Oppositional Behavior

Wolf packs are remarkably stable in their roles, with the alpha male and female maintaining tight control. It is interesting to note that experiments looking at brain activation found that the alpha males produced dramatically higher alpha levels than the other wolves in the pack and, in fact, there appeared to be a direct correlation between alpha levels and pack rank. When the alpha male was temporarily disabled (tying one leg or putting it in a cast or something), and another male took over, alpha levels rose in the new leader of the pack and fell in the old one. (I don’t know who thinks up this stuff or how they do it, but it’s interesting.)

Children in a family are like the young wolves in a pack. As long as there is a clear hierarchy, they tend to sustain stable roles (positive or not). However when, due to death, divorce, changes in works schedule or whatever, the alpha male in the family is absent, there is often a competition for that role. Especially when the family is left with a single mother, who must now try to cover both the nurturer and enforcer roles–and who may be feeling guilty or depressed or exhausted at the same time this nearly impossible demand falls on her–there is a strong motivation to “go for it”. It is not only the males who do this, but most of the male children seem to get involved.

One study showed an extremely high incidence of “ODD” behavior (perhaps better called “auditioning for dominance”) suddenly appearing in families where such a dislocation had occurred. Given an understanding of this phenomenon, perhaps the correlation with “RAD” clients, who have suffered pretty significant dislocations, makes sense. And, of course, the co-existence with anxiety (“I don’t really know if I SHOULD be the alpha male, since I’m only 6!”) may also make sense.

When a new parent joined the family, there was also frequently a disruption in the homeostasis and, especially where one of the male children had assumed the alpha male role and was “running the show,” the entry of another male often correlated with lots of “ODD” behavior.

Russell Barkley (hate to quote the guy, but) refers to some pretty impressive research that indicates ODD is very often a “trained” response produced by parents. In the Atlanta practice, we often did a 3-session ODD workshop for both parents (if possible) in a group setting. We motivated them with data about what happens to kids who reach age 14 without having dealt with ODD issues. We demonstrated the well-known “If you don’t stop that right now, I’m going to…” game in two levels, usually generating knowing or guilty smiles on the parts of the parents. We asked if they had seen the common pattern of a. it only happens with one parent, then b. now he does it with both of us, and finally c. now he’s doing it at school too. Then we taught them a very simple limit-setting technique and got their commitment to use it together. A week later, when we met again for reports and updates, it was astonishing how many of the ODD kids were “cured”! There’s interesting work been done on the correlation between onset of ODD behavior and divorce, remarriage, death of a parent, etc. and the behavior of young male wolves in a pack. This is not to say that I don’t believe that certain brains are more disposed to this type of behavior (just as most Filtering kids have an incredible capacity to split parents and/or teachers). We can certainly work with that right prefrontal shortfall; but in a huge percentage of the cases we worked with over a decade, changing the parenting changed the “disorder”.

Look for areas of high beta or high hibeta activation (especially in the relative/percent levels and especially on the right side–particularly frontal). I’d try training these down at a specific site if you find them. You might want to do the sub-assessment of the frontals as well (run 3 minutes with Fp1 and Fp2, at F7 and F8 replacing F3 and F4) to see if you find anything in the very high or very low frequencies, especially on the right side.

Try training either 2-5 Hz down or 15-23 (or 15-35 Hz) down if you find anything significant in a monopolar one-channel protocol and see where you get results.