what is oppositional defiant disorder oppositional defiant disorder is a condition marked by overt aggressiveness hostility and disobedience people with odd purposefully bother and irritate others their behaviors go beyond difficult or annoying some studies estimate that as many as 65 percent of kids with adhd also have symptoms of odd to be diagnosed with odd a person must display at least four of these symptoms for six months or longer loses temper argues with adults or authority figures actively defies or refuses to comply with requests or rules deliberately annoys people blames others for his or her mistakes or
misbehavior easily annoyed by others angry and resentful spiteful or vindictive the behavior must cause a significant impairment in social academic or occupational functioning children with odd are most comfortable when they're in the middle of a conflict as soon as you begin arguing with them you're on their turf any child that shows symptoms of odd needs appropriate treatment by a psychiatrist psychologist therapist familiar with the disorder left untreated odd can evolve into conduct disorder which is marked by highly destructive and often illegal behaviors some psychologists however have developed effective behavior therapy for reining in even the
most defiant child oppositional kids are also often quite engaging and bright they tend to be optimistic and very much their own person with their own way of looking at the world once you work through their defiance there's a lot there to like
