Oppositional Defiance Disorder

Oppositional Defiant Disorder

If your adolescent child has developed a pattern of behavior marked by hostility, defiance, aggression, and resentment, he or she may have oppositional defiant disorder, ODD. Oppositional defiant disorder, ODD, can disrupt home and family life, other relationships, and school performance.

An adolescent with oppositional defiance disorder or oppositional defiant disorder often believes he or she has a perfect right to be so angry. Such teens tend to blame parents or other authority figures for the behavior, claiming teachers, friends, or parents are unreasonable and oppressive.
They use such blame to justify resentful and hostile behavior, often defying parents by purposely breaking the rules and challenging any limits they are given.

Signs of oppositional defiance disorder often begin to show during early adolescence (ages 7 to 13). At first your child may only risk these defiant behaviors at home, which may confuse and frustrate parents. Parents often feel they are the cause of the defiance. Eventually, however, the teen will display these same hostile behaviors in school. Teachers will start to complain about your child's attitude in class. Possibly friends will disappear or stop calling. Your child may begin to seem isolated from his or her peers.

A typical student in this stage of oppositional defiant disorder, ODD, will be disruptive in class, disrespectful of teachers and other authority figures, aggressive toward peers, and will alienate many of the people in their lives.

Intervention for oppositional defiant disorder, ODD involves behavior modification techniques. To ignore the symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder, ODD can result in an adolescent losing ground in school and in social activity, isolating them further and damaging their ability to succeed academically or in the work world after high school.

Is your Teen:

Hostile
Low frustration level
Negative
Accusatory
Defiant
Unreasonable
Oppositional
Blaming
Pessimistic
Spiteful
Aggressive
Vindictive
Argumentative
Bad temper
Angry
Foul-mouthed
Resentful