All evening I thought about that mom and what she deals with every day. And I wished I had mustered more courage to offer help to her but I just didn't know what the right thing to do was. What would you have done?