ADHD and Your Family
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008ADHD can have a multitude of effects on the entire family. To begin
with, it is not unusual for a child who has ADHD to attract
significantly more of his or her parents’ attention than the other
children receive. Just remember the old saying, “The squeaky wheel gets
oiled.” The other children can become jealous because they do not get
as much attention. They also can take advantage of the situation
because their parents are not paying close attention to them. What I
mean is that they can get away with doing wrong things because their
parents are busy paying attention to their sibling who has ADHD.
Since so many children with ADHD also have ODD, the frequency and severity of
arguing and yelling can increase significantly. This can cause other
family members either to withdraw, become angry, or to become more
aggressive themselves. Parents of children who have ADHD frequently
feel frustrated, inadequate, guilty, exhausted, and depressed. Many of
these parents end up in psychotherapy themselves. Since children who
have ADHD are good at playing people against each other, they can cause
problems between their parents or between their siblings. Please write
to me to tell me more specific ways that a child with ADHD has affected
your family life.
drc@adhd1.net
