Could “ODD” and “IED” Have Another Name?

A newspaper article in Australia piqued my interest yesterday. The article begins as follows:

NAUGHTY kids are turning up to school with notes from doctors who have given their unruly behaviour a medical name - oppositional defiant disorder (ODD).

And children who lash out at teachers or students have also been diagnosed with a condition termed intermittent explosive disorder (IED).

Psychologists are diagnosing ODD - characterised by persistent anti-authoritarian behaviour - at a greater rate than autism. Child psychologist Lisa Good said the condition was real and created a lot of stress for parents, who couldn't understand why their child was mucking up.

Ms Good, from the Psych Professionals in Brisbane, said she had diagnosed more children with ODD and conduct disorders over the past two years than autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or anxiety.

We certainly live in a world where in our Western cultures, parents are increasingly abandoning methods of disciplining and training children that (even for non-Christians) were really by and large based on biblical principles.

We also live in a world where even young children are now being brought up to reject the absolutes of Christianity (e.g., marriage is increasingly being redefined), and they are taught they are just animals that have evolved over millions of years and thus there is no real purpose and meaning in life except what we want to make it to be for ourselves.

Is it any wonder we are beginning to see this rejection of basing our worldview on God’s Word—that once permeated our Western world—played out in the behavior of recent generations? Certainly, there are those young people who do have real medical issues that influence their behavior. But it seems to me that in many instances what are now being defined as supposed medical conditions (such as ODD and IED) may actually be SIN.*

And the more our cultures abandon God’s Word, the more these problems will increase.

You can read the entire article.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

*Now while we acknowledge there can be legitimate medical issues that can affect a person’s behavior,  in today’s society there is now a growing tendency to label what is sin as a medical problem instead.  If we label aspects of a child's sinful, rebellious character (something we all share as human beings) as a medical condition, we may interfere with the convicting power of the Holy Spirit—which in due time would bring a child to repentance and salvation. By creating a medical excuse for a sin problem, we in effect are telling children that they are neither responsible nor accountable for their behavior.