ADD/ADHD

In families of divorce, often one parent will believe a child has ADD/ADHD, and the other parent is very opposed to the child being labeled and very opposed to medication. Each parent may feel he/she is virtually fighting for the child's life, and the issue can spiral out of control in court.

There are ways to resolve these issues which include the parents and teachers and possibly others filling out questionnaires as well as individual psychological tests for a child. These tests determine things like whether the child processes information slowly. A good plan of action usually is to make reasonable environmental/behavioral changes and then reassess. If the child's education is passing them by, or their behavior is extremely out of control after an ADD/ADHD diagnosis, medication should be considered.

The other issue which has to be addressed is whether the child has suffered trauma and may have PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). One symptom of PTSD is hyper arousal. So it is important to determine whether the child's "hyper" symptoms are caused by ADHD or whether they are the result of PTSD following trauma.

Issues like this should not be ignored. They can be resolved reasonably, and if a parent simply won't cooperate in the resolution, the court may need to step in.