Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) – What Is It?

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) refers to a disorder wherein children exhibit confrontational and defiant behavior towards commanding people, such as parents or teachers. This means that children suffering from ODD often:

• Are disobedient, hostile, resentful, and disruptive in their behavior.
• Refuse requests
• Dislike taking or accepting orders
• Rarely respond to instructions
• Held others responsible for their mistakes
• Lose temper

At some point, all children confront or resent upon some bad situation, lose temper when upset by it, or refuse to follow a disliking instruction. However, in case of children suffering from Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), such behavior shoots up frequently, that makes it difficult to deal with them.

Now, do you realize that there is something common in ODD and ADHD? Yes, it is the cause to some extent and the treatment. Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is actually follows ADHD and therefore, co-exists with ADHD like other co-morbid (conditions existing simultaneously) disorders when the child gets older. As compared with a co-morbid condition with ADHD namely, conduct disorder, ODD is the common one.

According to a research, ODD is found in approximately 16 percent of the population. Together with ADHD, it is to be found in 35-50 percent of the victims.

Causes of ODD

Until today, it cannot be said what actually caused Oppositional Defiant Disorder in your child. However, listed below are the causes of ODD.

• Biological factors such as the child’s temperament
• Neurological disparity in the brain
• Parenting styles, especially that involves hostility, confrontation, and unwanted force

Symptoms of Oppositional Defiant Disorder

Listed below are the symptoms of ODD that are exhibited quite often.

• Becomes aggressive, defiant, and negative (vital ones needed for diagnosis)
• Loses temper
• Argues with adults
• Actively denies or refuses to follow adults’ requests or rules
• Intentionally irritates people
• Puts the responsibility on others for own mistakes or misbehavior
• Gets touchy or annoyed
• Becomes angry and resentful
• Becomes nasty or hurtful

These symptoms can be either mild or seriously hostile. To check whether a child has Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), at least four symptoms must be present for six months at the minimum and that these symptoms should have caused enough disturbance at home and school.

Effects of Oppositional Defiant Disorder

A child suffering from ODD will:

• Refuse to follow the instruction or a rule
• Like to argue with adults irrespective of who is in front, either parents or teachers
• Intentionally walk on the tough path, such as saying ‘no’ bluntly to accept a daily task
• Unknowingly make things difficult in life (due to the above point)
• Be spiteful
• Never accept his/her own mistakes

ODD after ADHD

Children suffering from ADHD are difficult to deal with and they often are a part of negative feedback and criticisms due to impulsivity that disturb others. It is believed that these negative parenting styles and related behavior of elders have resulted in ODD in children with ADHD.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder Treatment

Dealing with a consistently hostile attitude is quite challenging, but at the same time, it can be frustrating and exhausting both physically and mentally. If you suspect that your child might have Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), the GP is the first point of entry to diagnosis and treatment. If ODD is not treated or diagnosed, it might give rise to critical conduct disorder.

Generally, in U.K., the treatment of ODD is not medication, but positive parenting and behavior management.

Behavioral Approach

In a behavioral approach,

• You learn to deal the defiant behavior in an effective manner through proved ways, such as reinstating positive behavior through rewards and setting goals.
• Sittings take place either with parents and child or in a group of parents and children if there are many cases who require support simultaneously. Comparatively, group sittings are of great help, as they offer collective experiences and ways to deal with ODD for parents and verification that there are many children along your child who are suffering from ODD.
• You learn how to cope up with the ever-increasing demands of your child with ODD, as such children are likely to be demanding. For example, you learn to keep your cool when you face a situation where everything has crossed the limits. You are able to do so because you tend to understand why yelling or arguing at your child is not correct.
• Your are motivated to find out the reasons of what makes your child confront, resent, impulsive. This is will let you think as per what your child thinks and find an effective solution to minimize defiance.
• You are inspired to focus on ways of praising your child for any good behavior even if it is up to a little extent. In this manner, your child will improve its behavior gradually.

ADHD and ODD Treatment

It is obvious that when children are diagnosed having ADHD and ODD both, treatment for ADHD needs to be started prior to the treatment of ODD. But sometimes, ADHD medication can worsen the symptoms of ODD. Although ADHD medication improves the attention span and impulsive behavior of a child, it does increase the level of irritation too. Therefore, due care and caution is required from the doctor treating ADHD and ODD.

Treating ODD is a bit time-consuming and requires consistent positive efforts from adults.

Popularity: 3% [?]