Defiance and Childlike Behavior

[SonicHedgehog]

I was reading this sticky thread:

http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6628


Dr. Theodore Mandelkorn of Seattle says that ADDers on (proper) "medication IMPROVE their attention span, concentration, memory, motor coordination, mood,and on-task behavior. At the same time they DECREASE daydreaming, hyperactivity, anger, immature behavior, defiance, and oppositional behavior. Medical treatment allows intellectual capabilities that were already present to function more appropriately.

Those are ADD symptoms? I hadn't read that before. Oh my.

edit: even in adults?

[sarahsweets]

Yes, even in adults these are symptoms. ADHD people have trouble with emotional regulation which would explain some of the behaviors you listed.

[Zevispaz]

I think defiance is harder to tell in adults because as adults, you have the option of listening to someone or not. Don't like your boss? You can get a new job.

I'm not sure what the immaturity bit is though...

[DvlsAdv0c8]

Originally Posted by Zevispaz

I think defiance is harder to tell in adults because as adults, you have the option of listening to someone or not. Don't like your boss? You can get a new job.

I'm not sure what the immaturity bit is though...

nope, my boss is pretty clear about my defiance...it's compulsive for me...she knows about adhd though.

[SonicHedgehog]

I've always wondered why I was defiant. I also am very "sensitive..." overly so. How this related to ADD I have no idea. Maybe it is a by product and over reaction to the feelings of insecurity in youth due to the existence of ADD and what it causes in my life....assuming I have ADD. I know that the few days I took ADD medication I did not have those feelings in meetings when my ideas were disliked, nor did I really feel like disobeying or defiant in meetings.

[fracturedstory]

My sensitivity is due to being more reactive to emotions than living with ADHD. I'm more reactive to my environment too.

Defiance, the actual Oppositionally Defiant disorder is caused when a child is told constantly 'no' and out of confusion of not knowing what is right to do they become defiant to everything.

My defiance comes from struggling to put myself in other peoples shoes, of always thinking I'm right and from so much stress that I react by being a little snot, essentially. I do have some mild ODD. I also go through periods of hating people or always needing to disagree with them. Most of that is because I just feel so different. It's my own way of coping with this feeling of alienation because I have been rejected by people so many times before.

Or maybe it's because they're all mindless sheep and I'm so much smarter than them. Yeah, that makes me feel better.

Human psychology is an intriguing subject.

[DvlsAdv0c8]

My username pretty much says it all - Devil's Advocate. One of my passwords is IArgueWithYou.

I'm not 100% sure why I do it. Certain people bring it out in me strongly - I can't NOT argue with them - my boss being one of them. Maybe it's a way of feeling like I'm the one in control for once.

As for childlike behavior, I always feel like an overgrown kid anyway.

Other people's emotions do seem to amplify mine, which usually just aggravates me and makes me restless, like I want to run away from them. Overstimulation, maybe?

Or maybe it's because they're all mindless sheep and I'm so much smarter than them. Yeah, that makes me feel better.

Yeah - I like that reason the best!

[fracturedstory]

I hate feeling controlled. I want to be the one in control. When I feel people are controlling me that brings out the worst of my ODD.

I'm usually quick to like people and quick to hate them. Something is seriously wrong with me. No, it's right. Now I'm arguing with myself. Great.

[DvlsAdv0c8]

When I started my current job I went from being a boss to being supervised by someone who reminds me of my mother. (I didn't speak to my mother for 9 years because we got along so horribly - she was so controlling and micromanaging of me in her efforts to keep me under control.)

I am also very sensitive to people's "tones" - if you are being patronizing or talking down to me, it really raises my hackles and then HOLD ON FOR THE RAGE RIDE.

[fracturedstory]

We're just better at picking up on emotions.

[Azoox]

It's funny to be reading all these comments to the topic that's been on my mind for years now. If there's anything that seems to bother me the most about myself, it's precisely the feeling of being a puer aeternus. The frequently childish behavior and the extreme resistance to any form of control over me, institutionally or otherwise imposed, make me question myself on so many occasions that I've ended up feeling highly insecure, unreliable, weak, and torn by indecisiveness and general apathy. Additionally, harnessing my emotions is next to impossible as well, so it takes so much energy for me to stay calm, cool, and collected, if I ever actually reach that triple C spot to begin with. As a result, I am vulnerable to mostly anything on an everyday basis since each situation carries within itself the potential to affect my emotions, thus causing another destructive wave leaving me oversensitive, overdriven, and overstimulated. It's like a self-perpetuating vicious cycle of self-alienation. A puer aeternus in the flesh!

And don't you dare say otherwise

[DvlsAdv0c8]

@Azoox:

Couldn't have said it better myself!

[Assumption]

I used to tell my teachers they were wrong all the time in school. Actually, I still argue with people A LOT. In college I made one tutor feel terrible. She was claiming that all sex differences are socially constructed including differences in voice pitch. I made it pretty clear that I thought she was an idiot.

That's what you get when you make idiotic claims in front of someone with poor impulse control!

I also get into long arguments with my office mates, every couple of days or so: I don't think they like me very much anymore