From a very young age, many children diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) experience a great deal of negative interactions with parents, caregivers, teachers, etc. Often because this disorder is not diagnosed immediately or parents do not know that there is a real problem to diagnose, many people quickly label children as difficult and defiant, […]
Awareness. Patience. My journey of raising a son with ODD has taught me so many things. Just about all of the lessons I have learned have been after the fact but that’s OK; better late than never. The first lesson is learning how to be aware. By that, I mean not only gaining knowledge of […]
One of the most challenging aspects of managing behavioral disorders (ex: ADHD, ODD, conduct disorder, etc) is other people’s misconceptions about the disorders along with the misconceptions about the children & families affected by them. Unlike other mental health disorders that present physical symptoms, disorders like ADHD, ODD and conduct disorder (CD) present themselves externally […]
This post validates why therapy is so important and necessary to deal with mental health issues. In my post “The Weariness of ODD & Detrimental Co-Parenting”, I felt extremely hopeless and had a really difficult time getting myself out of the valley of despair. So I called my son’s school district psychologist, who is also […]
My son’s (who has ODD and mood disorder) father is quite simply nefarious and immoral. Two days ago, there was an incident at my home involving my son who was being extremely defiant and destructive. Please read my post called “When Co-Parenting ODD Isn’t An Option” for the background. Yesterday in a very challenging family […]
I don’t care what anyone says. We ALL need therapy at some point in our lives. Life these days is really hard – with all the demands on us like work, commuting, children, childcare, families, bills, busy schedules, etc. I’ve been going to individual and family therapy forever. I’ve probably spent thousands on therapy. At […]
You're Not A Bad Parent 