Category Archives: Bullying in ADHD children

Young ADHD children at Risk for Nonsuicidal Self-Injury

October 18, 2012   admin

Young ADHD children at Risk for Nonsuicidal Self-Injury
Young children with ADHD are probably more likely to engage in nonsuicidal self-injury than children who are not ADHD.
Children with ADHD as a group are of course much more impulsive than children without ADHD. As most parents and teachers know, it’s that increased impulsivity that forms one of the core symptoms of ADHD and makes an accurate diagnosis of ADHD more likely.
Increased impulsive behavior in ADHD is felt to be caused by inefficient executive brain processing of sensory input and the subsequent lack of an ADHD child’s or adult’s ability to delay gratification. It’s often this tendency to act before thinking through the consequences of doing something that gets the ADHD child, teen or adult in trouble.
As I’ve previously pointed out, excessive and off-the-spur of the moment tattoos and body piercings tend to be good examples of impulsive ADHD nonsuicidal self-injury behavior (NSSI). However, quite a few parents would argue even one body piercing or tattoo was excessive and impulsive, but we won’t debate that opinion here.
ADHD experts have realized over the past few years that adolescents with ADHD suffered higher rates of self-injury… Read the rest not related to suicidal

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How to Diagnose and Treat Sleep Problems that cause ADHD Behavior

June 12, 2012   admin

How to Diagnose and Treat Sleep Problems that cause ADHD Behavior
Problems sleeping have caused many kids and adults to be wrongfully labeled because of misdiagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Recently, many news and research articles have popped up confirming what behavior specialists have “known” for years; children and adults who have problems sleeping are more likely to have behavior problems such as ADHD.
It just seems it took a long time for everyone else to come to grips with the association between a “good night’s sleep” and normal or appropriate behavior. I considered the quality and quantity of sleep to be such a big part of a child’s or adult’s ability to function the next day; I dedicated an entire chapter to the topic in Mistaken for ADHD.
In my last article; Problems sleeping cause ADHD Behavior in Children and Adults, we discussed how any “thing”; medical or otherwise, that caused a child or adult to have problems sleeping could also cause signs and symptoms of ADHD.
As you’re sure to remember, ten year-old Leslie was a perfect example of how a child could be misdiagnosed with ADHD… Read the rest-when in fact suffering from disordered sleep.
Disorders of

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Children with ADHD at Risk for Bullying and Self Harm

May 29, 2012   admin

Children with ADHD at Risk for Bullying and Self Harm
ADHD experts have long known that children, teens and adults with ADHD are at increased risk for bullying at school, work and even at home.
Unfortunately, a recent study showed children bullied by peers “when they are younger are up to three times more likely to harm themselves in adolescence.”
Researchers followed 1,116 sets of twins from 1994 to 1995 until their twelfth birthday and discovered almost 8% of those who were victims of frequent bullying deliberated tried to harm themselves. In contrast, only 2% of those who were not bullied tried self-harming behaviors.
Observed self-harming behaviors included:

Attempted suicide by strangulation
Cutting arms
Biting body parts
Banging their head against walls
And pulling out clumps of hair.

In our practice, we have seen kids who deliberated excessively tattooed parts of their body… Read the rest as a result of the stress of being bullying. One teenage girl told me she had done so in hopes her tormentors would leave her alone because they would think she was crazy.
Another bully-abused teen in our practice explained he tattooed his arms to keep from “slicing and dicing them with my knife.”  His tattoos

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ADHD Impulsive Behavior and Risk of the Choking Game

April 24, 2012   admin

ADHD impulsive behavior increases the risk of teens playing the choking game and what parents and teachers should watch for….
Impulsivity is one of the key symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder… Read the rest as most of us who deal with children and teens with ADHD can readily attest.
Sometimes, ADHD impulsive behavior can be of great benefit both for the person who is ADHD and for others around him or her. It’s often said that without impulsivity the world would have no great military leaders, no outstanding sports heroes, no successful entrepreneurs and maybe even a lot fewer doctors. 
The reason is simple: Most of the great discoveries, most of the best inventions, most military endeavors, and most of the world’s most successful surgeons have one trait in common. They are risk takers and on top of it all, they are impulsive extreme risk takers. So, in some cases, impulsivity and risk taking behavior may benefit us all.
Unfortunately though, not all risk takers are striving for advancement or betterment. Some impulsive boys and girls are engaging in risk taking behavior just for the sake of a quick high.
The choking game played by preteens and teens is one such example of this

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How to Build Self Esteem in ADHD Kids Two

March 20, 2012   admin

In this second article on “Building self-esteem in kids, whether ADHD or not”, we will continue looking at ways to build self-esteem and confidence in all children, teens, and just maybe in adults, too.
Just like most children with learning problems, kids with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder often have poor confidence, a shaky self-image and poor self-esteem. This combination of social-communication shortcomings usually leads to disaster sooner or later as these kids and teens fail to develop and retain the skills necessary to survive in an academic environment, needed to get and retain a job; and fail to acquire the social-interpersonal skills used in building a successful life. “If you can’t clearly and effectively tell someone what you’re thinking or what you want them to do; then you can’t expect them to understand you.”
For these very reasons, ADHD experts and child behavior experts… Read the rest place a great deal of emphasis on building confidence levels and a positive self-image-self-esteem in all children and teens (and sometimes adults) in their care. This is often done by teaching the ADHD-behavior problem child the skills needed to build positive self-worth, positive self-image, and good confidence leading to improved self-esteem.
Ways to build positive

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Sleep Disorders in Children, Bullying and Aggressive Behavior

June 21, 2011   admin

Falling asleep in class may be due to a sleep-disordered breathing problem, such as sleep apnea, may cause inattentiveness, concentration problems, impulsivity, aggressive behavior and ADHD misdiagnosis.
Many teachers have shared their past experiences in dealing with children who fall asleep during class and how these children and teens can disrupt the classroom and inflict pain and suffering on others in the class.
Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) problems … Read the restinclude obstructive sleep apnea, central sleep apnea and excessive snoring caused by enlarged tonsils and chronically stopped up airway passages. We know that kids who don’t sleep well at night are prone to daytime sleepiness, often fall asleep during early classes, and many times act just like children with ADHD.
These kids are often referred for ADHD evaluation, have confusing symptoms and many times are misdiagnosed and mislabeled as ADHD. Unfortunately, ADHD medications and other ADHD treatments can make these children’s behavior much worse, causing them to be placed and more and stronger drugs to control their symptoms.
A study published in the May issue of Sleep Medicine showed a relationship between daytime sleepiness, aggressive behaviors; such as bullying, disobedience, discipline problems and poor conduct; and sleep-disordered breathing-snoring.
In this study,

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ADHD Diagnosis: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Mimics ADHD

June 14, 2011   admin

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is often mistaken for ADHD and misdiagnosed as ADHD!
Children who have suffered any type of trauma-personal harm or witnessed a death related event, or a major natural disaster often show symptoms similar to ADHD.
It’s not unusual for children who are victims of child abuse, kidnapping, bullying or witness an accident involving loss of life; who get caught-up in a tornado, earthquake, or hurricane, or who become a part of a terrorist attack; to have impulsivity, poor attention span-inattentiveness, and sometimes-hyperactivity.
If less than age 16 years, many of these children will have a really hard time understanding the circumstances about which traumatic events have occurred; especially if the event includes someone dying, being bodily deformed or mangled -they just don’t understand –can’t figure out what has happened.
They are often confused and left to fill-in the blanks about what has happened and their interpretation is many times inaccurate-creating anxiety, depression, and panic attacks-all of which may mimic ADHD.
Based on these facts, it’s no small wonder that PTSD can mimic ADHD-act just like ADHD-look just like and be misdiagnosed as ADHD… Read the rest.
How can a parent decide whether it’s ADHD or PTSD

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