Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: My 17 year old son is wearing a pink shirt...
Originally posted by CLOONEY
Yeah, lucky for you. This sounds more like something he will grow out of though, no?
No, not really. Some kids who have this will get worse and end up with full fledged Conduct Disorder (these are the kids that kill and torture animals). Luckily if my son were going to get that he would have already gotten it. Fortunately, my son is incredibly intelligent and he has the ability to control himself when he really wants to. I didn't tell him what his diagnosis was until a few months ago (he was diagnosed when he was 10 years old). I had hoped that by not attaching a "label" to him that he would have an easier time in school. I put him in a private residential school nearby for two years. The school knew about his disorder and he really thrived there. We tried to put him in public school in the 7th grade and I talked to the staff and made it very clear about how they had to deal with him in order to keep him doing well. Of course they thought they knew better than I did about how to deal with him, even though they had only just met him. To make a long story short...they really screwed up. They knew about the disorder as it was in his records. Idiots didn't listen to a word I said and he made them miserable. You can't get into a battle of wills with kids who have this disorder because the disorder feeds off conflict like that. He's starting high school this year and I've already met with everyone there and clued them in to how to deal with him. This time I sat him down and told him about the ODD. He wasn't very happy about hearing it as I knew he wouldn't be...but he's trying very hard to overcome it and at least keep it under control. He's old enough now to do research and understand why he is the way he is and do something to try to limit it's impact on his life. He'll be fine, I think. I'm pretty lucky in that his ODD is very mild compared to most kids who have it. His disorder shows itself almost exclusively through his mouth rather than his actions. He's not violent...just rude, mouthy, insulting, disrespectful to authority figures and will argue even if he agrees with you. He's not setting fires, fighting, stealing, lying or getting into trouble for anything other than his mouth. All in all I've fared quite well...especially as a single parent.
