Almost nine months ago my daughter, Brookelyn, was diagnosed as ADHD along with ODD (Oppositional Defiance Disorder). She had been showing signs of ADHD for a little over a year, but Brookelyn has always been very short tempered and aggressive. In the year leading up to the diagnosis, she was hitting, kicking, pulling hair, and lying to and about her sisters and brothers.
I feel guilty sometimes because my daughter is 7 years old and these signs have always been there. At the same time, when the symptoms began to increase I did take her in to get some help. Slowly, we are seeing improvements. The most significant of these are decreased aggression and impulsivity at home and at school. I am so pleased to see her completing homework and schoolwork with much more ease than I have ever seen.
But just as I start to feel confident one thing is under control, my 10 year old daughter gets the final diagnosis of ADD. She doesn't have the aggression and hyperactivity, however, she suffers in silence. Everything is hard for her. She cannot focus on school, homework, chores, or playing a board game. This causes her self esteem to sink lower than it already was.
I have her on medication, but she hasn't started seeing her family worker or therapist yet. Boy can I tell too. She definitely needs to have that and maybe some depression medication. Overall dealing with all of this has been extremely stressful on the rest of the family. Many days I feel like I am failing one or more of my children in some manner of speaking, but what do we do.
We tough it out, suck up those feeling, and do the best darn job we can possibly do.
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