
Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) Support Group
Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) an ongoing pattern of disobedient, hostile, and defiant behavior toward authority figures that goes beyond the bounds of normal childhood behavior. When a child cannot seem to control his anger or frustration, even over what seems to be trivial or simple to others, the child will often react in violent or negative ways to his own...
My son was hospitalized for 14 days, came home for 7 and then was hospitalized for 8 more. 22 days out of 1 month he was in Children's Hospital in Seattle.
They were fabulous! He was tested, diagnosed and stabilized, put on meds, evaluated, etc. The testing they did there: neuropsych tests, speech and language tests, IQ, educational strengths, etc, was such a Godsend. The school was dragging their feet and would have taken 6 months to accomplish in 21 days at the hospital. Also, they had parenting classes for me to model the communication and boundaries the Psych Techs used there. The only downfall was that given my son's very young age, he had to be a 1:1 and had a staff that was just his 24/7. That set me up for problems at home because I can't be Miss FunFun all day, everyday.The other thing was at Children's they have a very liberal visitation, the first visit I was there atleast 16 hours a day, going home to sleep. The 2nd stay, I didn't visit as much. Some hospitals don't allow much visits, others are very liberal.
Well, my son went in 3 times, and I can't say that it did any long-term good. It did traumatize him, and he resented me. It hurt our relationship, even though I told him that I did it for his own good. And... he picked up a few negative behaviors from some of the other kids...plus the flu. But, I guess the evaluation was sort of helpful.
He eventually had 3 different medication cocktails (of which I'm scared now, because of side effects) and I was lucky enough to have a program recommended to me, which I still use with him, that was actually the answer to his behavior. So, no more hospital.
Take care and good luck with whatever you decide!
Kim