Parenting Tips. Each year, millions of dollars are spent on treatments for skin disorder with acne one of the most common ailments affecting adults and teenagers. For teens who live with Oppositional Defiance disorder, the complications with acne may not be associated with treatment but, instead, on simply failing to comply with dermatological recommendations. If you are the parent of a teen who lives with ODD, it is important to know how your teen’s physical health may be adversely affected by this mental health complication.

Defiance every day is a common trait of teens with ODD. Defiance in a routine at home, a routine at school, and even defiance in their personal relationships causes teens to struggle with finding structure and balance in their lives. When the mental health complications impose on physical health, however, there can be a reduction in quality of life for the teenager.

As the parent of a teen with ODD, there is no doubt that you’ve experienced complications associated with structure in the home. When your child lives with acne complications, finding structure around hygiene and diet will be important. Much like the balance and structure given to wake and sleep cycles, and discipline given when house rules are not followed, so should be the same structure and balance when instructing your teen in acne treatment. Often, the best source of laying out guidelines and structure will be your child’s dermatologist as this is a third party that the child does not have an emotional attachment with.

If you can get your ODD teen to agree to try to be compliant with treatment, this will be an excellent first step in resolving their acne. There is no doubt that, at some point, your teenager will fall off the bandwagon of compliance and will become defiant. Allow your teen to do so and then closely monitor the change in skin condition. Without being to abrupt and obviously, point out the skin of other people and get your teen to indirectly notice that their skin is deteriorating from lack of compliance and growing defiance. Sometimes, with ODD teens, the best method is an indirect method.

Acne is a common complication during adolescence and often dissipates with age. For many teens, however, the complications with acne can destroy self esteem which only further complications mental health complications such as Oppositional Defiance disorder. If your teen has ODD, be sure to elicit the help of a dermatologist and find ways in which to indirectly manage your teen’s healthy skin while working to also keep structure and balance in other aspects of the ODD life.