Outbursts | ADHD Information

Does anyone have an ADHD'er who suffers extreme outburst - think temper tantrums...Our son gets so frustrated when he doesn't get his way or something upsets him that we spend the next hour+ trying to get him to calm down.  We certainly don't want to give into bad behavior, but we're losing our minds here.

I've read up some on Oppositional Defiant Disorder and it scares me that we could be on that path - great just one more thing to deal with on top the ADHD...Good Grief.  I've read various web sites that all talk about positive reenforcement, change your behavior if you expect them to change theirs, etc...Where is a miracle when you need one...

We had major issues with outburst when my daughter was younger.  It was down right scary sometimes.  People would never have believed some of the things she did.

Some books that I liked:

The Explosive Child
10 Days to a Less Defiant Child
From Chaos to Calm

I think the thing that worked the best for us was to get the medication correct (settled on Concerta and Tenex) and some hard worth with behavioral therapy.  I'll have to dig up some of my old posts (or search for some of my posts in 2007/2008) with some of the things we tried.   The key for us was focusing on one behavior at a time with a simple chart,  zero toleration for violence (spent an entire weekend in her room) and helping her attach appropriate behavior to what she was feeling - she need a feelings vocabulary and how to act when she felt these emotions.    Things were really bad the beginning of 5th grade (and had been bad off an on since 1st grade) and settled down within 6 months.   Since our major work - things have been so much better.   She's in 8th grade and we have very few out burst.  They are very few and far between.   So hang in there,  with the right interventions,  it does get better.
Have you read The Explosive Child? The plan outlined in it was like a miracle
for my son.

Melned,

ADHD children can be very trying and challenging for parents.  My 10 year old son has ADHD and ODD and was diagnosed at age 4.  I find the ODD behaviors the hardest to deal with. ODD can be managed but sometimes the parent changes the approach and better behavior comes from it.  I would read the Explosive Child and also a book by Dr Barkley called Taking Charge of ADHD, The Complete, Authoritative Guide for Parents.  I have also worked with a psychologist for my son and a parenting group for ADHD children and very closely with his school.  He is doing very well right now. 

 

 

 

Melned, I've just responded to a post here in the last day or so regarding "rages" in our children. My son is almost 9 yrs old diag ADHD (still trying to find correct med's) but I beleive he displays traits of ODD.  Again, it is the ODD behaviours  that are the hardest to handle. My son reduces me and my husband to tears quite often and that is just from his oppoistional behaviour.  I'm in Australia and ODD is not something that alot of people are fully aware of........I think there may be more awareness in America and in America, there is probably more help for it. Here, I just see a clinic physcologist and he give's strategies on how to deal with the behaviours. Alot of people recommend THE EXPLOSIVE CHILD BY ROSS GREENE.  In fact, I sent a post marked "Corrina" from Tara4us about a day ago and there's a little info in those post's about this book. Have a read of the posts.

We've had a really bad week this week with my sons behaviours in general and he has been extremely defiant and oppostional.  2 nights ago, my son had a 40 minute rage and I videotaped some for the Physc. We find if we don't stop his potential for an outburst/rage in the nick of time, it's all too late and he's just loses it and there's not stopping him. He needs to bring himself out of it.

I wish you all the luck and there are also quite a few books in America on ODD too.

Cheers