Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD)

Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD)

According to the experts, who stated that the most important symptom of pathological stubbornness is lack of attention, very easy crying and aggression, if it is not intervened in time, it may cause larger problems especially during adolescence.

Uskudar University NPİSTANBUL Brain Hospital Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Unit Expert Clinical Psychologist Leyla Arslan stated that stubbornness in children is acceptable to some extent and that this should not be confused with pathological stubbornness.

Pathological stubbornness is a disease

Stating that pathological stubbornness is a diagnosed disease, Leyla Arslan said, “Pathological stubbornness is that the child does not want to do anything and tells you the opposite of every word that comes out of your mouth. We call it an opposition disorder. In psychology, this is a disease diagnosed, and family attitudes also have an impact on its development. For example, if the child receives a reward for everything he does, he does not want to do anything spontaneously if he does not receive anything. In some cases, it reinforces the behavior that the child does not want without realizing the family. The child stops doing something spontaneously and acts the opposite, rewarding the family not to do the unwanted behavior. This situation reinforces undesirable behavior. When the family and the child face a challenging situation, the wrong behaviors reinforce. ”

Opposing behavior occurs when attention deficit is not treated

Stating that the wrong attitudes of parents constitute the ground for this disease, Arslan said, “The mother rewards everything done by the child, even if there is no demand from the child. The child always resists and does not act as a secondary gain. The wrong reinforcements of the mother tighten the occurrence of this disease. The behavior of opposition occurs when the child actually has a lack of attention or learning difficulties, that is if they have a perception disorder. When you cannot detect a malfunction in the perceptions of the child, it is another problem. A child with a lack of attention is a child who sees what he sees differently from us. It is a symptom for children not to sit patiently, cry a lot, and start walking without talking. There is a high probability of attention deficit in such a child. When you do not treat it, you create it without noticing pathological stubbornness. Opposition behavior develops in addition to lack of attention ”.

Big problems arise during adolescence

Stating that opposing behavior, that is, if pathological stubbornness is not treated early, larger problems may arise during adolescence, said:

“If you don't see this as a disease, but you see it as a simple stubbornness, you can see that communication with that child is getting harder and the conflicts increase. For example, at the age of 15, you witness that if his father did not give him a car, he could have kidnapped him. You witness that he resisted not to go to school. You see that he resisted not to study. Pathological stubbornness has other symptoms: These children cry very easily, they can be aggressive. They can swear and shout, they don't do a job for a long time. It does not stay in place for more than 20 minutes, so it also has a problem of attention. They also oppose other people from the family, for example, they can kick the teacher. We see that the number of children of this type has increased a lot lately, and not only attention deficit but also opposition behavior has developed in incoming individuals. This is a very thought-provoking situation, because the child who kicks his mother and father has nobody to respect in society. The situation we see in clinical practice is that a child who kicks his mother at the age of 7 goes to the hospital when he turns 17. There is no measure of this conflict needs to be resolved. The family should stop and think about whether this is stubbornness, resistance, challenge, illness, or attitude error. ”

Pathological stubbornness stems from family attitudes

Leyla Arslan pointed out that pathological stubbornness is mostly caused by family attitudes. The reason for these increases is that mothers and fathers cannot watch their children and cannot notice their feelings too much, they are inadequate in putting out negative behavior in the child. ”