Submitted by renihope on 12/03/2008.
I have no ADD or ADHD, My husband has no ADD or ADHD and does not run in either of our families. My daughter, 12 and who is adopted does have ADHD. Our marriage is awful and failing. Unfortunately raising a ADHD child has taken its toll. I wonder...are there any other ADHD ADD free parents raising children with ADD/ADHD???
ADHD Parenting
Submitted by MelissaOrlov on
There are lots of them, myself included. It takes patience and lots of love and flexibility. You don't say how much you have learned about ADD, but Dr. Hallowell is coming out with a new book that I strongly recommend that you read, called SuperParenting for ADD. You can preorder it at this link and it will be available in January. In addition, read "The Big Struggle Revisited" chapter in Delivered from Distraction.
If you haven't had any type of counselling around the ADHD in your family you may wish to consider it. Make sure to find someone who fully understands ADD. Understand that the early teen years can be hard for any family, with or without ADD as a factor.
Sometimes couples come to blows over how to manage their child's ADD because one spouse "doesn't really believe" in ADD. If either you or your husband doubts that ADD is real then I will leave you with this thought, from a book by Russell Barkley, MD and Kevin Murphy and Mariellen Fischer:
"Statements to the effect that ADHD is not a valid disorder, or is a myth created by mercenary pharmaceutical companies or mental health professionals for sheer commercial gain...are not only wrong, they are egregiously so...to continue to make such statements in the face of such overwhelming evidence to the contrary is to show either a stunning scientific illiteracy or reflect planned religious or political propaganda intended to deceive the uninformed or unsuspecting general public."
Don't know if this helps...but persistence, love and caring treatment are the keys to helping a child with ADD.