Adults with ODD

From my last post I was wondering about what happens when a child with ODD grows up. Some of the questions I have asked include:

• Does this child still have ODD when they grow up?
• Does the family have to cope a different way than how its suggest to cope when they are a child?
• Does ODD slowly disappear in a person or does it get worse as they get older?

To help answer my questions I asked my family member if she believes that her son that is now 21 still has ODD and how the family copes with it. She said that he likes to do what he wants and when its not his choice he can get angry. Once he's angry he likes to have his space. He will walk off to cool down. She said that she believes he still has ODD but she wasn't sure. To follow what she was telling me I went online to see if I could find any information that supported the actions she had pointed out.

http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/9139.html

After reading a couple websites I had found this one. This website interested me because it says that as adults they are relentless when someone says they are wrong. That they tend to feel misunderstood and disliked. These were things that she had mentioned and that I have seen by being near him. The website also suggests that ODD is related to ADHD and ADHD medication and anger-management classes maybe helpful to manage the symptoms.

This article has made me wonder why I don't hear much about ODD. There were multiple websites, blogs, or comments that I had read where people mentioned there wasn't much information about adults with ODD. I'm wondering why this is when this article suggested ways to cope with it. It brings into question the experience of the people who are writing these articles when there isn't much written on it.

Ways to Cope

When thinking of things to blog about I began thinking about where my last post left me wondering. Once I had found out that if you say "never the less" or "regardless repeatedly and calmly it de-escalates the issue I mentioned it to my family member. I also asked her how she coped with her son refusing to do things she asked of him. She told me a story about how when she was driving he would get out of his car seat multiple times and refuse to sit in it. She said that her method of coping was giving him an ultimatum that he didn't like. In this situation she pulled over and told him that he had two choices. He had to choose between standing there and waiting for her to pick him up later or he could come with them and sit in his car seat. She said that this worked for her son but it might not be the best way to cope with a child who as ODD. I looked more into solutions or how a family might cope and after reading multiple articles this one really stuck out at me.

http://www.squidoo.com/Oppsitional-Defiant-Children

This article stuck out at me because it has 13 tips for families and how they can cope when they have a child with ODD in their family. I also noticed that from reading a couple websites most of them included some of the same key strategies to use when coping with ODD. They said to stay consistent, learn the child's warning signs, pick your battles, and look for positives. I am interested in finding out what happens when a child who has ODD gets older. Does the child still have Oppositional Defiant Disorder? Does the defiant behavior increase or decrease? Do the strategies or tips that are suggested still work or does the family have to find other ways to cope? I wonder if I can receive answers to my questions through research.