Does your teenager have conduct disorder?

If you have been having trouble with your teenager since their childhood and now it is much worse, they may have a condition known as conduct disorder. This is not applied to the teenager that gets into trouble, gets told off and does not do it again; that is just a normal teenager! All teens do something at some time that distresses their parents, some more seriously than others. For it to be classified as a disorder, the behavior is persistent and increases over time.

A teenager with conduct disorder exhibits certain personality traits that a parent can identify. They tend to find it difficult to communicate with people and assume that they are being criticized, often when no criticism is present. They resolve their difference aggressively, so will fight a lot at school, and justify it by always blaming the other child. They perceive threat when there is none and have little remorse after an aggressive incident, believing the other person "deserved it".

The teenager with conduct disorder has probably always been a reckless child, taking risks and having little regard for safety. They can often be cruel to animals and may bully their younger siblings, without appearing to really be sorry afterwards. This behavior is persistent and repetitive.

As a teenager with conduct disorder gets older, so the acts of aggression get more serious and the incidents that cause concern become more frequent. The teenager may have been a bit destructive as a child, deliberately breaking things, smashing windows in old buildings, vandalizing derelict property. As this condition goes unchecked, the vandalism transfers to the neighborhood, the destruction may be at school or in the home. Conduct disorder may go away in adulthood, but many children develop anti=social personality disorder as they become adults. A teenager with conduct disorder is likely to do badly at school and much more likely to take drugs than other teenagers.

If a parent believes that their child is belligerent, threatening, destructive, disobedient and physically cruel then they may well have conduct disorder. Teenage girls with the condition are more likely to steal, lie, run away, stay out all night and get involved in sexual activity. These teenagers need professional help; their parents are not equipped to deal with conduct disorder. They need to see a therapist, be correctly diagnosed and referred to a treatment center as soon as possible, and as early in their teens as possible.