Having a family member who has Attention Deficit Disorder or ADD will cause your routines to shift in ways that can take a toll on the entire family. Helping and managing a person who has ADD can be very stressful. This is why it’s so important to equip yourself with the right tools and knowledge to handle these conditions within your family. ADD can not only affect everyone in your family, but it can also affect your friends and even your neighbors.
People with ADD will demand more attention and time.
Children with ADD will require parents who can play an active role in their lives. This will lead the child to live a more fulfilling life knowing that someone understands what they’re going through and that are able to help them in their learning process. If you notice your child is not being themselves, try to look for ADD symptoms such as carelessness, inability to focus, forgetfulness, impulsivity, speaking out of turn, and continually starting new tasks before finishing old ones.
It’s also important to understand that females can show any other inattentive type of attention deficit symptoms that are different from the ones that males experience. For example, girls can appear apathetic, have poor reading comprehension, make frequent and careless mistakes, and may experience significant mood swings.
ADD can lead to relationship problems.
Additionally, ADD can lead to relationship problems within your family circle. Your family can experience more issues among themselves, more fights and discussions, and even depression. If one of your younger kids has ADD, your older children may not be able to understand what is going on and can become resentful or bully them.
If you notice that your family dynamic is getting out of hand, or has already gone beyond your boundaries, then maybe it’s time to attend family therapy. Family therapy will help you and your family come closer by creating healthy communication and emotional processing techniques. Therapy will also equip you with connections to create different paths and solutions for healthy well-being. With family therapy, you will also identify triggers for each of your family members and learn ways to develop each of your emotional intelligence skills.
Parents are more likely to develop depression.
A lot of parents can develop depression when raising a child that has ADD. This is due to the lack of knowledge and tools that can help them with their child’s learning process. They might feel helpless, useless, and like there is no way to handle, cope with, or raise their seemingly overactive or impulsive child.
ADD medication can have severe side effects on your child.
Another way that ADD can affect your family is through the possible severe side effects of ADD medications. Children can be prescribed strong medications that can cause sleeping problems, decreased appetite, weight loss, dizziness, increased blood pressure, moodiness, and irritability. They can also develop bothersome tics as well as experience severe headaches and stomach aches.
Your child’s self-esteem can take a toll.
Due to your child’s inability to properly adapt to their friends’ groups, school classes, or family circle, their self-esteem may take a severe toll. This can cause them to become more reclusive, develop depression, or participate in risky activities such as substance abuse or reckless driving.
Children with ADD can have recurring issues in school.
Lastly, children who suffer from ADD can have recurring issues in school. For example, they may get in a lot of trouble for speaking out of place, not following the rules, bullying others, not completing their assignments before their deadlines, and hyperactivity.
Knowing these facts can help you equip yourself and your family with better tools and information so you can properly take ADD matters into your own hands.
