Meet Serenity

Serenity

January 11th, 2016

                           
                        Meet Serenity (top left pic) the cutest most beautiful blond haired blue eyed girl that you'll ever see! She's 5 yrs old and full of spunk! And by spunk I mean she is outgoing and also suffers from ADHD and ODD.

You may be familiar with ADHD most commonly known for children/people that are overactive and very out going that also have trouble focusing. The ODD was a new term to me before getting her diagnosed. When I realized her behavior was BEYOND terrible two's carrying over into the age of three to the point of it affecting her at school in her preschool class I started "LOOKING" at her symptoms and suspected she may be Autistic, which she has since been professionally tested and diagnosed with being borderline autistic, but not enough marks on the testing to be on the actual spectrum of it. Instead they said she has ODD and ADHD. I had NEVER heard of  ODD before in my life so I asked a million questions on it. Even as a psychology major I didn't study ODD.

ODD is Oppositional Defiance Disorder, where when the subject ( MY DAUGHTER ) is presented with an opposing view they DEFY it. I asked the specialists at children's if it was BEYOND that of a temper tantrum. They explained to me that it is the worst temper tantrum I can imagine multiplied by 100. She sees what in her head is the ONLY way of a situation being and when someone else tries to help or show a different way she freaks out because to her that can NOT be right and when she is given a demand ( or instructed to do something I should say ) she freaks because it scares her, because in her mind she doesn't feel it is right or safe to do it that way.

As I mentioned I am a psych major hoping to one day finish and have my bachelor's in Psychology, I am fascinated by the way the mind works and why people think and do the things they do. As soon as I was presented with ODD I immediately listened to everything they told me about it, googled it, read books on it, and "WATCHED" my daughter for triggers or situations that would make her become defiant. I 'STEPPED OUTSIDE OF MY SHOES' and went into 'HER SHOES". I watched her eyes jot from place to place to the facial expressions that were visible in these situations. I saw what she saw. By doing this I realized the reason she refused to cross the parking lot at bus one day was fear and her ODD. To me this was an interesting combination of mental illnesses because the ADHD made her be all over the place from her thoughts to her actions, yet the ODD seemed to take over the ADHD when it was present because in her ODD moments she was "STUCK IN THAT PLACE". The ODD seems to "OVERPOWER" the ADHD in those brief situations that actually seemed like they lasted forever, but when timed were discovered to be minutes to usually no more then 30 minutes in the worst ODD episode.

One day she wouldn't go from the school bus across the parking lot to the sidewalk to go into the school. I got a call that day from her school saying that they tried everything to get her to go across and into the school. My first thought was she is THREE YEARS OLD (at that time) how can you NOT get her from the bus into the school with two bus drivers, one an assistant, the teacher, the teachers assistant, and the schools principal and guidance counselor? This wasn't her first day either, it was a couple months into the school year so I was confused to what caused this and questioned them in my head as to "WHAT REALLY HAPPENED".

I get to the school (live less then 5 minutes away) and say did you try picking her up (she's 3 yrs old remember) and they said yes and pointed to the teachers shoulder that was exposed and had blood on it that had dried slightly. I said what happened. The teacher replied she freaked out was kicking, hitting, throwing her arms, legs, and body around, and she scratched her after she prevented my daughter from being able to bite her. I said oh my gosh I am so sorry.

I said where is she now? The teacher replied she sat her back down immediately and she ran back on the bus. I said what?!, in shock. So I go onto the bus stairs and called my daughter, she came running to me. I asked her what is going on. You could see that she had been crying, her eyes puffy, and her cheeks red. She said mom I can't get off the bus. I said why hunny what happened. She said she was scared. I said scared of what? She said they were going to kill her. I said WHO IS GOING TO KILL YOU, what are you talking about, what happened, what did they say to you? She said the cars. I said what cars. She said she can't get off the bus because the cars driving by were going to kill her. I said how Serenity, she said mom I am scared they are going to run me over.

There were no cars there driving around other then mine pulling up when I got there so I told her the cars were gone and to walk down the stairs to me. She was hyperventilating and finally walked to me after about 10 minutes. I strapped her into her car seat in my car because she was in no mental state to attend school that day, and had the widow cracked as I stood beside it quietly talking to the teacher.

The teacher said that a car did go around the bus when they pulled up, but didn't see how she was so upset about getting off the bus. I explained to her that she was so scared that the only place she felt safe was on the bus at that time. I continued to watch her and talk to specialists and they said that indeed this went along with the ODD. She had become defiant in the situation when she was opposed with a view that she felt was wrong and she became scared and refused to co-operate until she knew she was safe, and in her mind staying safe meant staying on the bus.

Since she was diagnosed over TWO years ago there are still challenges that come along with her diagnoses and disorders, but with LOTS of one on one from me and medicine she has calmed down a lot.I try to predict and for see anything that may trigger her to have an ODD moment, so that she doe NOT have to go through these scary situations.

She LOVES/ENJOYS:
video games, looking at book, playing, being outside, you name it!

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