The Challenges Of Thriving With ADHD
“Misbehaving kids,” that was how kids suffering from ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder used to be labeled. They are the ones who do not pay attention to their parents or teachers. They do not finish tasks and assignments on time. They are impatient, fast to anger, impulsive and can’t sit still for a long time. As a consequence, they are always scolded and suffer from comparison with their siblings and classmates. Hence, they end up having poor self esteem, under achievers, unsociable, depressed, anxious, unhappy, and losers for the rest of their lives if they do not learn the art of thriving with ADHD.
What are the challenges that come with ADHD?
• The challenges start from the time the disorder sets in when the child starts losing control of one’s physical activities that makes them hyperactive, inattentive and impulsive. Kids can’t be expected to understand the changes in their bodies. Even adults who are already diagnosed are faced with the same challenge.
• For kids, the challenge is extended to the people in their immediate environment – family, teachers, classmates and playmates. This means that these people must know that the concerned kid has ADHD and that they must understand the disorder to be able to be more sympathetic of the condition.
• When the kid is still not diagnosed and there are no interventions being administered to make the cope kid with the rest of the kids in his/her class, the kid with ADHD remains largely misunderstood. This makes the kid lose his/her self-esteem and vies for attention as evident with hyperactivity. This kid is not hard to spot. This is the kid that is disliked the most in the class, summoned most often in the principal’s office, most scolded in the class, most talkative and who is all over the place all the time.
• Many parents are not prepared to have a kid with ADHD. Those who have family members who were already diagnosed with ADHD must understand that this disorder is widely believed to be genetically linked. Therefore, when symptoms are manifested by a child, the first thing needed to be done is to see a doctor for treatment or referrals.
• Another challenge consists of finding the school with a special education program that has been designed for kids with ADHD. This program can support the treatment and the psychosocial and behavioral therapies that a kid with ADHD is getting. This can strengthen the coping skills to make thriving with ADHD easier. Being routinely exposed to the right approaches to handle emotional and psychological situations teaches the kid to adjust and cope with their immediate environment.
• Schools are challenged on how their institution can become a source of solution to these kids rather than punish them for a disorder that they do not understand. They must have special education programs that will allow the kids with ADHD to understand their condition and to support them while they are undergoing medical treatments and therapies. Special education can help these kids rather than worsen their social ineptness.
• There is a challenge for these kids to learn to imbibe coping skills that can help them transcend the usual course of effects while growing up. It has been revealed by many studies that ADHD does not go away as the kid grows older. Many teens who resort to drugs, alcoholism, rebellion and other antisocial activities are ADHD kids who were never diagnosed and who never received any medical or psychotherapy treatments.
ADHD can persist for life. One can easily succumb to its ills and become a burden to the society in which one lives. Thriving with ADHD can only get easier or more manageable if the person is aware and understands the condition to will to consciously beat it for a better future.
