Again with the doubts

Books like this one, are not helping my doubts.  I will be checking it out of the library today and pouring through it.

I wonder if there is one on ODD.

Is it a Diagnosis?

Ellie has been diagnosed with ADHD - inattentive type and ODD.  I am sure you recognize the first acronym, but maybe not the second.  Oppositional Defiant Disorder.



We finally have an answer for why.  Why we have had all these struggles.

But yet I struggle with these diagnoses.  I am afraid of being judged . . . that she doesn't really have these problems, that her parents just aren't good enough parents.  If they could just manage her better, she would not have these problems.  That they are just trendy letters for problems that don't really exist.

Because she's not the only child who pops up and down.  Other kids tell their parents "No!" before they can even think.  My girl isn't the only one who has trouble focusing to get ready in the morning or at bed or to sit down to eat or to do anything.  Other kids get distracted too.  Other siblings pick on their brothers.
Then I think that these things happen a lot in our family.  Multiple times a day or even an hour, all day.  Every day.  It is tiring.  It is draining.

I am not in other people's homes, so I don't really know the frequency, duration or extent at which other families face these things.  When I observe other families, whom I see on a regular basis, I do not see what we experience with Ellie.

I know how often we face these struggles.  I know her issues are not because of what we have or have not done.  It just does not always feel that way.   I also know that how we handle each situation affects how things go.

Things are different for us.

So, yes it is a diagnosis.  She does have ADHD, and she does have ODD.  And we are getting help.

So Much

Things are happening.  What to say.   I have thoughts running through my head.  I can't organize them enough to put them here.  Or when I do start typing, I end up abandoning my words and finding something else to do.

But I will try again.