Stress
Stress is a physical and emotional reaction that people experience as they encounter challenges in life. When you’re under stress, your body reacts by releasing hormones that produce the “fight-or-flight” response.
Stress is a physical and emotional reaction that people experience as they encounter challenges in life. When you’re under stress, your body reacts by releasing hormones that produce the “fight-or-flight” response.
Is it better to start with medication treatment and add behavior therapy if needed? Or, should behavior therapy come first with medication added if the child’s response is not sufficient? Or, is it always preferable to begin with combined treatment? Does the order in which treatment begins even make a difference?
How might our actions change if we are open to accepting that certain behaviors displayed by children and adolescents (and adults) are not rooted in laziness or a lack of trying but rather represent an often desperate attempt to avoid failure, humiliation, and emotional exhaustion in what is perceived to be a less than supportive environment?
Identifying factors that buffer some youth with ADHD from negative developmental outcomes is important as it could inform efforts to minimize the negative long-term effects of ADHD.
Sleep problems are common in children with ADHD, are more persistent than in the general population, and often exacerbate difficulties associated with ADHD. For example, poor sleep can enhance difficulties with attention and concentration that most youth with ADHD experience.
Recent studies have linked screen time – including video game play – to concerning outcomes in children, including low self-esteem, low life satisfaction, and depressive symptoms. Screen time has also been found to be correlated with symptoms of ADHD in children and adolescents, even when earlier attention difficulties are taken into account.
Our efforts to identify the features of a resilient mindset represent more than an academic exercise. We believe that the more precisely we can articulate these features, the more successfully we can develop strategies for nurturing this mindset and resilient behaviors in ourselves and in our children.
Although medication treatment for ADHD has been shown to significantly reduce core ADHD symptoms in hundreds of studies, important concerns remain about it being prescribed inappropriately to children and teens who do not have ADHD. There is also evidence that many youth with ADHD who could potentially benefit from medication treatment do not receive it, and may realize poorer outcomes in as a result.