Vom Vermeiden und Versinken

Impulsivity and lack of dopamine make ADHD patients a high risk group for addiction. In addition the social climate in the family is often impaired by disorder related behaviour. This leads to low compliance phenomena in adolescent patients, especially concerning conversational psychotherapy – a problem becoming severe when avoidance behaviour is obvious and makes acquiring an addiction even more likely. The following multi-modal approach is defined by three realms of intervention. The (adoptive) mother was made familiar with the principals of New Authority by Omer 10]. A combination of Vigilant Care and Non-Voilent-Resistance helped the mother to regain her natural authority and to have a means against physical attacks of her son. The tension in the family also relaxed and the boy started to trust the therapists more and more. He was treated using Motivational Interviewing (Miller and Rollnick) 6] to develop a motivation for coping with his disorder and getting to know its controllable aspects. MI was also used when the less problematic avoidance behaviour (immersing into electronics) was replaced by more problematic health patterns like heavy smoking. In the third realm of intervention both, mother and child, were made familiar with the SPACE attitude by Omer 9], to not support anxiety but resist the manipulative or destructive behavioural aspects of the disorder. All these interventions were embedded in a tight network of diverse professionals and strengthened by psychosocial support mechanisms.