Taskiran notes, it unlikely that it’s a case of DMDD. If a child’s behavior is a threat to others, Dr. “They’re often shocked after the tantrums, like, ‘Why did I do this?’ ” They can’t really help it.” And kids with DMDD often apologize for their tantrums. He notes that teachers, parents and psychiatrists will say of a kid with DMDD that “Oh, you know, they’re different, they’re not really spiteful, they’re not really vindictive. “Clearly they just can’t handle their mood,” says Dr. But the difference is that their behavior is not aimed at defying authority. They may be disrupting the classroom, yelling a lot, not following directions. They often come because the parents are at a breaking point - they’re burnt out and they’re not sure how to handle it anymore.”ĭMDD is sometimes confused with oppositional defiant disorder, or ODD, because the behavior of kids with DMDD can look, superficially, like ODD. “We typically see kids in our center beginning at 8 to 10 years old,” says Stephanie Samar, PsyD, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute, “but they’ve been having trouble with these symptoms for a while and may have tried therapy in the past. Parents often describe feeling like they are walking on eggshells around these kids to avoid setting them off. They have a short fuse, and low frustration tolerance. In between tantrums, children with DMDD are usually irritable. And by grade school age, they’re still having tantrums that are no longer developmentally appropriate.Īs one mother of a 12-year-old boy put it to Sarper Taskiran, MD, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Child Mind Institute, “I have an intelligent 12-year-old who tantrums like a five-year-old - severe, full-blown tantrums with slamming doors, crying, making fists and banging on the table.” As toddlers, they’ve been strong-willed and difficult to manage. They have had a hard time self-soothing, and trouble adapting to changes without getting upset or losing their temper. Kids who have DMDD have usually had, from infancy, a difficult temperament. It’s a mouthful of a name, but the key words are “disruptive,” which refers to behavior like tantrums and outbursts, and “dysregulation,” which means that these kids can’t manage their emotions in an age-appropriate way. Those are signs that they might have what’s called disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, or DMDD. Occasional tantrums and irritability are normal parts of childhood, but some kids have frequent, extreme tantrums - at an age when most kids have outgrown them - and are irritable most of the time. This should only be used after trying other treatments, because it can have serious side effects. If those don’t work, a doctor might try an antipsychotic medicine called Risperdal. They might also give kids a stimulant to help them control their impulses. Doctors prefer to start with an anti-depressant because those can have fewer side effects. If therapy doesn’t work on its own, medication might help. DMDD can leave parents feeling burnt out and frustrated. They also teach parents how to help kids learn ways to rein in their behavior when they feel overwhelmed. Both teach kids how to deal with big feelings and let them pass without spinning out of control. In DMDD, tantrums are triggered by a big feeling.ĭMDD can be treated with special kinds of therapy. For kids with autism, tantrums happen when they’re overwhelmed by big sounds or busy places. For kids with ODD though, tantrums signal a problem with authority, like parents and teachers. Sometimes DMDD gets confused with ODD (oppositional defiant disorder) or autism, since big tantrums happen with all three. They might even surprise themselves with their tantrums and think, “Where did that come from?” They are still having tantrums at school age, when most kids have outgrown them, and over things that don’t seem important. They often misread faces and think people are mad at them when they’re not. Kids with DMDD have huge feelings that they find hard to control. But if your child has blowout tantrums several times a week and is angry or irritable most of the time in between, they might have DMDD (disruptive mood dysregulation disorder).
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