Troubled Teens Resources

Oppositional Defiant Disorder is a diagnosis that many treat with skepticism. Not that the behavior doesn’t exist, but that it constitutes yet another disorder. Parents will have to review available material and evaluate their own children to determine the accuracy of how the behavior is labeled. But, what every parent very much needs are a variety of options as to how to change that behavior, be it an actual disorder or not.

Great-grandparents used to perhaps refer to “ODD teens” as “snot nosed kids” and sent them packing to military boarding school - no brat camps back then - or to do some hard labor for the summer at a relative’s farm and that was the end of it .Sometimes you wonder if issues like teen age drug abuse, teen pregnancies and high drop out rates would be less prevalent if some of our great grandparents stern stuff were still being served up to teens.

If you are struggling with the definition of ODD and whether or not it applies to your teen, the link below has a good overview on the topic. Here are a couple of their suggestions for parents.

• Find support for yourself. This might be in the form of relatives, area support groups, online chat rooms, or meeting friends who understand for lunch. Have some form of support that you are able to talk to, people that will not judge you but will provide support for your struggles and may be going through some of the same situations.
• Pick your battles with your child. Power struggles will come often with a child with ODD. Choose your battles carefully and determine exactly what you want beforehand.
• Keep a life of your own. Don’t have your child become your life. Keep interests of your own outside of your home and your child. As easily as you can become wrapped up in the struggles of raising a child with ODD, you can become burned out and not have the energy left to complete the task.

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