If Your Adolescent Has ADHD: An Essential Resource for Parents (Adolescent Mental Health Initiative)

by Thomas J. Power

The hands-off approach may seem especially alluring now that your child is older. Parenting a child with ADHD isn’t easy, and fatigue can build up year after year after year. By this point, you may be feeling exhausted and burned out. And you may believe that it’s time for your teen to start figuring things out on his or her own. There might also be an element of denial at play. Admitting to yourself just how much your teen is struggling can sometimes be difficult. Yet ignoring the warning signs and refusing to face the realities of ADHD can be particularly risky during the adolescent years. Following are just a few of the possible consequences of unmanaged ADHD: •Accidental injuries. Children and teens with ADHD have more frequent and severe injuries, on average, than their counterparts without ADHD. Inattention and impulsivity make them more likely to get into an accident as a pedestrian, while riding a bicycle, or while driving a car. •Difficult peer relationships. Inattentive teens may be seen by their peers as standoffish, and hyperactive or impulsive teens may be seen as troublemakers. Such negative perceptions often lead to rejection. For one study, CDC researchers surveyed a nationally representative sample of parents about their children ages 4 to 17. Parents reported that children with a history of ADHD were 10 times as likely to have difficulties with friendships as children without ADHD. •High-risk sex. Adolescents with ADHD are more likely than those without t...