Boy, I hope this works!!!

[Sickntired]

Well, we have finally had to have our difficult child pulled from school and are going (I should say going to TRY) to homeschool him for the rest of the year. He is so uncooperative at school we were just at our wits end. This is a slippery slope. I feel like we gave in to what he wanted, but he was SO UNCOOPERTIVE we had no choice. He absolutely would go and do nothing. He was never on time, wouldn't try to be on time and after the fight every morning, and I mean fight, he would go but would not do anything. Always felt bad, sleepy or some other nonsense. Yes, we have had the police come out and "help" him make the decision to go. We would get him there, but he would refuse to do anything or cause so much problems they would send him home. To top all of this off, he decided about 3 weeks ago he did not need his medicine!!! We tried it. Guess what. It doesn't work. If any of you ever believe for an instant that they MIGHT be better off without their medicine, please, take my advice and don't do it. It works. He says it does not, but I promise you, it does. Now, we have an appointment tomorrow to get all of this restarted, so here we go again. Now, we have to convince him to take it. He just flat refuses. It's hard to get a 14 year old to take it if he does not want to. He will spit it square at you. The medicine is to expensive to waste like that, so what to do, what to do. He again has insomnia. Won't take his sleeping pills. I have got him to take a Benadryl, but he can override that if he wants to. He is just so oppositional. The cursing has begun again, the anger has begun again. It's a bad, bad day. To top this off, he didn't go to sleep until 4:30 this morning. My husband got up at 2:00 to use the restroom and saw his light on. He went back in his room and he found him with my iron (steam iron at that), a paper sack, bread and cheese. He had made a cheese sandwich and had it in the paper bag ironing it making a "grilled cheese". Said he didn't want to wake us up by being in the kitchen!!!

I'll say my daily prayer again. Dear Lord, please give me wisdom to understand he does not always do these things on purpose. Give me patience to be able to handle him but Lord, please, please, don't give me strength cause I'll just beat him to death!!!

 

[smallworld]

You might have to put him into an inpatient psychiatric hospital to get him to take his medications. The decreased need for sleep is a symptom of mania. It can very quickly spin out of control (believe me, just been there done that with my 14-year-old son). If your difficult child truly has bipolar disorder, the medications he's been on, specifically Zoloft and Concerta and maybe even Trazadone, could be fueling his mood instability. BiPolar (BP) is treated with one to two mood stabilizers plus an atypical antipsychotic. With the right medications, things can get better.

 

[JJJ]

Ooh, I like your morning prayer. I think I am going to start saying it!

Would he respond well to a psychiatric hospital stay? That is where we have had to go with our 13-year old.

 

[jenn4anthony]

just want to send you my support, hugs, thoughts and prayers. Your son is very lucky to have you.

 

[daralex]

I love the prayer as well!! I can't speak to the medications, but I can to homeschooling. My difficult child is 13 - also had to pull her out of school, but at least now she's finally learning. We use a LOT of internet resources I would be more than happy to share (it's not easy finding something that holds the interest of kids this age) but we actually use YouTube as a resource to find great video clips. I also let her run with it a little - if she's interested in guitars we plan a mini unit around that to peak her interest. It's not easy being in each others faces all day - but we seem to find ways to make it work. Good luck!! And let me know if I can be of any help.
-Dara

 

[SearchingForRainbows]

I totally agree with what smallworld said. When difficult child 1 stops sleeping at night, it is one sign that things are going to get tough. difficult child 1 is currently on a mood stabilizer and an antipsychotic. Since the antipyschotic was only added about three months ago, the dosage is still being slowly increased. However, I do notice a slight change for the better in his behavior.

Thinking of you today...WFEN

 

[Big Bad Kitty]

Your prayer is awesome.

Keeping you in my thoughts.