My 12 year old has just been diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder. This has been going on since he turned three and causing a very unhappy and conflictive family life so I´m relieved to actually have SOMEBODY confirm what´s going on with him! He shows no signs of AD or ADHD which seem to often be the underlying problem, and is bright academically with a long attention span for things that interest him, but very short tolerance for anything he deems boring (most things not involving computer screens!). There may well be a smidgen of Autism at play but if so, it´s very mild.
His behaviour is often horrible, conflictive, angry, shouty and argumentative all day long....although there are sometimes spells of better cooperation.(when he has his way and nobody is telling him, "no") He picks on his younger brother relentlessly and is just a constant source of unhappiness for our family of four. We have consulted a psychologist who is actually a family friend, and she has told us he would benefit from Ritalin.
There´s a genetic basis here, as other males in my DH´s family are very similar so I feel that medication may well be ncessary since the cause may be at least partly physiological. I´d welcome all comments, advice or input as it´s quite a scary step to reach for meds but he´s incredibly hard to reach through talking/ therapy alone. Thanks all!